Michael J. Ssali
8 July 2009
column
The two events that took place last week - one at Kyetume in Mukono District on June 29 and another one at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala the following morning - reminded me of a Kiswahili saying: "Lisemwalo, lipo" (When something is talked about, you should know it exists).
On both occasions one of our leading telecoms, MTN, in partnership with Grameen Foundation and Google Search, launched a new service that is bound to take farmers to a higher level.
Twice before in this column, we talked about initiatives that use mobile phones to gather information, and now is the time. The service is right now available to any farmer with a mobile phone.
On May 7, your columnist wrote about two local NGOs, Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative, (Brosid) whose head office was in Mayuge District and its subsidiary, Collection Exchange of Local Agricultural Content (Celac). By then Celac operated in some 17 districts in Uganda and its members would share information about prices and markets for their products through sms. Among other things, Celac would look up prospective buyers of farm products and shops dealing in farm implements and pass on their addresses and telephone contacts to the member farmers across the districts through sms.
Then on May 13, this column reported about a conference of agricultural researchers that took place in Nairobi between March 31 and April 4, which suggested increased use of the mobile phones, computers and Internet for rural farmers in Africa was the best way forward in the fight against hunger and poverty.
As the Nairobi conference took place, Grameen Foundation, a global anti-poverty organisation, Google Search, and MTN were already in advanced stages of coming up with the new information delivery service dubbed Google SMS.
Farmers can now use Google SMS function on their mobile phones to access information about their farm problems and current market prices. Photo by Michael J. Ssali
A farmer wishing to sell his maize or any other crop can now use the mobile phone and text a message such as: "Sell maize" and send to 6007 and get an instant reply. In the new service, buyers and sellers of agricultural products are matched by an application known as Google Trader. The seller has the opportunity to reach out to the broadest possible audience and to deal with the highest bidder. The wonderful thing is that such a service is available to the farmer at the furthest end in the rural area and no buyer can anymore take advantage of his or her ignorance about urban market prices for agricultural products.
Similarly, a farmer wishing to know how to plant a crop or about weather and climatic forecasts specific to his or her geographical location only has to type the question, send it to 6001, and then get the needed guidance instantly -accurate and reliable. The new service gives guidance to farmers about the management of crop diseases and pests, and animal husbandry problems.
In case farmers want to buy cars or land or furniture, they will get quick responses from prospective sellers just by Google SMS. If they want to see a doctor or to get simple advice about some health issues like reproductive health - a place to go for quick HIV testing, pregnancy check up, or antenatal care, especially when they are travelling within the country and far from home, the mobile phone will be the tool to use.
I was privileged to be invited to both of the launch events of Google SMS at Kyetume in Mukono, and at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala where we had breakfast with the Minister of ICT, Aggrey Awori.
He said, "Google SMS search is the farmer's friend, since the farmer will be able to access adequate and timely agricultural and commercial information. I wish to emphasize that market information for rural produce is a priority if we are going to contribute to poverty reduction and household incomes in Uganda."
Mr Joe Mucheru, Google Regional Lead, for Sub-Saharan Africa, said, "We have been involved in various initiatives, and I would like to note Google Maps where we have put Africa on the map.
We are also pushing for improved quality of services using Google Global Cache which aim to improve the quality of Internet services for users prior to the landing of the fiber optic cable." So, more is yet to come for the rural farmer! Internet use is bound to spread, as it becomes cheaper and quicker in rural communities.
Google map technology can provide mountains of farm specific information. As computer literacy spreads -and it is fast doing so - farmers will go on line to see climate, soil, and fertiliser recommendations for their farms, as well as market locations and road linkages.
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