Speaking during an ICT contribution to agriculture organised by an NGO, 2Seeds on Tuesday night, the co-ordinator for innovation and enterprises with the Commission for Science and Technology (Costech), Mr Omar Bakari said that preparation was going on to establish the national ICT incubator for agribusiness development.
Mr Bakari said that the ICT agribusiness incubator was set to improve capacity of farmers to access various information on domestic and export market for agricultural products, quality seeds, data on weather, plant and animal diseases, farmers’ education and extension services and data on market and prices for agricultural products.
“There are a lot of initiatives which are being done by Costech in relation to ICT and agriculture. We are undertaking ICT review, capacity building project for ICT enterprises. For example currently we are supporting Uza Mazao, which is one of the best ICT software in frica,” he said.He also called upon ICT software developers to stimulate the linkage with other stakeholders and professionals in order to come up with relevant software for farmers to adopt effectively.
The participants who attended the event also raised concern over the challenges facing farmers to adopt ICT, including low level of knowledge, low level of rural electrification, high poverty incidences and poor infrastructure.
ICT developer and consultant, Mr Ernest Mwalusanya said that through designing appropriate software ICT can pe applied in various aspects of agriculture, including crop production, aquaculture, fishing, horticulture, agroforestry, beekeeping and livestock production.
The director of BR solutions Mr Richard Toba, the designer of ICT products under the brand of Huduma Fasta said that since ICT products based on SMS communications through cell phones were cost effective and flexible, could be easily adopted by farmers.
“BR solutions have designed various ICT products to serve farmers in the country. Some of the products include linking farmers and banking institutions or loan providers, linking farmers and buyers, linking farmers and suppliers of farm inputs and linking farmers and providers of education and extension services.
According to him, other ICT products include accessibility to market prices, data on transport and warehouse facilities, data on climate change, crop and animal diseases and:
“Right now we have a framework in place. We are working with Costech and an NGO known as Rural Urban Development Institute to provide ICT products to farmers in the country,” he said.
Assistant lecturer of ICT and development based at the University of Dar es Salaam, Mr Hezron Makundi said that since over 40 per cent of farmers do access mobile phone services, ICT products based on cell phone communications were useful to rural communities.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ludger Kasumuni
Quelle/Source: The Citizen, 16.02.2013
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