Mobile Phones Connect Farmers to Agricultural Information

Photo from: http://www.ultimategoatfansite.com

Mobile Phones Connect Farmers to Agricultural Information
Sep 21, 2010 (America.gov/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- "My goat is sick. Its neck is swollen. It can't eat," an old woman in a remote village in Uganda said. She spoke to a man passing by with a mobile phone.

"Let me see if I can help," said Laban Rutagumirwa.

He sent off a text message that read "goat bloat." The message went to an agriculture information service devised by the Grameen Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

A response came back shortly with instructions to mix a half kilo of rock salt with a liter of water and have the goat drink it. Two weeks later, Rutagumirwa was passing through the village and came across the old woman. She happily reported that her goat had recovered.

The woman was lucky that the passerby was Rutagumirwa. He is one of about 140 employees of the Community Knowledge Worker program that is bringing "relevant, actionable information" to poor, remote farmers in Uganda, according to David Edelstein, the Grameen Foundation's technology center director.

The program started in 2009 in Uganda's Bushenyi and Mbale districts. Trusted local residents, such as farmers, agriculture extension workers, shopkeepers and school teachers, were trained to disseminate and gather information about agriculture using mobile phones. The workers help the Ugandan farmers treat not only sick goats, but also blighted bananas, coffee berry bacterial infections, discolored tomatoes and other plant and livestock problems. In addition, the mobile phone-equipped workers have put farmers in touch with markets and weather forecasts.

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