ICT Update: special edition, June 2004  1
Features
A current awareness bulletin for ACP agricultureICT Update
Issue 18, June 2004
http://ict pdate.cta.int
Special CTA 20th anniversary edition
MAINSTREAMING ICTs
Digital futures of ACP agriculture
2 ICT Update: special edition, June 2004
EDITORIAL
Technology pundits have proven time and
again to be poor at predicting actual uses of
ICTs, as their utilitarian views are often
superseded by the creativity of ICT users. In
the mid-1990s, for instance, forecasters
predicted a glut in throughput capacities of
international telecommunication networks
and expected that telecommunication costs
would come down to almost zero by 2005.
This scenario caught the attention of the
international development community and
provided the basis for many international and
regional policies to connect ACP countries – via the Internet – to
global markets and to international knowledge networks. However,
in spite of enormous international efforts, Internet access in 2004 is
still very limited in most ACP countries, especially in the rural
areas. Also, the costs of access have remained excessively high,
inhibiting any use of the Internet other than for sending and
receiving email.
In spite of continued connectivity restrictions, agricultural
practitioners and researchers in ACP countries have not stood still.
They have begun to pioneer ICTs other than those based on Internet
technologies. For example, market information service providers in
Senegal decided to utilize the opportunity provided by the rapid
proliferation of mobile phones. They now offer ‘multi-modal’ mobile
phone services that provide farmers and traders with the latest
market price information. Researchers in Kenya are using satellite
imagery and geographic information systems (GIS) to predict
outbreaks of insect pests.  Further afield, representatives of a
microfinance institution in Ecuador are using hand-held computers
(or personal digital assistants) to process loan applications during
visits to remote villages.
Some practitioners have also developed systems consisting of
multiple ICTs integrated into one application. For example, together
with pastoralists in the Sahel, these practitioners have developed
practical ways to apply GIS-based maps, hand-held global
positioning system (GPS) devices and mobile phones to manage the
movements of cattle in order to minimize overgrazing.
These and many other appropriate ICT applications –
conceptualized and developed under grassroots conditions and not
in focus groups of technology pundits – have been featured in
recent issues of ICT Update. These examples prove that in spite of
limited Internet access, appropriate ICT applications can play an
important, supporting role in the revitalization of the agricultural
sector in ACP countries.
Of course, there remains the challenge of developing practical,
sustainable Internet strategies that exploit the power of the
technology whilst remaining mindful of the infrastructural and
regulatory constraints. In the 1990s, it was predicted that the
Internet would rival and eventually replace, conventional media
such as books, journals, newspapers, radio and television. This
early scenario, which in retrospect may appear a little naive, has
been replaced with an imperative to use the Internet hand in hand
with conventional media. For example, it is fairly commonplace for
today’s northern based TV broadcasters to launch websites for
particular programmes, providing background information, in-depth
analysis, archives and areas for on-line debates. Open universities
offer distance education courses on television, supported by
textbooks and interactive training materials on CD-ROM, and
complemented with online tutoring sessions.
CTA has responded to the opportunities and challenges of using
different media when determining its distribution policy for its
information products. Its regular publications (e.g. Spore, ICT
Update, Agritrade) are available in a variety of media, including
print, email, web, CD-ROM and more recently via WorldSpace
satellite.
Innovative, appropriate ICTs will help boost agricultural
production. New information and communication strategies,
integrating conventional media, the Internet and other ICT
applications will transform agricultural extension services. This
process of change is already in full swing. Policy makers should
promote these winds of change, encourage practitioners to continue
their imaginative and innovative uses of ICTs, make the
identification of promising ICT applications part of their daily
routines. Above all, they must engage with the people that matter
most – the users themselves. ICTs are indeed shaping the future of
ACP agriculture.
Carl B. Greenidge (cbgreenidge@cta.int) is Director of CTA.
The editors of ICT Update congratulate CTA on its 20th
anniversary. This special issue is different from the regular
ICT Update in that it focuses on the forward-looking theme
Mainstreaming ICTs, digital futures in ACP agriculture. The
theme has been chosen to pay tribute to CTA’s pioneering
role in putting ‘ICTs for ACP agriculture’ firmly on the ACP-EU
policy agenda.
The articles in this issue explore the future of ICTs for
rural development in ACP countries. Carl Greenidge,
Director CTA, argues that ICTs are shaping the future of ACP
agriculture, but that the development of appropriate and
effective ICT applications must be guided by the users rather
than by focus groups of technology pundits. Kevin
Painting, CTA’s ICT Programme Coordinator, discusses the
issues related to Mainstreaming ICTs and explores the
challenges that CTA will have to meet. Rutger Engelhard,
ICT Update’s coordinating editor, gazes into a crystal ball and
speculates on how the working day of an extension worker
might look in 2015 – using innovative ICTs applications
identified in ICT Update over the past year. Finally, Mike
Jensen, ICT for Development policy adviser from South
Africa, argues that government officials and NGO leaders
must become much more proactively involved in the
national telecom policy dialogue. In particular, they must
emphasize the need for adequate, affordable access to the
Internet in rural areas as a precondition for exploiting the
development potential of ICTs.
In the spirit of ICT Update, this issue also contains two
reports on innovative ICT initiatives that are of immediate
relevance for ACP agriculture. Shaun Ferris, coordinator of
FOODNET Uganda, describes how the project’s information
and communication strategy is based on the integrated use
of FM radio, mobile pones, WorldSpace radio and the
Internet in order to ensure the timely delivery of accurate
market information to 7 million people. Gesa Wesseler,
CTA’s programme coordinator for gender issues, reports on
the enormous worldwide response to the GenARDIS project,
a small grant fund established in 2002 to promote attention
to gender issues in ICT-supported development projects.
This special issue includes a CD-ROM containing all 17
previous issues of the web magazine, including their
substantial information resources of over 1200 annotated
links to relevant projects, articles, websites and databases.
ICTs are shaping the future of ACP agriculture
A word from the editors
ICT Update: special edition, June 2004  3
Shaun Ferris explains how FOODNET is delivering reliable market information to farmers in Uganda,
using a mix of conventional media, the Internet, mobile phones and other ICTs.
Four years ago farmers in Uganda wereat the mercy of traders when it came to
selling their produce. Traders were able to
force down prices, as farmers had little
idea of price movements and even less
appreciation of market trends. Middlemen
were able to pocket excessive
commissions by exploiting unnecessarily
large price differences between nearby
markets. The results of this asymmetry in
access to market information were low
prices for farmers and high prices for
consumers.
 Today, things have changed.
FOODNET, 1 a regional agricultural
development network, has introduced
three low-cost services that enable
farmers, traders, and consumers to obtain
accurate market information whenever
they need it. In Uganda, FOODNET’s
market information services currently
reach over 7 million people each week.
The national market information service
is run by FOODNET in association with
the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and
Industry. Each day, agents collect price
information on 32 commodities from four
markets in the capital Kampala, and each
week data on 28 commodities from 19
market centres across the country. This
information is rapidly collated and relayed
back to a range of clients including
farmers, traders, processors, development
agencies and policy makers via FM radio,
mobile phones, email and the Internet.
FM radio and mobile phones
The main clients of the service are the
many millions of small-scale farmers and
traders scattered across the country. The
best means of accessing these rural
communities, where many people cannot
read, is through FM radio. Each week, a
15-minute radio programme is broadcast to
the nation via 12 FM radio stations in eight
local languages.
In six districts of Uganda, the National
Agricultural Advisory Service (NAADS)
has linked up with FOODNET to provide a
localized marketing service. This service,
which is based on a pilot project funded by
CTA, produces radio programmes and
training specifically related to local
marketing opportunities. FOODNET and
the BBC are supporting this process by
developing educational programmes that
encourage farmers to adopt ‘collective
marketing’ techniques, as group action
enables farmers to use market information
more effectively.
In the past five years mobile phones
have been widely adopted in Uganda –
there are now more than 800,000 phones
in circulation. FOODNET has cashed in on
this trend by establishing a commodity
price database that can be accessed by
SMS. In addition to voice communication,
mobile phone users can now type in a key
word such as ‘maize’ and send a text
message to the MTN2 197/198 service
provider and receive an instant update on
the prices of maize on markets across the
country. This information is used by
farmers, farmers’ associations and also by
travelling traders who can identify market
price differentials and shift lower-priced
goods to higher-priced markets. It is these
activities that make markets operate more
efficiently.
The Internet and WorldSpace
For larger traders, policy makers and
development organizations, market
information is posted on the web and data
can be emailed to subscribers on a daily or
weekly basis (www.foodnet.cgiar.org and
http://radioworks.africacentral.net). The
Internet is also being used to build up a
Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence
Network (RATIN; www.ratin.net) for maize
and beans traders throughout East Africa.
In an increasingly globalized world,
traders can only be competitive in their
regional markets if they have access to
accurate, timely regional market
information.
Various new technologies are being
tested to support the expansion of market
information services into Kenya, Rwanda
and Tanzania. For example, to facilitate the
transmission of text and voice data,
FOODNET has linked up with RadioWorks
to establish a regional network of FM
radio stations linked via WorldSpace
satellite. Using WorldSpace technology,
FOODNET hopes to reach an audience of
25 million farmers by the end of 2004.
What does this mean for farmers?
For many farmers, FOODNET’s market
information services mean that, for the first
time, they have access to reliable price
data. Surveys have shown that farmers
consider market information their second
highest priority after roads. Farmers
appreciate the information because it helps
them in their negotiations with traders.
Farmers’ associations are also making
good use of the information as they can
bulk commodities and can more easily
grade their produce. Farmers claim that
access to market information has raised
farm gate prices by between 5–15 %
against general prices. Market analysis by
the International Food Policy Research
Institute has shown that over the past four
years the number of markets dominated by
farmers’ associations has increased from 4
to 8. This is a very positive trend.
In a recent programme on the BBC
World Service, a trader was reported as
saying ‘It’s not easy to cheat farmers these
days because they are getting information
about market prices from the radio and
some have access to a mobile phone.
Things are changing’.
1 FOODNET is an ASARECA marketing and agro-
enterprise network for East and Central Africa, funded
by USAID.
2 MTN is the South African Mobile Telephone
Network.
Shaun Ferris (s.ferris@cgiar.org) is
coordinator of Foodnet  in Uganda.
FEATURE
FOODNET allows farmers to check commodity prices by mobile phone. Photos: FOODNET
FOODNET: information is changing things in the marketplace
4 ICT Update: special edition, June 2004
At 5:30 am, Moussa Ong’ayo, anextension worker in Kakamega, is
already excited by the prospect of his first
wireless video conference in one of his
villages. He activates his personal portable
assistant (PPA), and tells it to download his
mailbox and display the new messages on
the flat screen above his breakfast table.
Later, over a cup of tea, he reads his mail
and dictates responses, which his PPA
records, processes and automatically
dispatches by email or text message. Then
he calls up today’s weather map and asks
his PPA to download and overlay on it
satellite images showing the crops
currently being grown in the district. He
studies the composite image with interest,
and makes some mental notes on what to
tell the farmers at the meeting planned for
today.
Suddenly, a locust alert from the
national IPM centre pops up on the screen.
He dictates a message to a colleague at the
Kenya Agricultural Research Institute in
Limuru, an expert in the field of indigenous
practices, to ask for advice on how to
protect crops against locusts. He puts on
his new multipurpose watch and looks at
the time. He should hurry, this will be a
busy day.
His PPA displays his ‘to-do’ list: one
meeting with a farmers’ association,
several farm visits and tasks from his
support unit. When the PPA has calculated
his optimal travel route, it sends text
messages to inform everyone of his
schedule, he collects some printed flyers
(after a video show, farmers always ask for
flyers to take home) and packs them in his
van. He can still marvel over this vehicle
– it is equipped with a public address
system, a foldable video screen and a
computer system with a docking station
for his PPA. When he starts the engine, the
computer comes to life and automatically
connects to two satellite systems,
WorldSpace’s Afristar for a broadband
Internet connection, and the Galileo
satellite navigation system.
En route to his first appointment,
Moussa passes one of the district’s
weather monitoring boxes. His computer
automatically makes contact and
downloads the data recorded over the last
month. A tune informs him that the data
transfer was successful, so he can continue
without stopping. Just before he arrives at
the farm, the Galileo system warns his PPA
to project onto the windscreen in front of
him the farmer’s name and the purpose of
his visit. He has been asked to assist
Catherine Adoyo and her neighbour in
solving a land dispute.
After the usual greetings, he asks
Catherine to call her neighbour, and
together they walk to the disputed
boundary. Moussa uses the Galileo
receiver in his watch to determine the
exact boundary. He starts up his laptop,
which has a wireless connection to the
equipment in the van, logs on to the
computer of the land registry office in
Nairobi, and downloads the cadastral
information on the two farms, including a
detailed map. Moussa notes that their farms
are located in an area under customary law,
and submits a request for any oral records
relating to the two farms. He is informed
there is a video, in which the respected
head of the clan who died five years ago
explains the rights of the two women to the
disputed land. They decide to settle their
dispute in accordance with the deceased
man’s explanation. Using a webcam,
Moussa scans their irises, and inserts these
biometric signatures into an electronic
form to register their agreement.
His next call takes him to Joseph
Wambui who has applied for a bank loan to
purchase a new tractor. The bank has asked
him to assess Joseph’s creditworthiness.
Joseph explains his future plans and
Moussa taps the details into his PPA. Later,
he connects the PPA to the computer in his
van and within seconds, the machine
produces a business plan and an
assessment of the economic feasibility of
Joseph’s ambitions. Within a few seconds,
the PPA gathers details of the Joseph’s
business performance over the past year
from the tax office database, and
commodity price projections for the next
five years from the Kenya Agricultural
Commodity Exchange. Moussa emails his
report and recommendation to the bank
manager, and receives confirmation of
receipt, and an assurance that a decision
will be made within a week.
Moussa is eager to be on time for his
next appointment – a meeting with the
leaders of the local farmers’ association.
The local MP has promised to address the
meeting over a video link, and will be
waiting in his office in Nairobi. While
Moussa installs the video conference
equipment, his PPA links up with the MP’s
office. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, the
honourable Oscar Chavangi would like to
say some words to you from his office in
Nairobi’. The MP’s familiar face appears on
the screen. ‘Fellow citizens, your
extension worker Moussa has invited me
to be with you today…’. The farmers gasp
with surprise. Moussa beams. He has just
organized the first wireless video
conference in Kakamega.
After email, the web, mobile telephones and text
messaging, broadband wireless Internet is expected to
be the next ICT ‘killer application’. All other
applications mentioned here are already in use in
ACP countries, and have been described in previous
issues of ICT Update.
Wireless video conferencing technology will greatly enhance the value of
meetings in rural settings. Photo: ARC-Animal Improvement Institute
FEATURE
Rutger Engelhard is ICT Update’s
coordinating editor and managing partner
of Contactivity bv in Leiden, the
Netherlands (rutger@contactivity.com).
Rutger Engelhard describes a day in the life of an agricultural extension worker in Kenya and
the ICT equipment that he might be using in the year 2020.
2020: a wireless video conference in Kenya
ICT Update: special edition, June 2004  5
driven home in international
forums. The potential of ICTs in
three related areas stand out in
the debate: for information
distribution, for communication,
and for building social capital.
The situation here is quite
complex. Depending on the
stakeholder group (e.g. policy
makers, regulators, industry,
NGOs, users/beneficiaries),
opinions differ widely on which
technologies/applications to
adopt (and in which situations)
and how these should be
supported, monitored and
regulated. These are clearly
problems when mainstreaming
ICTs into programmes. It is
worth looking at how CTA has
addressed these issues over the
years.
When CTA became operational in 1984,
its raison d’être was ‘…to provide ACP
States with better access to information,
research, training and innovations in the
agricultural field’. In the early years the
emphasis was on supplying information,
but this strategy changed in 1995, partly in
recognition of the ICT developments at the
time, to one where the balance is more
heavily weighted towards building
capacity within ACP states to help
individuals and institutions manage
information and communication more
effectively themselves. In effect, much
greater emphasis was put on a two-way
dialogue and on facilitating South–South
and intra-ACP exchanges. To address the
complex issues of surrounding ICT
adoption, in 1998 CTA formed its
Observatory on ICTs, a think-tank of
technical and policy experts to inform
CTA’s programme-related ICT strategies
and to monitor developments in ACP
countries.
Today, the mainstreaming of ICTs into
CTA’s programmes is conspicuous, from
their conception to their delivery. A few
examples suffice. In information
dissemination, ICTs are used as delivery
mechanisms in their own right (portals,
electronic newsletters, newsfeeds, etc.), or
to complement established print media
(such as electronic versions of articles
distributed via email and via WorldSpace
satellite). In communication, ICTs are used
for electronic forums and e-consultations
by email, or to allow the participation of a
wider electronic community in location-
based seminars (through live forums,
conference blogs and newsletters). In
Moore’s law, a
prediction made in an
obscure article over
30 years ago that
computer processing
power would double
every 18 months, has
proved remarkably
prescient. It has also
become emblematic of the ICT revolution
and the unstoppable proliferation of
technologies and applications into our
daily lives. In particular, rapid
technological advances are apparent in the
information technology (hardware,
software and peripherals),
telecommunications technologies (radio
and television broadcasting, telephones)
and networking technologies (the Internet,
wireless and broadband connectivity).
While achievements in these fields are
impressive, statistics starkly show the gap
(or ‘digital divide’) between those who
have access to the technologies (mainly in
the developed North) and those who have
little or no access (mainly in the
developing South). Closer inspection of
statistics for developing countries also
reveals the yawning gap between access to
ICTs in urban and rural areas, the latter
being agriculture-based economies
commonly struggling with a lack of basic
infrastructure, and low levels of literacy. In
many developing countries the digital
divide is also a gender divide between men
and women, which is exacerbated by a host
of socio-economic and cultural factors that
marginalise women even further.
Notwithstanding these seemingly
insuperable difficulties, a technological
optimism is discernable in the development
debate that seems to have its origins in
Moore’s Law. This optimism, put simply,
translates the rapid development of the
technology predicted by Moore’s Law into
the rapid societal development achieved
through the swift introduction of the
technology itself. Critics have been quick
to point out that this gives the impression
that developing countries are on an
appropriate track for the introduction of
ICTs and that the problems are primarily
technological – issues that are hotly
contested. The prevailing consensus is that
ICTs can only gain their true power for
economic and social leverage when they
are adapted to the prevailing local
conditions, with attendant support
mechanisms.
What is never in doubt is that ICTs have
enormous potential for developing
countries, a point that has been repeatedly
building social capital, ICTs underpin
efforts to build electronic communities (for
example, in training support) and to
promote information sharing among
thematic networks.
What are the prospects for the future?
To date, the development of the ICT
landscape in ACP states has not shown the
same exponential growth as the
development of the technology as
predicted by Moore’s law. In the past five
years, however, there have been a number
of promising developments. For instance,
significant changes in the telecoms sector
have led to a huge growth in mobile
networks and the expansion and
modernization of fixed-line telephone
networks. Digital, satellite-based radio
broadcasting looks set to penetrate even
the remotest areas of Africa. Telecentres
or phone shops stand to capitalize on
infrastructure developments such as low-
cost, two-way satellite voice and data
services and broad-spectrum wireless links
(WiFi).
The potential of such technological
advances will only be realized, however,
if there is a suitable, enabling policy
environment, as well as improvements in
basic infrastructure and capacity building at
all levels. Capitalizing on these
developments is therefore a daunting, but
not unrealizable task that will continue to
exercise the minds of policy makers and
ICT practitioners for years to come.
Kevin Painting (painting@cta.int) is
senior programme coordinator in CTA’s
Communication Channels and Services
Department (CCSD).
FEATURE
Extension workers increasingly use ICTs such as
digital video cameras. Photo: COLME
Kevin Painting outlines the enormous challenges for CTA and its partners in ACP countries in
mainstreaming ICTs into their programmes and projects.
Mainstreaming ICTs: challenges for CTA
6 ICT Update: special edition, June 2004
A gender-sensitive
approach to the
design and
implementation of
agriculture, food
security and rural
development
programmes is
fundamental to their
success. This applies in particular to
development programmes in which ICTs,
with their tremendous potential for
improving rural livelihoods, are being
applied. Gender is the term used to
recognize that women and men play
different roles in society. These roles are
culturally and institutionally determined,
and can change over time (historically)
and space (geographically). Women play a
major role in agricultural production and
rural livelihoods in ACP countries.
However, rural women are much less
likely than men to have access to new
agricultural technologies because they are
generally less well educated and hold less
economic and political power. Women,
with their special responsibilities for
children and the elderly, find it less easy
than men to migrate to towns and cities.
Today’s ‘digital divide’ is adversely
affecting women. The urban bias in
connectivity deprives many rural women,
more than men, of the universal right to
communicate. Their problem is
compounded by issues of language and
literacy, by the fact that their already heavy
workloads mean that they have limited
time available to use modern ICTs, and by
cultural attitudes that prevent them from
visiting public access points mostly
frequented by men.
CTA’s 2002 Observatory on Gender
and Agriculture in the Information Society
recommended the initiation of a small
grants fund, in response to the often-
voiced concern over the lack of
resources in support of gender initiatives.
IICD and IDRC joined CTA to fulfil this
recommendation, and the GenARDIS
Small Grants Fund was established. The
fund is intended to support organisations in
implementing innovative activities that will
contribute to the understanding and
application of ICTs in agricultural and rural
development programmes in a gender-
sensitive way. It has been set up as a
competitive grant programme, with the
winners receiving one-time grants of
EUR 5000 each.
Following the announcement of
GenARDIS in mid-March 2003, no less
than 360 proposals were received in less
Gesa Wesseler reports on the success of GenARDIS and highlights the importance of a gender-
sensitive approach to ICTs in ACP agriculture.
than two months. The following list of
winners provides an indication of the
diversity of applications and of the many
different approaches that can be used to
address a relatively narrow topic such as
gender and agriculture in the information
society.
The submitted project proposals dealt
with topics ranging from pure research
(e.g. the diffusion of ICTs for
communicating agricultural information for
rural development in a specific area), to
commercial projects (e.g. the promotion
of a telecom company among rural
women). They also included evaluations
of ongoing projects, setting up an
empirical social study (e.g. to assess the
effects of distributing cellphones to
women in isolated rural areas), and
investment in equipment (e.g. providing
laptops and cellphones to enable a team of
fieldworkers to improve information
dissemination and research).
The nine winning projects are now in
the process of being implemented. The
winners will present the results of their
projects in a workshop to be organized in
August 2004. That event is also likely to
mark the start of the second round of
GenARDIS.
• Benin: Renforcement des capacités des femmes fonctionnaires qui
oeuvrent pour l'autonomisation économique des femmes rurales
pour la sécurité alimentaire et la réduction de la pauvreté au
Bénin (Strengthening the capacities of female civil servants working for the
economic independence of rural women for food security and poverty reduction
in Benin), Alice Djinadou Igue Kouboura, Institut national des recherches
agricoles du Bénin (INRAB)
• Chad: La radio communautaire au service du développement de la
femme rurale au Tchad (Community radio serving rural women in Chad),
Grâce Agouna, Audy Magazine
• Ghana: Participatory Community Planning (PCP). ICTs as tools to give
rural women a voice in decision making to promote social awareness of their
roles in managing natural resources for sustainable agriculture through
biodiversity conservation, Joana Francis Adda, Participatory Community
Development (PACODEV)
• Jamaica: ICT tools and services in support of the development of
organic agriculture in the Caribbean: a regional training workshop
for women entrepreneurs, Dorienne Rowan-Campbell, Networked
Intelligence for Development
• Kenya: Health and agriculture community radio network, James
Onyango, Kenya AIDS Intervention Prevention Project Group (KAIPPG)
• Malawi: FarmWise, Bessie Nyirenda, Computer Land Ltd
• South Africa: Diffusion of ICTs in communication of agricultural
information for rural development among women in Kwa-Zulu Natal,
Joseph Kiplang'at, Department of Library and Information Science, University of
Zululand
• Tanzania: Mainstreaming gender into information, communication
and technology in sub-Saharan Africa: A case study of northern
Tanzania, Pantaleon Shoki, Community Development and Relief Agency
• Uganda: Women's access to and the use of basic ICTs in accessing
information on new agricultural technologies, Akello Zerupa, Makerere
University, Entebbe
Free CD-ROM attached. Not for retail sale.
FEATURE
Winning project initiatives
GenARDIS: a small grant fund for gender-related work in ICTs
Gesa Wesseler (wesseler@cta.int) is
programme coordinator in CTA's
Planning and Corporate Services
Department (P&CS).
ICT Update: special edition, June 2004  7
ICT Update
CTA publishes ICT Update, a current
awareness bulletin for ACP agriculture. This
bimonthly publication consists of web
magazine, printed bulletin and an email
newsletter. Each issue focuses on a specific
theme relevant to ICTs for agricultural and
rural development in ACP countries, and
features commissioned articles on
regionally based initiatives, a resource of
relevant annotated projects and links, and
more. All back issues of the web magazines,
including their extensive web resources,
have been compiled on the CD-ROM
prepared for this special issue to coincide
with CTA’s 20th anniversary celebrations.
Issues 1-7 (2000/01) General bulletins
Issue 8 (Oct 2002) Gender and ICTs
Issue 9 (Jan 2002) Market info systems
Issue 10 (Mar 2003) Rural connectivity
Issue 11 (May 2003) Pest management
Issue 12 (Jul 2003) Water management
Issue 13 (Sept 2003) Microfinance
Issue 14 (Nov 2003) Agricultural extension
Issue 15 (Jan 2004) Livestock
Issue 16 (Mar 2004) Fisheries
Issue 17 (May 2004) Land tenure
Forthcoming issues: Forestry management,
Post-harvest services, Youth in ACP
agriculture, and WSIS: Halfway from Geneva
to Tunis.
Observatory on ICTs for ACP
agriculture and rural development
CTA’s ICT Observatory identifies ICT issues
and strategies relevant to ACP agriculture
and monitors the development of ICTs for
use in information and communication
management. Every year, CTA brings
together leading ACP and EU experts in the
field of ICTs for development. The first of
these expert meetings advised CTA on a
long-term ICT strategy that could enhance
the outreach and quality of its agricultural
information and communication services.
In 2001, the Observatory meeting looked
at technologies for wireless access to the
Internet via satellite. This meeting identified
the enormous potential of small, cheap
VSAT satellite applications for two-way
communication to bring the Internet to rural
areas of ACP countries.
In 2002, the Observatory explored a
neglected policy area, ‘Gender and
agriculture in the information society’, and
put it firmly on the agenda of the
international development community.
In 2003, the ICT Observatory meeting
looked at how ICTs could enhance the
effectiveness and efficiency of agricultural
extension services. The policy reports that
resulted from each of these meetings can be
retrieved from CTA’s website (www.cta.int).
CAPACITY BUILDING
ICT sensitization workshops
CTA organized awareness raising regional
workshops for ACP policy makers for the
strategic application and sustainable
implementation of ICTs. Côte d’Ivoire (1998),
South Africa (1999), Barbados (2000),
Mauritius (2001), and Antigua (2003).
Web publishing training courses
CTA conducted advanced training courses on
web design, use of databases and access to
networks. Guyana (2001), Kenya (2001),
Senegal (2000, 2002, 2003), Tanzania (2000)
and Zimbabwe (2001).
Resource kits on information
management
CTA collaborated with the FAO and other
organizations to produce two distance
learning CD-ROMs: (1) Investing in
agricultural information (FAO, CTA, GTZ,
ISNAR) and (2) Building electronic
communities and networks (FAO, APC, CTA,
Rockefeller Foundation).
www.fao.org/imark/
Subscription programme for CD-ROM/
Internet agricultural databases
CTA offers access to major agricultural
databases for subscribers. 76 institutions
receive CD-ROMs and 12 are subscribing to
Internet databases.
www.cta.int/about/cdrom.htm
Rural Radio Resource Packs
CTA is working to strengthen the links
between extension workers and farmers,
and to promote knowledge sharing among
farmers. CTA's Rural Radio Resource Pack
project aims to address the problem of
illiteracy by encouraging the use of rural
radio to disseminate scientific and technical
information. The beneficiaries of the project
include rural radio programme producers
and managers, extension workers and
farmers. www.cta.int/about/ruralradio.htm
Question & Answer services
CTA provides support to regional Question &
Answer centres which respond to users'
requests, using on and off-line services,
consulting subject-matter specialists when
necessary. These services also refer users
to appropriate sources of information, and
advice on sources of finance and training
opportunities.
www.cta.int/about/qas.htm
PUBLICATIONS
Wesseler, G. and Brinkman, W. (2003)
Bridging Information Gaps between Farmers,
Policymakers, Researchers and
Development Agents. Paper presented at the
conference on Agroforestry impacts on
livelihoods in Southern Africa, May 2002.
Lightfoot, C., Alders, C. and Dolberg, F. (eds)
(2002) Linking Local Learners: Negotiating
new development relationships between
village, district and nation. Published by
ARDAF, AgroForum, CTA, ISG (also available
on CD-ROM).
CTA (2002) Information for Agricultural and
Rural Development in ACP Countries:
Emerging stakeholders, new media, and
priority themes.  Proceedings of a CTA
seminar, Paris, France, 29 May – 2 June
2000.
CTA (2002) Information and Communication
Management (ICM) Strategies for
Federations of Farmers' Organizations.
Proceedings of a CTA seminar, Douala,
Cameroon, 10–14 December 2001.
These and other resources can be
downloaded from CTA’s website:
www.cta.int
OTHER CTA WEBSITES
Agritrade addresses agricultural trade
issues in current and future ACP–EU trade
relations.  Provides information, on news
and analysis of issues and events affecting
ACP agricultural trade.
http://agritrade.cta.int
Knowledge for Development. This
observatory on science and technology for
ACP agriculture and rural development is
intended to support the policy dialogue on
S&T for development, and to enable the ACP
scientific community to share and review
results of the process of harnessing S&T for
the development of agriculture.
http://knowledge.cta.int/
Websites under development:
Agricta-policy will provide collaborative
Internet platforms to support networking
among ACP agricultural policy makers.
The Electronic resource centre is a
virtual library of CTA’s publications and audio
files as well as a web space to support CTA’s
training courses.
Selected CTA projects and initiatives
CTA’s projects focus on supporting ICT capacity building, knowledge sharing and awareness raising of the uses of ICTs
in ACP agriculture and rural development.
8 ICT Update: special edition, June 2004
Q&A: Participating in the telecom policy dialogue
ICT Update , issue 18, June 2004. ICT Update is a bimonthly printed bulletin with an accompanying web magazine
(http://ictupdate.cta.int)  and email newsletter. Each issue focuses on a specif ic theme relevant to ICTs for agricultural and rural
development in African, Caribbean and Pacif ic (ACP) countries, and includes feature articles and annotated l inks to related web
resources and projects.
Publisher:  CTA Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (ACP-EU), P.O.Box 380, 6700 AJ Wageningen, The Netherlands
Production and content management:  Contactivity bv, Nieuwe Mare 23, 2312NL Leiden, The Netherlands
Coordinating editor:  Rutger Engelhard / Research and edit ing: Valerie Jones / Website: Sebastiaan van der Vl iet,  Shelley Mannion
Translation:  Patrice Pinguet Traductions, Amsterdam / Editorial advisory committee:  Kevin Painting and Peter Ballantyne
Copyright © 2004, CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Website: www.cta.int
Mike Jensen has been promoting ICTs for development for more than 15 years, and has probably seen it all. In the early 1990s
he travelled around Africa helping NGOs install their first store-and-forward email systems, which were supported by APC/
GreenNet. Today, he is one of the most sought-after ICT4D policy advisers of African governments and international organizations.
CTA: Mike, in your opinion, which ICT
application holds particular promise to
provide affordable access to the Internet
rural areas of ACP countries?
MJ: Terrestrial (fibre) telecom
infrastructures provide the cheapest means
to connect to the Internet. However, it will
take at least another 10 years before such
an infrastructure is in place in the rural
areas of Africa. In the meantime, I believe
that a wireless ICT application providing
broadband two-way Internet access via
satellite is the most promising option to
meet immediate needs. This ICT
application is ‘Ku-band VSAT’ and was first
demonstrated to me during one of  CTA’s
ICT Observatory meetings three years
ago.
CTA: What is Ku-band VSAT?
MJ: VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal)
is a catchy acronym that is used for all
types of satellite products, ranging from
small components to complete systems. A
VSAT is a two-way satellite
communication system with very small
dishes (antennas) about 1 metre across that
uses a specific frequency (Ku-band).
Today, the total costs of this type of two-
way satellite communication equipment
are less than $2000, and the service
charges less than $100 per month. With
such a system, a small business such as a
cybercafe, or government or NGO offices
anywhere in Africa can get connected to
the Internet, regardless of the distance to
the nearest connection to the terrestrial
telecom infrastructure. Combined with
WiFi (wireless local area network
application) many people in a village
could share such a VSAT system and its
costs. Within the next five years, if national
telecom regulations on the use of private
VSAT and wireless Internet are relaxed,
this technology could help to meet the
growing demand for Internet connectivity.
CTA: At present, development
policy makers and professionals
tend to concentrate on ICT
applications based on Internet
technology.  Last year, ICT Update
began to report on many
imaginative projects that are using
other ICTs and their applications
(geographic information systems,
global positioning systems, personal
digital assistants, etc.). What could
ACP policy makers do to nurture
this second wave of ICT4D?
MJ: First, they could promote better
and in particular cheaper access to
the Internet both in urban and rural
areas. Without adequate Internet
access many of these new ICT
applications featured in ICT Update can not
be used. There is little point in
encouraging the use of tools such as
personal digital assistants (PDAs, or hand-
held computers), for instance, unless the
communication costs are low enough to
make them affordable to use. Second,
policy makers should promote efforts to
build local capacity to use ICTs.  Third,
they should help raise awareness of the
utility of these new tools to enhance the
outreach and quality of many rural
development services. In particular, they
could show how they can be used for
decision support and other practical
applications such as the weather forecasts
and education. In conclusion, I would like
to encourage policy makers to take the
lead and to start investing in e-government
services, such as websites that provide a
range of  information services for the
public.
CTA: CTA has built up an extensive
network among development policy
makers in ACP countries. How can the
Centre help to promote the notion that
ICTs are catalysts of economic and
agricultural development?
MJ: CTA could collaborate with other
agencies working in this area, such as the
Farm Radio Network, the FAO, UNESCO
and DFID, to develop a common strategy
to encourage policy makers to adopt and
invest in ICT supportive strategies.
Government officials and NGO leaders
should become much more proactively
involved in the national telecom policy
dialogue in order to press the interests of
their rural constituencies. CTA could help
them by developing a ‘telecom advocacy
manual’ on how to participate in telecom
policy dialogues. CTA could further assist
them in developing their capacities to
lobby effectively for change among the
telecom policy makers. Interestingly, it
seems that one of the few benefits of the
WSIS process has been to promote this
sort of multi-stakeholder telecom policy
dialogue. Rural people in ACP countries
have much to gain from policy changes
that will lead to allow private use of VSAT
and wireless technologies. We should
strike while the iron is still hot.
Mike Jensen is a leading ICT for
Development Policy Advisor based in
South Africa. (mike@wn.apc.org)
VSAT technology provides affordable
internet connectivity. Photo: Hughes
Network Systems Europe/SIGNIS