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| cellphone Amina Harun makes a cellphone call while selling water melons at Kenya's largest fresh fruit and vegetable market in Nairobi in his file photo. African farmers are learning the real price of seeds and fertilizer and the real market value of their products because of cellphones, writes Ralph C. Martin.
KHALIL SENOSI/The Associated Press
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My understanding of Africa is limited. It
seemed to me that until roads were improved and farmers had consistent access
to basic resources, agricultural production would be held back. Lack of access
to money for buying seeds, tools and arranging transportation to markets is a
significant barrier to farm profitability.
I did not see the change agent coming and
would never have guessed, even five years ago, what would propel an
agricultural revolution in Africa. Cellphones, some of them smart, are making
all the difference.
African farmers are learning the real price
of seeds and fertilizer and the real market value of their products. They can
arrange sales, before making an arduous trip to market to sell exactly what is
needed, and at a profit. They reduce their risk of selling too low to a roving
broker. The days of going to town and having to let products go for a song or
hauling them home again are transcended by real-time information.
Women operate many African farms. Phones
allow them more time at home with their families and simultaneously strengthen
their negotiating position. The cellphone stories remind me of early economics
lessons as a kid on the farm, when I learned that it was always better to have
two or more potential buyers for my rabbits.
According to the Irish Times, “the
microfinance organization Grameen Foundation leases smartphones to ‘community
knowledge workers’ in 10 districts around Uganda so that they can receive vital
information – weather reports, disease diagnostics, market prices – from a
central database in Kampala and pass it on to their neighbours. There are now
more than 500 million handsets in use across the continent. In Uganda alone, 10
million people, or about 30 per cent of the population, own mobile phones and
are using them in strikingly innovative ways. Mobile banking, for instance, is
commonplace and millions of Ugandans pay bills via text message or store money
on their phones.”
Smartphones are changing agriculture in
Ontario too. Farmers can snap a photo of an unknown weed or pest, send it to a
scientist or consultant and get a diagnosis and recommendations about control
before the sun goes down. Marketing from the tractor seat, with current prices
and futures information, is becoming more common. GPS co-ordinates of an
unusual pattern in the field can be recorded in order to come back to the same
spot for follow-up observations.
I do wonder, however, if having access to
plenty of information will always be helpful. Is there a possibility of
becoming too dependent on information from somewhere else? My hunch is that
information should be synthesized and applied in the context of specific local
realities. For example, advice about how much nitrogen to apply to a corn crop
must still be understood within the context of the previous crop and how much
manure was applied to the field. Will future farmers in Africa or Ontario, not
as well grounded on their own land, depend too much on non-contextualized
off-farm information?
A colleague from Newfoundland, with an M.A.
in English, once told me how literacy had ruined her province. She got the
expected rise out of me, grinned just a bit, and then explained how previous
generations memorized stories and songs with very practical information about
fishing and farming. These ballads, shared for entertainment, also carried the
knowledge of past generations for current and future generations. She was sad
about our modern propensity to memorize very little, while we access so much,
so quickly, but often without context.
My Grampa had a GPS system of sorts. He knew
the undulations of his fields and the exact dips where wheat would yield well.
As he guided the horses from the running board of the grain drill, he scooped
handfuls from the grain box and in graceful tosses, extra seeds arced in the
air to land evenly across fertile micro-sites.
In spite of nostalgic recollections and some
misgivings, I realize there are opportunities to tap into collective
intelligence, with smartphone technology. Over the years, my students taught me
that the smartest scholar in the room, is the room. No one person knows it all,
including the professor. When there is space for contributions from many
backgrounds, perceptions, thought processes and feelings, the lessons from
everyone in the room supersede any individual brilliance. With smartphone
technology we no longer need the room to accomplish this.
Nevertheless, each individual needs enough
common sense to know what applies and what does not apply to particular
ventures, in particular places.
Ralph C. Martin, Ph.D., P.Ag. is the Loblaw
Chair, Sustainable Food Production and a Professor at the University of Guelph.
Comments welcome at rcmartin@uoguelph.ca
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