Mobile Reporting Solution

Often there are hiccups with reports being clear,brief, accurate, concise, timely and reliable for decision makers. In the Pacific most remote areas lack electricity, computer and the internet which makes reporting even harder.  

A software developer recently developed an application which can be installed on a mobile phone and used to report on the targeted activity. The app works well even if the network coverage has only one signal bar on reception. But interestingly which mobile provider in Fiji will offer their service cheaply to implement this type of application.

Practically his reporters used to give excuses that electricity is out, no paper to photocopy report sheets, fax fault, etc, the list goes on but with this app it has fitted in well in the reporting process and the reporters are able to report like never before.

In Fiji we will deploy this app once we will secure a donor to fund the implementation with farmers who are members of our syndicate. The app installation will be free but only to members. The farmers desperately need this information bank on the palm of their hand. Mobile revolution in Fiji has penetrated well with levels well and above 100 percent. Some users even are using more than 1 network to communicate.

This app will attend to some basic issues which farmers face daily. For instance consider farmers in the highlands where roads are ill-maintained and transport is even harder to get to extension centers for advice. With a mobile installed with this app, costs are minimized, travelling time are waived, information is readily available when the need arise. 

This digital empowerment  bridge's the digital divide which is by far the widest in the rural communities. Smallholder farmers not only are accessible to information on farming but also on markets and current prices. In this way farmers are able to establish the costs which are involved from production to harvesting and marketing, wittingly the fruit of their labor.

In Fiji when comparing Digicel and Vodafone with their coverage Digicel is better and 3G is consistent while vodafone it drops to GSM in the outskirts of the islands.

Nadi Bay Herbs: A Success Story

basil seedlings at the nursery

Nadi Bay Herbs has been exporting herb to NZ since 1992, the farm is 47 acres of which 15 acres are in full production.The main export crop is basil which is processed and sold on the market. Ranges of other herbs are also exported and sold within Fiji the Company supply to hotels, resorts and the locals.

Recently I visited the farm and had an opportunity to speak with Mr John Kemp the owner of this successful business. They have been rebuilding their farm after they were badly hit by cyclone last year where most of the infrastructure were critically damaged.

They export basil which is a core produce of the farm to New Zealand at a volume of over 50 tonnes yearly. Apart from basil also lemon grass is exported. 

Even though this is a herb farm, they also farm tomatoes, capsicum, lettuce on the side for some of their local clients.

NBH major market are overseas and their focus has been for export in their production. I asked Mr Kemp why they have heavily focused on export and he said this words, 

" to sell local we have higher overhead costs because we deliver our clients on a daily basis and above all we have bad paying clients which incur bad debts. Even-though they are hotels they still run up their accounts and never pay up, that's why we stopped as it uneconomical to continue'

This is a good lesson to us farmers who have clients that you run after for payment. For instance if you total your extra costs like telephone  fuel, legal, etc that you incur to recover your debts, eventually it turns out to be the same as your recovered debt. What a waste and this is why we farmers need to be wise and alert not to be burdened by bad debtors and it is always good to have cash transactions to avoid all this hassle.

I noticed that alot of women worked as laborers and asked Mr Kemp why was that, he answered saying that he has a strict scheduling to be followed and only women are able to meet this. He goes on to say that women are more disciplined than men and he has had men as supervisors but could not cope with the demand from his business. 

This trait of women is a fact and they tend to be more careful and cautious when they handle plants from the nursery to the fields and the harvesting. We men are challenged through this fact and need to be more disciplined in all the areas of our lives especially if we are running a farm to support our family.

One significant point raised to me was that soil color at the farm are starting to change from red to be more darker. Mr Kemp said that he does not farm the herbs but rather farms the soil. He at the moment is nearly fully organic as all ingredients for fertilizers are green and brown materials with sugar mill waste and poultry manure . He doesn't use alot of poultry manure as it is too acidic and increases soil acidity. This is good to know as we use alot of poultry manure in the central division little do we realize the effect it has. Soil testing is done regularly in his farm and this is how concerned he is on how healthy is his farm soil.

Apart from the above discussions, a farm of such magnitude needs soil health to be monitored and nurtured to give a nutrient balance thus supporting plant health better. 

Lessons from NBH:

1. Have a farm plan and strictly follow it
2. Women are more Reliable
3. Grow your soil for a sustainable future
4. Practice organic farming principles as it lowers costs..

Fiji to develop innovation in Agriculture

Small Holder Farmers.
Today I read a blog post by Him Khortieth of Indonesia blogging the presentation by  Mrs. Miliakere Nawaikula, Director of Research, Fiji Agriculture Research Division, Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Primary Industries. She was presenting on how the ministry was working ways to assist smallholder farmers in Fiji. 

Click here if you want to read more! 

Web 2.0 Training and Exchange Workshop

PACIFIC YOUTHS TRAINED IN WEB TOOLS

This week a group of youths from the Pacific who engage directly with agriculture are being trained with web tools and how they can be used for information sharing in their field of work. A wealth of knowledge is being gained specifically with Google plus, blogging, climate change in agriculture portals, privacy settings in social media tools. Social media tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter,etc.

These deep insights are being learned through practical discussions and debates helping individual delegates and live exercises. The youths are enjoying this opportunity to learn this tools which is widely used in the web and how they can effectively used in their context.

Participating countries include PNG, Palau, Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Solomon, Vanuatu, and Fiji. The participants are mostly agricultural offices a nd some IT personnel also.

Interestingly delegate is an IT Manger from PNG and we were amazed when he presented on a mobile solution he developed and how that technology is address time and money consumption levels in his organisation. It has minimized paper work and all information gathered is on real time without delay considering the geographical factor in PNG.

I was invited to present on what work I was doing in agriculture and in its relation to ICT. Well as an advocate for organic I was moved by the interest shown by the delegates and also them being keen in using web tools to reach out to their target audience.
I discussed the issues I faced using ICT' along with its impacts on the work I do.

Organics in the pacific is slowly gaining momentum in its awareness as the delegates are more familiar with what is involved in it. They really liked how the blog is being laid out, the content and the passionate spirit behind it all.

This delegates are sponsored by IFAD, GIZ, and SPC. This program is for one week and each delegate will need to create a blog and present to the group by Friday to test their understanding on this web tool.

POETCOM Visits Farm Field School (FFS)

Yesterday was a special day for our group of youths at
the farm as Steve Hazelman from S.P.C. who works

for POETCOM visited our farm to catch a glimpse of the vision we have for the youths of Fiji. He came to survey the progress of the FFS which we are currently working on which is to be operable by January 2014.

Efforts of volunteer work are at times tiring and sometimes discouraged when no recognition of your input to fulfill a dream in your heart. But its passion that drives us to achieve and complete what we have desired and that to impact youths in Fiji who are idle in their villages, communities, settlements, or peri-urban areas where they live in.

Today with this visit the group was overwhelmed to be visited by an organisation of such caliber which has really boosted the morale of the network to another level. To become a volunteer is a challenge but the passion is what that is driving us to achieve our dream.

SMS Marketing System- Call to Mobile Operators!

Is ICT's helping farmers make most of produce?

Fiji farmers are on the loosing end when it comes to pricing and search of markets for their produce. They are enticed by briefcase businessman, middlemen and opportunists at markets looking to make easy money from Farmers laborious produce. To date middlemen turn up at farm gates with heaps of cash coming ready to buy  produce even before harvesting. This is how desperate these money minded are fetching for produce to service their customers.

Ben in their  bongo chilly farm in Tailevu

In fact the cost of these intermediaries are sure to occur , consumers and farmers are victims of such practices. On the other hand we can argue that intermediaries make the connections from the farm gate to the consumer, well I see this as a consequence  of an outdated and dysfunctional communication service.

ICT development and its focus to address agricultural issues which farmers face is neglected while promotions in the media are more of making money rather than develop the people for economical advancement.

Particularly in Fiji, mobile technology is one which is cheap, affordable and widely used in Fiji and highlighted by the Bainimarama Government having a penetration of over 110 percent. This is a result of the public using two or more mobile networks. This is amazing and demonstrates a population that are swelled in curiosity of mobile use but this statement can be challenged with  aggressive competition and marketing by service providers. In Fiji you can even witness people having more than one mobile phone all connected with some changing SIM cards frequently and others having dual or triple SIM phones.

see our youths attending to their mobile while working on our ginger 

In fact information and communication technologies (ICTs) present opportunities to small scale farmers to extend their agri-businesses into viable and sustainable ones. Fiji's traditional farmers have great potential to secure a future in this promising industry, but bad experiences have dampen their spirits due to lack of observance from relevant stakeholders to fulfill their dreams and passions. Mobile providers have a role to play in our society by working out a way to connect farmer's to their markets at the best reasonable (fair) price with a produce of caliber.

Take for illustration produce bought by a middlemen at a farm gate. The produce will be or maybe harvested the day before so it will reach the market ready for resale the next day (one day gone) then other middlemen will buy for retailing in their markets (thus 2 days gone) how fresh will the produce be, this is my point. Hapless Consumers  are the end users who purchase and consume these produce, quality is no longer there, in fact freshness eventually drops, oh no, someone needs to change this.

The ICTs are not addressing the need to better the way small-scale farmers access the market. Even-though their has been efforts but no commitment is evident from them. On the other side, the Bainimarama government has been promoting consumption of vegetables and fruits to fight NCD's (Non-Comunicalble Diseases). Let alone the use of chemicals on agricultural produce, the freshness is another issue which we farmers need  our concerns to be voiced and heard. This blog is a whistle blower for small holder farmers, a minority group in the eyes of stakeholders and we are deliberately ignored  .


If ICTs are addressing the need to better the way small-scale farmers access their market's, more youths in Fiji would have created an interest in farming rather than wasting valuable time on social media networks available and promoted by mobile companies, like Facebook. Failure to access market has been one of the greatest challenges that Fiji's small scale farmers have been facing. But if with the use of ICTs in accessing market places and prices, the plight of these farmers could soon be history. Farmers are selling produce well below market rates because their is lack of knowledge about market prices. This limitation leaves farmers to be exploited by businessmen.

working on my nursery

There are models in this issues discussed above being successfully implemented in the world and we need to learn from them in order to put in place a system using the SMS to help farmers sell their crop at attractive prices.

Our group is committed to introduce such system with any mobile providers in order to give small holder farmers commercial power and make best decision where to sell their produce. Its a simple short code for wet push, that's the language of mobile tech.

We are ready to collaborate with interested service providers to kick start what is going to become the virtual market of Fiji in the years to ahead.