By FRANCIS KAGOLO

Jatropha plantation in Kimina, Masini, in Uganda

KIMINA, Uganda — The motorbike trip to the remote village of Kimina in Masindi district is distressing; the road is narrow, potholed and dusty. After an hour of a draining ride, we “wake” up to the shock of a large plantation of ebiti (unknown trees), as they are commonly known in this part of western Uganda.

The “trees” are of jatropha, a plant whose non-edible seeds can be harvested to make biodiesel. From a distance, everything looks green. It is a beautiful plantation. The owner, Joseph Kasigwa, a father of four, is proud of it too. It was abject poverty and lack of school fees for his children that pushed him into growing the crop. He now foresees big earnings once harvests start.

Despite the flourishing jatropha, however, Kasigwa will have to spend much of his income on buying food for his family. He has foregone food production for the biodiesel crop. And he is not alone; there are thousands of farmers in Masindi and neighbuoring districts like Hoima and Lira, who have either abandoned or reduced on food crop production in favour of jatropha.

In the past, the crop was used to demarcate people’s plots especially among people in Buganda (central Uganda), with no commercial value. But the global quest for clean energy has changed this. A number of countries across the world now grow the crop to produce power to lessen dependence on fossil fuels. It is widely hoped that the use of biofuel will solve several problems including reduction of greenhouse gas emission, provide a renewable and therefore sustainable energy source and increase income for the rural poor, mostly in developing countries.

According to Andrew Ndawula, the commissioner for renewable energy in the ministry of energy and mineral development, diesel from jatropha seeds is good for powering vehicles. It does not produce toxic gasses when used.

When a plan for large scale production of agrofuels was first unveiled in 2006, hope of overcoming energy deficiencies in Uganda swayed even the most senior Government officials. Since then, there has been a steady move towards massive biodiesel production in the country, with government using incentives like tax holidays to woo foreign investors into the sector. Nexus Biodiel LTD has planted over 400 hectares of jatropha in Isimba, Masindi, which is three hours north of Kampala. There are four other companies yet to start production of biodiesel, virtually from the same crop.

Farmers in Masindi, Hoima and Lira are reportedly enthusiastic about the crop.

Nexus alone boasts of more than 2,000 registered outgrowers in the three districts, according to Edward Mugenyi, the field manager. Only 36 of these have planted over 190 acres of jatropha. Jatropha production also exists in Mukono and Luweero districts of central Uganda among other areas.

Aside from jatropha, other crops being fronted for biodiesel include castor (nsogasoga) and candlenut (Kabakanjagala) seed. African Power Initiatives LTD (API) has planted about 2,000 acres of caster oil and jatropha in Namalu, Karamoja region, officials said last year. The companies promise to start production of diesel soon this year.

Ndawula says the goal is to increase the use of modern renewable energy from the current 4 to 16 percent of the total energy consumed in Ugnada by 2017.  The ministry also says biodiesel is needed to meet the increasing energy demand in the country which it predicts to reach 1,809MWh in 2025. But more importantly, government wants to reduce on fossil fuel imports. It also thinks biodiesels can boost development in rural communities.

The programme has provided the rural population with new alternative cash crops, and thus additional employment. But the move has sparked off vehement criticism. Environmentalists and food rights activists though admit that curbing fuel shortages is crucial for development, warn that the biofuel industry is laced with worse consequences especially on food security.

Geofrey Kamese, the programme officer for energy and climate change at the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE), a local NGO, says biofuel production will more likely worsen food shortages, hamper poverty alleviation efforts and eventually deter Uganda’s ability to achieve most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Biofuels take large chunks of land

He says producing biofuel will demand a lot of land at the expense of food production. Indeed, Robert Nabubolo and Godfrey Bukomba, managers of the Nexus jatropha plantation in Masindi, revealed that an acre of land can plant only about 430 trees.

Each tree produces five kilograms of seed a year, which generate just one liter of diesel. This means only 430 liters of fuel can be produced from an acre of land each year. This is just enough for one car, yet Uganda has over 600,000 vehicles, according to statistics from the works ministry. To move just 2,000 of these vehicles, for instance, it means millions of hectares of fertile land must be put under jatropha and not food production.

Mugenyi says it is possible to intercrop jatropha with some crops like ground nuts and beans to fight hunger, but the hurdle is few farmers are ready to buy this advice. Hence, most of the plantations only have jatropha trees. Besides, Mugenyi also admits that intercropping can be done until jatropha is three years. Beyond that, the trees would have acquired branches and thus unfit for intercropping.

Many other biofuel feedstocks like soybeans, corn and sugarcane are also key sources of food for people. “It does not make sense to starve our people because a few rich ones want fuel to drive cars,” Kamese remarks. “Converting food crops into fuel means more and more people will stay hungry and eventually die.”

It is upon this background that activists warn Government to tread carefully. “Biofuels are coming to compete for the small land that was used to grow food crops. In order to produce an extra litre of diesel, we shall have to convert more land from food crops to produce biofuels as more people go hungry,” Kamese warns.

Environment threatened

In the process, therefore, a lot of rain forests have to be cut to create ample land for jatropha plantations, as the case has been in some parts of Masindi near Murchison Falls National Park. This comes with disastrous environmental impacts, especially now that the country and the world at large, already suffer from the brunt of climate change. Last year, for instance, crops failed due to prolonged droughts, leading to famine that killed over 50 people mainly in the East.

Activists also castigate the monoculture system used for growing biofuel crops for involving excessive use of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. “It affects soil fertility and destroys biodiversity, causing both environmental degredation and food insecurity,” NAPE said in a recent publication. NAPE, therefore, believes that biofuel production would increase greenhouse gas emissions and intensify rather than mitigate global warming.

This is in line with a 2007 study by African Biodiversity Network (ABN) which indicated that biofuel projects in Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Benin could lead to “environmental and humanitarian disaster on the continent.”

Experts also envisage a sharp upsurge in food prices as more farmers take on biofuels. In a press release, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) attributed the 2008 rise in food prices partly to the “competition (for land) between biofuels and food.” The urban poor, who make up 10% of Ugandan’s urban population, will be hit hardest by the high food prices and will have to stay empty stomach for more days, experts say.

WFP country director, Stanlake Samkange, said in an exclusive interview that although jatropha was another cash crop, there was need to balance cash crops with food production. “Biofuels is not a bad move per se. But we want to be assured that food security will be guaranteed,” Samkange noted.

Aside, Kamese thinks that Uganda’s potential to benefit from the biofuels is very limited. “Our fear is that rich countries are the ones driving the biofuel industry by promising to buy most of the produce. We shall producing fuel for foreign markets as our people bear the burden of feeding their families,” he said.

The global perspective

Since 1930, countries have proposed different approaches to the soaring petroleum fuel prices and shortages; but biodiesels have picked up so rapidly that they seem to dominate the global debate on renewable energy today.

Biofuel production based on agricultural commodities increased globally more than threefold from 2000 to 2007. Statistics show that in 2005, for instance, a total of 994 million gallons or 3,762 million liters of biodiesel were produced across the world. Germany alone produced 1,921 million liters that year mainly from rape seed. Currently Brazil is said to be the leading producer of biofuels, mostly from ethanol and crops like soybeans and jatropha. In the US, biodiesel is produced mainly from corn. Other countries include Austria, France, UK, and Italy among others.

But fears of biofuels exacerbating hunger have reportedly forced China to be cautious when it comes to this new source of energy. With 20% of the world’s population to feed, diverting foodcrops to fuel production has reportedly been a deeply controversial issue in China. In 2007, for instance, China’s State Council halted the use of grain crops for ethanol production.

As biofuels promoters promise a source of environment-friendly energy that would also be a boon to the world’s farmers, skeptics argue that biofuel production will threaten food supplies for the poor and fail to achieve the environmental benefits claimed.

In an apparent concern over the negative repercussions biofuels had to food security, the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in 2008 asked nations to rethink the move towards widespread biodiesel production.

FAO also came up with a number of guidelines necessary to ensure environmentally, economically and socially sustainable biofuel production. It said national policies must protect the poor and food-insecure; ensure agricultural, rural development, and environmental sustainability. It also called for international system that are supportive of sustainable biofuel development.

Way forward

Besides the caution from WFP representative, who speaks from a hindsight having spent billions of dollars providing food relief to Ugandans hunger-stricken areas like Karamoja, there are specific challenges that need to be addressed in Uganda.

Top on the agenda, Kamese says, is the quick enactment of a national policy governing the biofuel industry. “If a person has 10 acres of land, how much of it must he put to growing jatropha or other fuel crops? A carefully scrutinised policy should guide local communities on such issues,” he says.

The policy, he adds, is also needed to protect people with insecure land tenure systems from being deprived of the opportunity of growing food crops. Plus, there is need to control prices such that even those engaged in biofuel production can afford to buy food.

Samakange says it is important that government looks at the overall balancing of food security with biofuels by encouraging farmers not to abandon food crops completely.

Other environmentalists say it would be prudent to explore several renewable energy sources for curbing the energy crisis other than emphasising biofuels. One route would be by promoting the use of solar and wind energy. Kamese also believes that small holder energy projects would be a better option for local communities than large scale biofuel plantations.

But in order to benefit the poor, and to make viable economic and environmental contributions, experts believe that biofuel technology needs further improvement, and investments and policies facilitating better agricultural innovation and trade be considered. Serious caution is sounded against Uganda turning food crops like maize into fuel.

Francis Kagolo is a staff reporter for Uganda’s national daily newspaper, New Vision.

Generations of experts have dedicated their careers to finding ways to make sure children around the world have enough to eat. As Beth Hoffman reports from Uganda, some are turning to an overlooked bird to provide food and income.

This story was first broadcast on Living on Earth, an independent weekly environmental news program.

Patrick Vinck, an agricultural engineer who specializes in rural development, holds a Ph.D. in international development. He has worked and conducted research in Iraq, Rwanda, Northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and other areas affected by armed conflict. He directs the The Initiative for Vulnerable Populations at the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley.

He visited the Africa Reporting Project on Thursday, where he talked about food security after conflict and defined the elements of food security. For our One Question series, we asked Vinck to break down his thoughts on food security in Africa.

By JOSHUA KATO

The whoosh of the water as it left the water pipes onto the green leaves of the coffee seedlings could be heard for quite some distance. As the water pipes ran in the adjacent coffee gardens, the farm owner, Ssebatta Musisi, shook his head with satisfaction.

His farm is the pride of his village. The farm is located in Kyoko village, Kingo sub-county, Masaka district, 160 kilometers (94 miles) from Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

In the district, he is recognized as a lead farmer. Ssebatta’s water tank, which is underground is not so advanced, can effectively help him grow his crops throughout the year.

“I have over 90,000 liters in these tanks,” he said. “I will add another 90,000 liters in the near future because I have realized how important irrigation is.”

Ssebbatta pointing at one of his water reservoirs at the farm

Ssebatta is one of very few farmers in Uganda practicing irrigation in farming. Although there is agreement that irrigation does ensure food security, it has yet to be adopted as part of the overall agricultural industry in Uganda.

In all, fewer than 1 percent of the ordinary farming population use irrigation on their farms. Overall, 5 percent of commercial farmers use irrigation. However, these are established plantations like Kakira, Kinyara sugar growers, Kibimba rice scheme, Doho irrigation scheme, the flower growers in Wakiso and Mukono and a few others. The rest of the population depends on rain for agriculture.

According to the 2009 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) report, produced by the U.N.’s Conference on Trade and Development, lack of water has increasingly led to a drop in food production in countries like Uganda.

“There are major challenges for sustainable food production in LDCs where water shortages affect both human and livestock consumption and where potential for small scale irrigation and water harvesting is limited,” the report states.
“We are suffering from famine and hunger at the moment because we have failed to adopt the power of irrigation,” said Ugandan Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya.

Bukenya, also a big farmer, recently adopted irrigation on his farm and has never looked back. Bukenya`s model farm is located near Kakiri town, 45 kilometers from Kampala city. He explained that with irrigation, maize would be in plentiful supply all year ’round.

“Can you imagine that this maize is blossoming irrespective of rainfall?” he asked as he walked around his maize shamba. Bukenya said that even without the artificial water reservoirs, the country has got enough water sources to practice irrigation.

According to Bukenya, one of the reasons Ugandans have not adopted full-scale irrigation is that the rains have been relatively good throughout the years. “In Uganda, we normally have two rainy seasons, one running from March to May and another running from October to December,” Bukenya explained.

However, climate change has affected these seasons. Rains have become more unpredictable across the country. In fact, parts of Teso and Karamoja did not receive enough rains in the March-May season, hence the recent drought and famine. “This is the very reason we should start irrigating our crops. We should do more to harvest the rain water when it comes and use it later when the rains stop. We should also make good use of the water bodies in our midst,” Bukenya said.

Lots of water sources

There is no limit in the potential for irrigation in Uganda. The country is gifted with lots of water sources that if there was a concerted effort to irrigate, there should be no shortage of water sources. In the east of the country, where the most severe famine occurred mid this year, there is a water source almost after every 5 kilometers. For example, for Kumi and Soroti, the wide River Awoja can be used as a big water source. There are also small rivers between Soroti and Kaberamaido, and from Kaberamaido to Lira.

“With all these water bodies amidst us, it is a shame that we can even cry of famine and hunger when Egypt with only river Nile practices agriculture throughout the year,” lamented Soroti district chairman Stephen Ochola.

Overall, 11 districts share Lake Kyoga in the Teso and Lango regions, but no farmers use the lake waters for farming-related activities.

In West-Nile, the River Nile that passes through should be a big water source for irrigation. Ironically, the same river is effectively used by both Egypt and Sudan to grow crops all year ’round. However, there is no single irrigation pipe running from the river to a farm on the Ugandan side. And yet, in the central region, there are rivers scattered around.

In Nakaseke, Kiboga and Hoima, the River Kafu and River Mayanja confluences can be a good source of water. There is also River Katonga in the Masaka, Mpigi and Sembabule region, as well as a host of man-made lakes like Kijjanabalola in Rakai and Kakinga in Ntusi- Ssembabule. Kayunga can use rivers Ssezibwa and Musamya. However, farmers who had recently started growing maize along the River Musamya were stopped by NEMA, because they were “polluting” the river.

In the west, there are rivers like Rwizi, lakes like Mburo, George and Edward from which water for irrigation can be drawn.

Outside the water bodies, there is also an opportunity to harvest water from the regular rains across the country. When the floods hit Teso region in 2007, some of the waters would have been harvested if the community had a concrete water harvesting system. Instead, all of it went to waste as the farmers lamented.

“It should not be the case this time round,” Water Minister Maria Mutagamba said after weather predictions pointed at another heavy rainy season. “We should be able to trap some of this water and use it when the rains have stopped.”

But again, no concrete plans were put in place to trap the flood waters. The State for Agriculture Minister Aggrey Bagiire is also aware of the potential of irrigation in Teso.  “These streams can be adopted for irrigation with proper planning. That is what we are aiming at,” Bagiire said during a recent visit to Teso.

In his end of year address, however, President Yoweri Museveni directed the ministry of agriculture to emphasize low-cost irrigation systems in the next financial year.

Experiences of those who have the system

Uganda’s Vice President Professor Gilbert Bukenya is one of the people practicing farm irrigation. “With irrigation, we can practice agriculture 12 months a year,” Bukenya said as he supervised the irrigation of his one-acre vegetable farm. “Water is power and we as a country are gifted with so many water sources.”

He had every reason to be excited about this. His vegetables are green and blossoming as if this is the middle of the rainy season.

The vice president said that seasonal crops like the highly valuable vegetables can be grown year ’round with the power of irrigation. At his Kakiri farm, he has got some of the best vegetables growing anywhere in the country. They include cabbages that can weigh up to 2 kilograms, garlic, sukumawiki, carrots, lactus, chickpeas, okra and others.
“I grow these vegetables all year ’round because I have got this scheme here,” he said. Vegetables have got a very big market not only in the city but also in the Middle East. “If areas surrounding Kampala, for example Wakiso, Mukono and Luwero are able to produce vegetables all year ’round, then they can easily capture the city market. Bukenya said that he earns at least  4 million Ugandan shillings (US $2,105) after every three months from vegetables, which he grows through irrigation.

In the swamps between Gayaza-Zirobwe-Bamunanika, farmers mainly produce vegetables, but only during times when the rains permit. And yet, they could use the various streams running through their midst to grow vegetables all year ’round.

One of the vegetable farmers in Buwambo who has adopted the power of water is Edward Muwanga. “When I took up vegetable farming as a full time job, I decided that I should do it full time, but that was not possible because of the unpredictable rainy seasons,” he said.

Muwanga then decided to start using the water in the stream near his farm. “I bought three watering cans at 20,000 Ugandan shilling (about US $10) each and started watering the vegetables. I do it in the morning and in the afternoon when there are no rains,” he said. He now produces all year ’round.

In Nkuke village, Buwunga sub-county, Masaka district, water hoses, the length of two football pitches are lined up between rows of fine pineapple plants. The farm belongs to Erias Luzinda, a consultant accountant. “We pump the water from the valley,” said Rogers Akugirizibwe, the farm manager. The collection water tanks can store as much as 270,000 liters of water.

Luzinda might have invested over 200 million Ugandan shillings (US $105,263) in the irrigation system alone, certainly beyond the reach of ordinary Ugandan farmers. However, it helps him grow quality food and fruits all the time, including maize. “We have maize here all year round because we are practicing irrigation,” Akugirizibwe said.

Ssebatta’s is one of the cheap systems that can be adopted by every other moderate farmer. He dug a pit with a capacity of 80,000 liters. The walls of the pit are lined with tough tarpaulin, which prevents the water from seeping into the soils. During rainy seasons, the tunnels direct rainwater into the pit.

“I draw out that water during droughts and use it on my coffee seedlings,” he said. Ssebata said that farmers should not be afraid of adopting the system because they can afford it. “Any farmer who wants to adopt my system can visit me, or call me on 07-72-333-303 and I will assist them harvest water cheaply,” he said.

Expensive?

Bukenya admitted that starting irrigation systems across the country is a very expensive venture. However, he said, it is tenable.

The vice president’s irrigation system cost him around 16 million Ugandan shillings (US $8,421). This is certainly not in the range of an average farmer. He spent 6 million Ugandan shillings (US $3,157) to create a water reservoir, which is a tank, and 10 million Ugandan shillings (US $5,263) to buy the other implements. These include nozzles for off-ground sprinkling of water and pipes that take the water around the farm. However, he said, the best system is using drip pipes. These pipes are laid in between the plants and during irrigation, allowing water to directly go to the plant.

The government said that it is not capable of giving an irrigation system to every farmer across the country. However, according to Bukenya, government should be able to offer subsidies to farmers.  “For example, if a farmer buys a water pump for irrigation purposes, it should not only be tax free, but even the fuel that he uses should be reduced,” he said.

He also explained that pipes that act as water conduits are also expensive for the common farmer and should be subsidized. “Overall, farmers should also realize that the investment in an irrigation scheme might look big at the beginning, but because it will help you produce crops throughout the year, this money is quickly recovered,” he added.
However, there are cheaper alternatives. Take the example of the Wonder Water Pump.  The pump, which goes for 250,000 Ugandan shillings (US $150), is relatively affordable to medium-size farmers across the country. It is a foot operated, two cylinder, high performance equipment. “A farmer can move it from one corner of the farm to the other without any problems because it is light,” said Abdul Mugambe, an irrigation systems trainer.

Cheap and easy-to-use Wonder pump

Adoption of the Money Maker system is still low in Uganda. In Kenya, more than 6,000 small-scale farmers have adopted the Money Maker irrigation system in the last few years. While some of the current systems use motors and fuel, this one depends on human energy. Even a ten year old child can operate it effectively. No wonder the system is referred to as “a simple pump that could be the solution for millions of farmers in the country who cannot afford large irrigation systems.”

The pump can be operated from any source of water. The water can be harvested and stored in under ground tanks. A horse pipe attached to the pump is dropped in the water source while another longer pipe, also attached to the pump with a stand at the end, is placed in a section of the farm that a farmer wants to irrigate. Then, the farmer starts moving his feet on the pedals. “The pressure can push water through 200 meters if the ground is flat,” Mugambe said.

The pump is capable of irrigating at least two acres of land per day. This is the size of two football pitches. The fact that the pump is mobile means that two farmers or even more from the same area can pool funds, buy one pump and share it out.

However, according to Mugambe, adoption of this pump by farmers has been low. He thinks that the government should come in and help farmers acquire this water pump, just like they are doing with the acquisition of walking tractors for farmers.

Given the changing trends of the climate, which is likely to bring even more unpredictable rains, there is no way Ugandan farmers will survive without adopting irrigation because, in the words of Vice President Bukenya, “That is where the future of agriculture lies.”

*1 USD= 1,900 Ugandan shillings

Joshua Kato writes on agriculture issues in Kampala for New Vision, the leading daily in Uganda.

Question Box operators in Uganda taking questions from farmers. (Photo courtesy of Grameen Foundation via flickr)

A number of studies and funding have in recent years been dedicated to develop mechanisms through which Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) like mobile phones, Internet (e-mail and Web sites), radios, printed media forms and video among others can be used to improve farmers’ access to information relevant to farming and improving their livelihoods. Question Box is one of the latest initiatives that is being fronted as effective in helping farmers access the information they need. The initiative involves setting up “question boxes” where farmers can ask questions on any issue and get answers.

Gerald Businge interviewed Rose Shuman, the founder and CEO of Question Box on how this initiative is different from other initiatives and why it is important to agricultural development.

Q. What is Question Box all about?

Question Box is a project of Open Mind, a nonprofit corporation headquartered in Santa Monica, California, USA. Question Box is an information service we are undertaking in Uganda and India. The core of our service is live, local language information. In Uganda, 40 community knowledge workers are being utilized to promote our service, person-to-person in rural areas. In India, we are delivering information via our signature Question Boxes.

Q. What exactly is the Question Box and how is it related to giving information to farmers?

The Question Box is a simple telephone intercom through which we connect farmers to our live Internet information service. It requires no literacy or computer skills. Users place a free call by pushing the green button on the question Box. They connect to an Operator sitting in front of a computer with internet access. Users ask the operator questions in their local language. The operator goes online and finds their answers, translating English results into the local language and relay the information back to the farmers. It enables farmers to get the information they need and boost their farming.

Q. How is information accessed by farmers important in agricultural development?

Many farmers today need to be knowledgeable on many things, including soil, plant cycles and different types of farming practices. Farmers need information to make the right decisions. But many farmers normally lack the information they need to improve their farming.

Q. How is Question Box helping farmers to access information they need in ways different than what is currently being done?

In our experience, farmers in most developing countries lack literacy skills. Extension workers through which most farmers are supposed to receive information and guidance on farming are few, and it is very expensive to provide agriculture extension workers for every village. Some programs have focused on providing information to farmers in ways that require reading, including information provided on the internet. But the majority of farmers are only comfortable with talking and listening. So instead of teaching farmers to read and write in order to benefit from the wealth of information available and accessible through the internet, we said why can’t we enable farmers to access information they need, through talking and listening. With the advent of mobiles phones which are widespread in much of developing countries like Uganda, it is now possible to reach many farmers with the specific information they need.

Q. What technologies were there that Question Box is building on to help farmers access information they need to improve their agriculture?

There are a number of them. Internet sites providing updates and information for particular farmers. There is Google SMS, where farmers can sms a question and get back an answer of the best guess the search engine generates. In India, there are ICT centers where farmers can leave a video question and come back later to get a video answer to their questions. There are quite a number of ICT led initiatives targeted at farmers.

Q. So why then is Question Box important if other technologies are already helping avail relevant information to farmers?

Our observation is that the internet has brought so much information and opportunities for sharing information to the world, but still the world’s four (4) billion people who have never been online are not accessing this wealth of information. They have no access to the internet and might not have access since most of the adults undertaking farming find it hard to learn new things. So why not bring the internet to the farmers through the mobiles phone which is already easily accessible. Researchers have shown that there is a mobile phone in every village, and everyone has a friend or relative with a mobile phone, or at least they know someone with a mobile phone who can help a farmer to use the phone to ask a question and get an answer.

Because of low population density in Uganda’s villages to optimally use Question Boxes, we decided to use mobile phones though Grameen Foundation’s Applab community knowledge workers who are trained and equipped with mobile phones, they are sent to the communities and they go around so that local farmers can ask questions to our operating centre where our staff search for answers from our online database and relay back the information to the farmer. In Uganda, this is currently being done in Mbale and Bushenyi as a pilot.

Q. What inspired you to start Question Box?

Question Box as a technology and initiative is very flexible, allowing farmers to get information they need. Farmers ask and get information they need. It is important to have a gadget or system out there where people can ask and get the important information they need. For me, it is bringing the promise of the internet closer to the poorest people, by letting them also get the information that they need when they need it.

Q. What kind of questions do people ask when they call in?

Banana wilt disease, best ways to plant coffee, cattle and animal diseases, planting practices and many questions, some not related to farming. One important lesson we have learned is that there is a great need for health care information. Many people call in and ask health-related questions, but we don’t have funding for a health care expert. Because the way we work is that we partner with some agricultural experts, who are on call to answer some of the questions asked by farmers. In Uganda, we are working the National Agriculture Research Organization. In case we don’t have the information the farmer wants in the database, we send the question to the agriculture expert in that field, who answers back in at most a day and we relay the answer to the farmer. We also add such new information to our database so that other farmers can access it if they need it.

We are hoping some stakeholders in healthcare can join us in this initiative so that we provide both agriculture and healthcare information. We know from the pilot that if you care about farmers, you have to care about their health. Health has a lot of implications for farming to succeed. When they get sick, farmers cannot farm. A lot of farmers also spend scarce money on treatment they are not sure about.

Q. What in your experience are the most types of information that farmers want?

Farmers mostly want to know about market prices and extension experts’ help. Question Box wants to help as many farmers access this information without expecting extension workers to visit every village. Farmers are able to access the information they need quicker and at less cost. This is about being practical to the realities on the ground. If you want farmers to access any information today, the best choice is to talk to them on the phone.

Q. What role does information play agricultural development and ensuring food security?

Anything that helps farmers safeguard their crops will promote yields and help food security. Even though pesticides or technologies might exist, timely information is an important step to secure crops from diseases; knowing the best market for one’s produce is important to the farmer earning income. Information is very important to successful farming.

Q. So where do you think Question Box will be in the long term, in terms of helping farmers?

It depends on the help and partnerships we get. Our pilot projects in India and Uganda have demonstrated that Question Box does increase access to information that farmers want, and not what you think they want. Farmers normally need information and they need it right away. Many cannot read or write, so sms approaches might not be helpful to all. The farmers need to be enable to call and ask, and they are given the information they want and when they want it. We are currently seeking funding to expand this tool to improve lives of farmers who need information and are currently difficult to access. We are ready to work with all those targeting rural people so that information can reach the rural people in ways that are relevant with their situations. We want to see people enabled to call for free on the Question box or through the mobile phones or community knowledge workers to get answers to their questions.

There are a number of people and projects already collecting information for farmers benefit and we are building on their efforts by making it easy for farmers to get the information.

Q. Any more information on Question Box that you want readers to be aware of?

While this is called Question Box, we have developed a package of of tools beyond the physical Question Box. With the help of Applab, we have developed a software that can help you set up a call center in your office or any location, search you databases and search the internet for any information that is required by the users of the call center. We want to make this software available to whoever wants it by mid-November 2009. It is free source software for anyone in the world. We are looking at integrating sms in the system, but emphasizing calls by farmers to ask the questions for the answers they want. This software and model can work for all types of information by enabling you provide rural people the information that they need. It is better to let every individual ask the information they want instead of always pretending we know what they want.

Software and web-search giant Google last week launched the online Google Trader pilot in Uganda to connect sellers and buyers of goods and services, including in agriculture.

Google Trader online is part of the SMS-based services that the company launched in June in Uganda. The service is aimed at bringing together buyers and sellers of products or services in a “marketplace” using their mobile phones.

Rachel Payne, the manager of Google Uganda, said in a post that Google Trader is a marketplace on the Web for people to search for and trade products and services including agricultural products, cars, jobs, services, electronics or real estate.

SMS helping farmers?

The company launched the Google SMS in partnership with GRAMEEN, MTN and BROSDI, with a promise to provide farmers with the relevant information the farmers need to improve farming and thus get out of poverty.

I’m one of the people who expressed initial doubt over the effectiveness of the Google SMS, not just because most Ugandan farmers cannot read or write (if they have the money to get SMS), but because of the absence of really dependable data and information to answer the wide range of farmers’ queries if they send an SMS to Google.

I have always been concerned about the little attention paid to generation of reliable content which new technologies are targeted to provide to users. Google SMS, though initially free is meant to be paid for by users (subsistence farmers). For me, it would be exploitative to ask farmers to pay to access information they need if you cannot reliably provide the information they need (instead giving them what you have).

It is expected that the online Google Trader is a better platform since it is “free” for those who can freely connect to the internet. But few subsistence farmers in Uganda have that free internet access. The fact that there are 49 online posts for agriculture goods and services over the past two months may concern some people .

That is why, while the online Google Trader offers multiple items at once, and enables users to include photos and more detailed information about the products or services they’re selling or interested in buying, it might also fall short of breaking the barriers (unless more comes from their tech kitchen) that have limited their SMS service from being a real mass information service and a significant contributor to development, especially in agriculture.

While Google should be hailed for extending their important services to Uganda and Africa, the company can do better if it finds ways to ensure their technologies benefit the low income people as well. A local farmer who sends an SMS to Google Trader should get real value for the money invested in the SMS, or the time to go to an internet café.

Google can work with like-minded initiatives like Question Box, Grameen, Yo Uganda and other local software developers to deliver this market (Google Trader) to the majority of Ugandan farmers. Question Box, though in its initial stages has shown that most farmers can be reached through technological devices that allows them to ask and get answered through voice, and for free or less cost through question boxes or toll free call centers that collect, package and process information for different farmers from online sources, their database and experts on call.

In addition, Google can think of working with companies that make mobile phones and those providing telecommunication services to enable voice enabled information request and delivery in languages that farmers in a given area most understand. With Google Translator already doing fairly well for the written word, the world will benefit from work on possibilities of translating voice (audio) if we are to effectively communicate with farmers in Africa.

But content generation and proper archiving is a prerequisite. Google can work with organizations engaged in agriculture to document farmers’ contacts, the crops grown, harvest, prices, specific seed or crop buyers and in what market(s) they operate and uptodate market prices. It is then that we can look forward to a day when a small holder farmer or local trader can SMS to Google’s online database or call in and get the information that is relevant to his or her current need.

Links to related articles

Google Trader Gets A Web-Based Companion In Uganda

Google Trader Extends Service to Web Users

You can also read Gerald Businge’s information and communication blog at www.timelyreflection.com