Food production and marketing systems are rapidly changing globally. This is due to several factors including increasing global population, high demand for food and environmental sustainability. As a result, the way and manner in which food is produced, transported and distributed is receiving greater attention than ever before. Increasingly, there are now more stringent requirements for food production either in the form of national, continental or international food production standards. In addition consumer supported voluntary certification systems such as Organic, Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance systems are pushing for better production systems aimed at improving agricultural productivity, food safety  and producer benefits. Indeed, many major players in the food industry such Cadbury, Unilever Nestle and Walmart have all adopted stringent sustainability standards and sourcing strategies.

Smallholders form the majority of farmers in most of the developing world (over 60% in Africa); and smallholder agriculture is increasingly important, both to boost national productivity and rural incomes. Smallholders therefore need adequate support to adjust to the changes, produce efficiently and participate in an increasingly globalised agricultural market for improved livelihoods.

For many farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, access to timely and relevant information regarding production, technology, production standards, input and agricultural finance remains a major challenge. Governments over the years have been unable to adequately support producers to access information. In reality, farmer extension ratios in most countries are getting worse than they were some two decades ago.

The emerging experience in the financial sector in using mobile technology such as M-PESA to reach the unbanked is providing some vital lessons that can be adopted in other sectors of the economy including agriculture. Indeed, mobile technology can play a key role in agricultural development and; it is gradually emerging as a major tool for helping nations support farmers to produce efficiently and to meet growing food standards. If properly adopted, mobile technology can increase access to relevant information for smallholders on production, technology, finance and marketing of farm produce. In countries like India, services such as m-Kisan are already reaching hundreds of thousands of farmers in rural areas through mobile technology. Countries such as Kenya and Nigeria are equally engaging mobile technology to either distribute input, subsidies or weather information to farmers. In my view, employment of mobile technology in the sector will improve support for farmers, improve compliance with sector standards, increase access to high value markets and in the long run revolutionise the sector.

However, deriving the full benefits of mobile technology in agriculture will depend on factors such as the effectiveness of public-private sector collaboration in agriculture extension services, effective analysis of farmer needs and proper focusing of mobile agriculture services to meet identified needs. Content for mobile agriculture services must be fit for purpose – timely, localised and of high quality to be relevant for farmers.

An area of growing debate with regards to mobile agriculture services, and one which is likely to affect public-private sector collaboration in delivering extension services, is the design of mobile agriculture services. Will mobile agriculture services be designed to benefit the majority of smallholder farmers? And will the focus on smallholders generate the necessary economic benefits for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to continue to offer their infrastructure for extension services? In addition, the issue of competitive versus complementary approaches to agricultural information provision is generating reasonable debate in agricultural extension circles. My question is – will state extension systems see mobile agriculture services and products (operated mainly by MNOs) as a threat or opportunity to be leveraged to reach the majority of smallholders?

The next posting of this blog will take on some of these debates and explore ways to overcome emerging constraints and maximise mobile technologies to improve agricultural productivity and rural incomes.