1. Content Management Process for
m-Agriculture Platforms
Pier Paolo Ficarelli
- Knowledge Management & ICT for Agriculture -
Working Group Meeting
Cape Town, 29th May, 2012

2. What some say about m-Agriculture
• What is the use of delivering market information to a farmer with a
phone, if there is no road to market the produce (IFAD, report 2003)
• m-Agriculture is about tools, not about access and dissemination of
agricultural information (FAO, Rome 2010)
• We have farmer field schools for extension. Mobiles add no value to it.
(CGIAR Researcher, Delhi, 2011)
• Use of mobiles in rural areas is the last tactic for squeezing money at
the bottom of the pyramid (GIZ staff, Delhi 2010)
• Agro-Advisory on mobile: too much rubbish around (Mark Khan,
Omnivore Venture Capital, 2012)
• Adoption of a new agricultural practice requires a change of behaviour,
not an SMS (a colleague of mine, last week)
2

3. Farmers’ Information Needs
Information to make a decision
Which crop should I grow this year?
Where could I sell ? At what price?
Where can I buy this product?
Answers to a question
How much drench should I give to my sheep?
How much pesticide should I use for my crop?
How much concentrate should I use for a cow that produces 5 liters of milk/day
Solutions to a problem
Something is killing my crop!
The milk of two of my dairy cows comes out yellow/red!
What should I do?
3

4. Information System Impact Chain
Source: Glendenning & Ficarelli, 2011
The Info system comprises the processes, people and technology featuring in
the design of a given ICT platform
The impact chain describes the contextual factors determining the impact of the
conveyance of a piece of information to users (design-reality check!)
Relevance is defined as the combination of the functional linkages for users to
make use of the content delivered by the platform
Feedback is the key feature to enable users to influence the Info system 4

5. Managing Content: Steps
Source: Glendenning & Ficarelli, 2011
• A step-by-step process
• A time and resource intensive process, normally underestimated
• Highly processed content to allow information to users/farmers needs and
context to be customised
• The cycle is shaped as an upward spiral
5

6. Managing Content: Challenges
Information Needs Analysis
Mainly Expert-to-Farmer Possible at scale? Farmer-to-Expert? Sample surveys useful?
Format
Limitations of SMS & Voice messages for agro-advisory: Videos? Audio+ Icons?
Sourcing
Content is dispersed and scattered: Agri-Google? Standards for congruity & authenticity ?
Access
Identified trend is towards close access of digital repositories: Regulations?
Localisation
Mainly based on outsiders’ knowledge and area criteria: Farmer knowledge?
Quality
It is delegated to experts and relies on implicit knowledge: External validation?
Feedback
Client satisfaction mainly anecdotal/based on sample surveys: Sufficient?
“Infomediaries”
Info-need articulation and advice translation require human facilitation: Viable?
6

7. Managing Content: Trade-offs
Usability
Timeliness for Partnerships for
seasonal relevance content relevance
Alliances for Info-mediation
content identification for local facilitation
Multi-channels Linkages for
for offering choice input provision
Content
Impact
Reach Quality
Technology for real-
time feedback
Total Quality Mgt.
for trustworthiness
Revenues for
economic viability 7

8. Managing Content: Quality Assurance
A Local stakeholder/expert consultations, user feedback, focussed
discussion with farmer organisations
B-C Verifiable sources, validated by authority, updated, generic/localised
D Re-purposed for users, Type/format congruence, Verified translation
E Indexing metadata, Interoperability, SOPs
F Cost- effective, timeliness, scalability
Next Joint learning for continuous improvement
Co-evolving content & applications in the social space of users 8

9. What Others may say about m-Agriculture
The problem with the world is not that people know too little,
but that they know many things that ain't so
Mark Twain

10. What do we know that is so in m-Agriculture?
The Question
What are the factors determining successful content
management and delivery in m-Agri?
The learning route
1. Sharing issues/obstacles/failures/successes
2. Turning issues/obstacles into Success Factors (SF)
3. Discussing the ingredients for each SF
4. Proposing promising recipes to be tried out in each SF
The journey duration
One hour and a bit
The destination
Let’s see how far we can travel!