Here is an interview with Mohammed Mounouni of SAND, Ghana recoreded on 19 March 2009. He reflects on the monitoring and impact evaluation of the use of mobile market information services such as the services TradeNet and Esoko implemented via the MISTOWA project. Mr. Mounouni hopes new developments in the Esoko platform will make farmer’s feedback easier and suggests they should not pay credit time when they do so. Mr. Mounouni emphasises the importance of fieldwork with African farmers, investigating their use of market information.
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Having researched invormation behaviour, I agree particularly strongly with this point. With the current surge in the development of mobile Intenet services I think it is essential that forthcoming ICT4D projects are needs-based and take into account information use. Otherwise, the development community is in danger of proliferating technology for its own sake.
In another interview available through the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) blog the software developer David McCann of Busylab, Ghana introduces the new Esoko platform which builds on the efforts dedicated to the implementation of the TradeNet Web based platform. The Esoko technology includes an SMS gateway with a centralised computing power in combination with an extendable mobile application.
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FARA (Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa) has published a current inventory of innovative farmer advisory services or systems (Innovative Farmer Advisory Systems using ICTs).
The inventory features currently existing projects, or projects in the design phase and intended for implementation in Africa. The reference it provides is extensive and includes projects concerning voice information delivery services, dial-up and reglar radio broadcasts, video learning and e-learning for basic skills and farming. The collection dedicates a whole section on “Extension Services Based on Mobile Phone and Database Monitoring.” That section covers many of the projects pursuing the implementation of mobile markets in African countries and listed in the section ICT4D Projects.
The FARA farmer information services inventory was created with input from the Regional Agricultural Information and Learning Systems (RAILS) group, the Knowlwdge Management for Development (KM4Dev), the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (CTA), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and others. The FARA inventory is certainly of considerable value for the mapping of projects aimed at the implementation of mobile markets for agricultural goods. Due to the comprehensive nature of the inventory I will shortly be updating the project descriptions in the section ICT4D Projects.
Mobile Market Design for Development
MMD4D 