Comments on: M-Agriculture Empowers Farmers in Developing Economies

By: Jason Kohn

Jason Kohn — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:03:02 +0000

Thank you for the link yourself, much appreciated!

1 like

By: Rajeev Ranjan

Rajeev Ranjan — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 05:11:14 +0000

@Mr. Jason: Mr. Goundar has done a great work in bring various mobile initiatives/technologies in his paper (Liked it). GSMA mFarmer recently launched an AgriVAS Market Entry Toolkit (http://www.gsm.org/documents/mAgriReport_101111_final.pdf). I hope it would interests you.
There is still a long way to go for sustainable cloud-mobile initiatives…i am sure we are surely gonna see some of them in near future…

Thanks a lot for sharing me these links !!

0 likes

By: Jason Kohn

Jason Kohn — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:15:35 +0000

Thank you Rajeev, that sounds like fascinating work! I would definitely point you to the Sam Goundar paper referenced above (http://archive1.diplomacy.edu/poolbin.asp?IDPool=1335) on cloud computing in developing countries. The Vodafone study also lists some interesting ideas for mobile applications outside of what’s discussed here.

There are a couple case studies online of some of the early work being done through the GSMA’s mAgri program: http://gsmworld.com/our-work/mobile_planet/development_fund/research_documents.htm

And I can point you to one other video I came across about how mobile phones are being used in Rwanda to assist farmers: http://ictkm.cgiar.org/2010/06/04/m-agriculture-mobile-devices-and-their-role-in-transforming-communication/

(Not sure if this constitutes a true “cloud” application, but it is interesting nonetheless.)

Apart from those examples, I found lot of great ideas and research being done in this space, but fewer published results from those programs that are actually up and running. It seems like there are a lot of programs now launching though, and I would expect to hear more in the coming months.

Thank you again!

0 likes

By: Kratom

Kratom — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:11:00 +0000

Wow, mobile agriculture! It’s ideas like this that get me excited once more about our new technology. It is not all just Angry Birds; its m-agriculture and helping devoloping worlds. Very cool.

0 likes

By: Rajeev

Rajeev — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:15:51 +0000

As i am working very close to the farmers on various mobile services in fields like package and practices of crops, market prices, Agromet Advisories, fisheries, livestock etc.
My experience says, due to current prevailing agro-climatic zones there is more need of Location based customised services (LBS) which can really help farmers and create direct impact in their livelihood.
It would interest me more if you can suggest me any mobile – cloud agriculture services going on somewhere and its response in developing countries. i have heard some companies are working/providing this solutions in US (Not sure).

0 likes

By: Jason Kohn

Jason Kohn — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:25:38 +0000

Thank you for the other examples Rajeev. It’s fantastic to see so much happening now in this space!

0 likes

By: David Deans

David Deans — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:19:11 +0000

@Rajeev, thank you for sharing those additional project examples.
Perhaps we can find additional info online and then feature them in one of our upcoming stories.

0 likes

By: Rajeev

Rajeev — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:58:52 +0000

Some of the mobile initiative which you missed are

1. Janala Project by BBC in Bangladesh
2. Behtar Zindagi by Handygo in India
3. AGMARKNET (connecting the market electronically) by Ministry of Agriculture, India

0 likes

By: Farming And Internet: Quick State of the ArtFarmeron | Farmeron

Farming And Internet: Quick State of the ArtFarmeron | Farmeron — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:59:13 +0000

[...] M-Agriculture Empowers Farmers in Developing Economies (blogs.cisco.com) [...]

0 likes