ICTs, livestock research and social learning – ILRI contributes to ict4ag conference

ILRI people were active at the recent ict4ag conference in Kigali. Ewen Le Borgne was part of the overall facilitation team; on the plug and play day, Absolomon Kihara talked about the open data kit and on days two and three, ILRI organized session on livestock and ICTs and on social ICTs …

Organized by Peter Ballantyne, the day two  session drew on several on the ground experiences that illustrate different ways that ICTs are contributing to livestock sector development:

• Mobile ICTs are being used to deliver validated livestock production and health knowledge and advice to farmers – see presentation by Sagarika Gandhi
• ICTs and knowledge management are putting knowledge in the hands of rural actors and producers working towards more market oriented livestock  production systems – see presentation by Fanos Mekonnen; see her blogpost
• ICTs are being used to deliver market information to livestock producers – see related presentation by Susan Kahumbu
• ICTs are being used to provide a livestock early warning system to pastoral communities – see presentation by Sintayehu Alemayehu
• ICTs are being used to guide livestock insurance schemes for vulnerable pastoralists – see presentation by Andrew Mude

The day three session on ‘Social ICTs – engaging with the grassroots’ was organized by Peter Ballantyne with Michael Victor from the Water Lands and Ecosystems CGIAR research program. The session starting point was that using ICTs in ‘social’ engaging ways is better suited to certain kinds of rural challenges – those requiring collective, social involvement from many people.

The session mainly involved participants discussing and sharing experiences, with supplementary presentations on:

1. Social learning, communication, engagement and ICT4ag (presentation by Peter Ballantyne)
2. Social Learning through ICTs: Solving complex problems using multiple tools (presentation by Michael Victor)
3. Sauti ya wakulima: using mobile phones to make the voices of rural farmers in Tanzania  heard (Presentation by Eugenio Tisselli and Hamza Suleyman)

Related blogposts:

• from an ict4ag social reporter
• from Africa RISING’s Simret Yasabu