MoMo Kampala – Feb. 11th – How Can ICT Help Farmers?

MoMo Kampala – Feb. 11th – How Can ICT Help Farmers?

You are cordially invited to attend MoMo Kampala’s next meeting on the theme How can ICT help farmers?, to be hosted by Victoria University, on Monday 11th February starting 5:30 PM.

Agriculture is critical to Ugandans — probably our most important sector.  Almost 70 percent of Ugandan households farm for their livelihoods.  Our farmers’ productivity is far lower than it could be for a variety of reasons, many out of their control.  But things can improve if farmers know about better cropping techniques, know more about what types of seeds and fertilizers to use, and what do to if a disease breaks out.  Even knowing their plot sizes can help them apply the right amount of inputs and save money.   Sharing local knowledge and solutions also helps.

Our next Mobile Monday Kampala meeting will focus on ways public and private sector players are trying to harness ICT to help Uganda’s farmers.  This includes mobile phone applications for entry level, feature or smart phones, but also better ways to use radio, images and low cost video.  Our speakers will discuss what they have learned, what the biggest challenges are, what appears to be working in Uganda and across sub-Saharan Africa.  They will touch on how hard it is to make such ICT applications sustainable without on-going donor support and scalable to the millions of farmers who might benefit.  They will also zero in on efforts to measure the impact of these ICT applications and determine whether or not they are just “cool” or actually cost effective approaches to helping farmers.