GARRI (x7):
Do we have up to 10 million farmers in Nigeria??

Are they saying 1 in every 16 Nigerian is a farmer??

These guys are M0R0NS.....

[size=14pt]Kenyan farmers use SMS to beat climate-driven price uncertainty[/size]

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:55 GMT

Source: alertnet // Isaiah Esipisu

By Isaiah Esipisu

[img]http://www.trust.org/contentAsset/resize-image/3c421b5a-6ce3-4d0f-bd93-c8f4a31f7c43/photowide/?w=460&h=318&vn=201205241702[/img]
William Muriuki and his wife Ruth on their vegetable farm near Meru, central Kenya. ALERTNET/Isaiah Esipisu

MERU, Kenya (AlertNet) - William Muriuki and his wife are inspecting their vegetable farm in the tiny village of Karimagachiije, some 15 km outside Meru town in central Kenya. Cabbages, onions and Irish potatoes are ready to go to market. But the question is where?

Identifying the best market never used to be a problem, explains the 73-year-old farmer. “It was easy to tell what vegetables were in season in a particular area, so we knew the most appropriate places to sell our farm produce.”

But changing climatic conditions have disrupted market patterns. “It is no longer as predictable as it was,” he says. “We have to physically identify places with high demand.”

Even fairly recently, local farmers could be sure the rains would come around March 25 each year. So by the end of April, most vegetables would be in season, meaning low demand at nearby markets. In much of Eastern Province though, the rains would be delayed or not arrive at all, so farmers from the central region knew they could get a good price for their produce there.

But that’s no longer the case. “In the past few years, I have seen rains come much earlier than expected, or very late,” says Muriuki. “At times, it rains in Eastern Province much earlier or at the same time as it does here, or it fails to rain in both areas.”

In these challenging conditions, Muriuki and his farming colleagues have turned to technology to help them find the right market.

PRICES BY TEXT MESSAGE

Standing on his farm, Muriuki pulls a mobile phone from his pocket to compose a text message. He writes the word ‘price’, followed by ‘cabbage’, then the place name ‘Embu’, and sends it to 3535. Almost immediately, he receives a reply stating: “Cabbage Ext Bag 126kg selling at Ksh400 in Embu as of 2011-04-01.”

This tells him that a standard bag of cabbage, weighing about 126 kilos, has been selling for 400 Kenyan shillings ($5) in Embu town for the past week.

Muriuki composes a similar message, substituting ‘Nairobi’ for Embu. The response tells him the same quantity of cabbage is selling at 2,100 shillings ($26.26) in the Kenyan capital - more than five times the price in Embu.

“Now all I need to do is to calculate the cost of transportation to Nairobi, and the cost of transportation to Embu, and differentiate in order to identify the market that is likely to give me more profit,” says Muriuki. Sending each text message costs 10 shillings (around 12 US cents).

“Identification of the appropriate market for our farm produce has been the biggest challenge in the recent past,” explains the farmer. “But now, technology is slowly and surely liberating us.”

The retired couple have been growing cabbage, tomatoes, Irish potatoes, bananas, onions and other vegetables for the past 10 years, sometimes using greenhouse technology to cope with the shifting climate.

The up-to-date market information they can now access from the mobile phone service is invaluable in helping them stay abreast of weather-related price fluctuations.

ALL-WOMEN TEAM

The system they use, M-Farm, is a mobile phone application created by three female students at Nairobi’s Strathmore University.

It provides a non-subscription service offering farmers real-time information about market prices across the country via their cell phones. It has been adopted by thousands of Kenyan farmers to identify the best markets for their produce.

The M-Farm team has turned the service into a fully fledged business with at least two agents positioned in each of Kenya’s five major agricultural cities: Nairobi, Eldoret, Mombasa, Kisumu and Kital.

They are tasked with feeding accurate market information into the M-Farm database on a weekly basis. In smaller towns, the job is done by selected farmers.

“Our ultimate target is to have farmers all over the country using this service, so that they can get real-time price information without involving brokers,” says developer Jamilla Abass.

Under normal circumstances, brokers procure agricultural produce in regions where demand - and prices - are low, and sell it on where they are high, enjoying profits at the expense of farmers.

VALUE-ADDED SERVICES

While phone-based pricing technologies like M-Farm have been growing in popularity in the past few years, providers are now looking to offer additional services.

M-Farm has been trying out two other modules that help farmers club together when buying or selling, in order to get better prices and tap new, higher-volume markets.

These applications are being tested in Kinangop in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, where farmers subscribe to the M-Farm system to access information about inputs such as fertiliser, for example.

M-Farm identifies the companies supplying a particular product, and sends out text messages about their offering to subscribers. If farmers want to buy, they express their interest via a page on the M-Farm website or by sending a text message, stating the input they need, the quantity and their location.

The M-Farm team then aggregates the orders in its system, allowing them to bargain for a better price because they buy in bulk before the product is distributed among the farmers.

Similarly, a sellers’ forum enables small farmers to register what they have for sale, giving them access to exporters and large-scale retailers, which can procure the greater volumes they require from a range of suppliers in the system.

Abass says M-Farm hopes to roll out these new services to other parts of the country by the end of the year.

HNosegbe: I'm sorry but I still don't understand what necessitates BUYING phones for the farmers. Is the minister saying that farmers in Nigeria do not ALREADY have phones? Why not get a database of farmers and collect their phone numbers?

And how did they arrive at 10 million? Did they do a census of all farmers in Nigeria?

GARRI (x7):
Do we have up to 10 million farmers in Nigeria??
Are they saying 1 in every 16 Nigerian is a farmer??
These guys are M0R0NS.....

kinisoo?:
Will you just shut up there? No wonder someone called Nairaland "Nigeria's Online Beer palour." For your information, a comprehensive nation-wide population survey was carried out between 2010 and 2011. I got to know because I worked very closely with the ADPs and the real rural interior farmers themselves when I did my field survey for my just-concluded Masters programme at the University of Ibadan. It will interest you that Ogun state alone had over 200, 000 active rural peasant farmers. I'm not defending spending billions anyhow but let no one come here to spew rub.bish.

kinisoo?:


Will you just shut up there? No wonder someone called Nairaland "Nigeria's Online Beer palour." For your information, a comprehensive nation-wide population survey was carried out between 2010 and 2011. I got to know because I worked very closely with the ADPs and the real rural interior farmers themselves when I did my field survey for my just-concluded Masters programme at the University of Ibadan. It will interest you that Ogun state alone had over 200, 000 active rural peasant farmers. I'm not defending spending billions anyhow but let no one come here to spew rub.bish.

HNosegbe: I'm sorry but I still don't understand what necessitates BUYING phones for the farmers. Is the minister saying that farmers in Nigeria do not ALREADY have phones? Why not get a database of farmers and collect their phone numbers?

And how did they arrive at 10 million? Did they do a census of all farmers in Nigeria?

CohenJane:

Masters degree holder indeed! So, this is what they taught you in school, to be abusive? You don't have the decorum of how to make your point and make the other person looks inferior? Is this how you critique your literature ... you abused those whose views you did not agree with? I hope you wont become a lecturer one day

2Legit2Qui: FG not spending N60bn on mobile phones for farmers —Minister

http://tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/component/k2/item/2335-fg-not-spending-n60bn-on-mobile-phones-for-farmers-%E2%80%94minister

MINISTER of Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has denied news reports that the Federal Government is to spend N60 billion on purchase of mobile phones for rural farmers, describing the reports as false and a misrepresentation of rural farmers’ mobile empowerment initiative.

Speaking exclusively with the Nigerian Tribune, the minister said N60 billion mentioned in the story was almost the entire budget of the Ministry of Agriculture, adding that “we have not arrived at the budget for the mobile initiative.”

According to him, the total cost, when determined, could not be anywhere near the figure mentioned in the story.

“Even if we are to give mobile phones to 10 million rural farmers at N6,000 per one, the cost would still be around N6 billion. How then did they arrive at N60 billion?

“But we have not even taken any decision. I can, however, tell you six reasons why the rural farmer mobile initiative is being sponsored by the Federal Government.

“The first is to reach farmers so that they can access fertilisers and other farm inputs. The second is to ensure financial inclusion by linking the rural farmers directly to banks for farm subsidies and others.

“The third is to enable farmers to get extension services information which they presently have no access to one.

“Fourth is to create alert channel to farmers in cases of flood and draught and, lastly, we want farmers to have access to market information for better returns on their produce,” the minister said.

He further said “I want to assure Nigerians that we are not spending N60 billion on the project. We are yet to take final decision.”

GARRI (x7):
Do we have up to 10 million farmers in Nigeria??

Are they saying 1 in every 16 Nigerian is a farmer??

These guys are M0R0NS.....

hancock: My maths skills are rusty these days. But at an average cost of 6, 000 naira per unit. 10 million units should translate to 60, 000, 000, 000 (60 billion) naira.But do we really have 10million farmers in nigeria?

gmemdee:

clearly you math skills are in better shape than Dr. Adesina's (his PhD defense committee should be so proud)

On a more serious note, one feels like crying for Nigeria as the interview is wrong on so many levels ("false and misrepresentation" )
that it leaves the dreadful feeling that our country is really doomed to being a failed state as famously predicted by the CIA.

By the way, I feel strongly that this should be on the home page. I also recommend to Seun that nairaland should have a policy section where we can engage with government policy.

kinisoo?:


Will you just shut up there? No wonder someone called Nairaland "Nigeria's Online Beer palour." For your information, a comprehensive nation-wide population survey was carried out between 2010 and 2011. I got to know because I worked very closely with the ADPs and the real rural interior farmers themselves when I did my field survey for my just-concluded Masters programme at the University of Ibadan. It will interest you that Ogun state alone had over 200, 000 active rural peasant farmers. I'm not defending spending billions anyhow but let no one come here to spew rub.bish.

zerocool:

See PhD Holder + Minister in a whole country who can't do simple arithmetic (multiplication). I just continue to love the nuisance this country portray.

akymme: I am so disappointed in this minister ooooo, so he doesn't know simple mathematics. A minister SMH seriously for Nigeria