It is therefore no surprise that one of the greatest achievements of modern-era development is improved communication which, with the advent of the telephone, marked the beginning of a technological revolution.
With electronic transfer of information, the weapon known as communication has neared perfection. Indeed, advancement of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought the seemingly impossible right on to the palms of our hands and right at our fingertips.
With satellite relay, the need for cables to transfer information by electrical impulses was rendered irrelevant and information could be beamed from any point on the earth to a satellite in space that would then relay it back to any other point on earth, and all in a matter of microseconds.
This technological wizardry means faster and more efficient communication; in fact, having the World Wide Web (WWW) means that the relaying of information across the globe is instantaneous.
Thus, should the demand for mangoes shoot up in California and an importer posts the information online, then a farmer in Tanzania’s Handeni District can access the information instantly.
The farmer would then immediately contact the firm online and inquire about the price, the amount required, etc., thereafter easily contacting the export firm from right here in Tanzania (online) and offer them a proposal.
Once agreement is reached on the price and quantity, the farmer would simply call the farm and storage personnel out in the fields directing them as to the amount to be prepared for export.
Since the field workers will have received the order over their mobile phones, a truly enterprising farmer would have got most details about market. These would be by way of establishing the precise demand in California (thousands of kilometers away), contacting the relevant importers, actually placing orders, receiving payment and shipping the products in question.
All this would likely be done from the comfort of a desk in an air-conditioned office – and that is the power of ICT.
The government understands the above scenario very well and this is why it has set up the National ICT Broadband Backbone, which facilitates the transfer of even more information via a much faster and more affordable medium.
The ‘backbone’ is a fibre wire network dug into the ground across the country and connecting to other fibre wire cables that snake into the sea all the way to Asia and beyond. This allows for instant transfer of huge amounts of data across the world.
The government recently ordered that all new major housing projects be connected to the NICTBB infrastructure. This means that, all things being equal, all households will be well placed to perform the same task farmers in the scenario described above could do from the comfort of their homes or offices: research, make orders, sell and socialise with virtually anyone on earth.
With this, we hope our youth will also find farming cool, fashionable, stylish and well paying. That is the power of ICT.
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Quelle/Source: IPPmedia, 13.11.2013
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