The document discusses challenges smallholder farmers face related to productivity, prosperity, and quality of life. It argues mobile agriculture (mAgri) can help address these challenges by giving farmers access to new markets and supportive content. For mAgri services to be successful, content needs to be immediate, relevant, accessible, and address farmers' actual information needs. However, many current mAgri services are missing holistic, community-based, and location-specific content. Effective mAgri requires partnerships between different organizations to provide comprehensive agricultural knowledge and resources to farmers.

1. All about access:
Content & technology strategies for
smallholders
Philip Abrahams, Strategic Business Development Director, CABI

2. Classic farmer challenges
Is the mAgri hype dealing yet with fundamentals?
Productivity
- Crop loss (climatic, biotic etc)
- Access to (& affordability of) inputs
- Diminished landholding
Prosperity
- Access to fair markets
- Lack of knowledge & skills, plus literacy barriers
- Thinning extension support
Quality of life
- Poverty trap
- Malnutrition & healthcare
- Gender inequalities

3. Why mAgri?
An operator’s perspective
Access to new markets:
130m new subscribers per annum in Developing
Countries, increasingly rural
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Business growth (money)
Customer retention (money)
Repeat usage (money)
Add-on services (money)
It’s Business, not Emotion
Agriculture must compete in MNOs heads against other
equally seductive feature-specific services

4. Why mAgri?
A farmer’s perspective
Access to supportive content which is:
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Immediate (crisis handling)
Just in time (task- and time-based)
Relevant (localised)
Demand-driven (personalised)
Holistic (comprehensive)
Accessible(actionable, voice)
Interactive (feedback, call centres)
Objective (trust)
‘Business’-based (access to inputs, credit etc)
Market-focussed (money)
Farmers will only pay for a service that they value

5. Issues
Questions for us all
Do farmers understand what we tell them?
– Do they act on the advice given?
– Is the advice they get contradictory?
Do we really know what they want?
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local conditions; crops grown and constraining factors
pest presence/diagnostics; proximity alerts
farm size; soil health; irrigation methods
animal husbandry; nutrition/health advice
seed selection; input availability; financial services
something else??
Who provides quality assurance?
– Are there farmer feedback mechanisms?
Who manages data collection & analysis?

6. Generally, what is missing?
Content which is present at some level
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Weather
Market prices, locations
GAP advice
Crop health, pests and disease (limited crops only)
Animal husbandry
Alerts
Calendar-based advice
mFinance
Sellers’ market approach

7. Generally, what is missing?
Content which is often absent or rare
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Production standards (private)
Multiple crops
Phytosanitary standards
Soil husbandry
Hyper-localised/geo-specific
Community-based learning
Access to labour saving tech
Access to input suppliers
Buyers’ market approach: farmer-power

8. Generally, what is missing?
Farmers need more than prices, weather…
Info syndication
Credit &
Insurance
Favorable
Policy
Input
Availability
Farmers
Policy
Makers
Pest
Management
New
Technology
Research &
Academia
Market Link
Input
Business
D2F
Infomediary
Rural
Service
Providers
Food
Processors
AgriMarkets
Info delivery

9. Giving access requires content…
…and content needs holistic partnerships
Agriculture
Research
Extension
Knowledge
Package of
Practices
Crop/Animal
Factsheets
New
Research
Info
• e.g. CAB
Abstracts
• Compendia
• Other public
domain
repositories
• University
Literature
• Crop Directorates
Extension • Extension
Knowledge Publications
• Crop Specific
• Based on critical
information needs
Factsheets
• CABI Expertise
• Farmer feedback

10. Who is doing what?
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Farmer profiling & info share
FBO comms
Predicting input use
Linking dealers
Cost of production
Data collection
(market prices etc)
www.imagead.net

11. Who is doing what?
CABI Direct2Farm: Café Móvel
Targeting coffee planters, processors, roasters and exporters
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Features include:
Interactive Message Wall on IVR
Private discussion thread between planter and expert
Voice-Cast of private discussion thread to community
Market & Agrimet voice feeds
Mobinar between planters and experts

12. Thank you
For further information:
www.cabi.org
Phil Abrahams
T: 0044 1491 829374
p.abrahams@cabi.org