These farmers inevitably farm in the remotest parts of the continent, often working in a village with limited physical access to the outside world. Farmers are more likely to be women than men, because often the man will have gone somewhere to try to find work, sometime abandoning the family for long periods of time.
Agriculture will be very basic, unchanged through the generations and with few improvements because there is no money to buy inputs such as fertilisers, good tools, animals, higher quality seeds, and the other elements that are required to improve agriculture. There is no surplus of production of local food that can be sold to generate income. The physical environment is rapidly deteriorating; there are greater variations in temperature, the rains are less reliable- it rains at different times of the year for less predictable periods, the soil is becoming drier.
Even if farmers knew of better ways to farm, they would not have the facilities to improve their farming. They are likely to be illiterate; anyone who can read and write will try to get a job away from the land. There may well be a large family to look after- their own immediate family and members of the extended family. Farmers speak only their own language or a local version of the main language. This level of isolation means that government services do not reach these farmers – there are no clinics, no schools, and no agricultural extension services.
Fast advances
However, both the internet and mobile telephony are making very fast advances in various parts of Africa. The success of mobile banking (for example m-pesa in East Africa) begun earlier and with much greater success in Africa than in Europe. Even small villages often have some sort of mobile telephony and the low cost of telephones means that often poor farmers will be given one by some member of the family.
Good farming requires good information; changes in climate, new pests, new varieties of seeds, new research enables farmers to become more and more productive. But in most of sub-Saharan Africa communication is very difficult. If the farmer has a question to ask, she cannot contact anyone. It is similarly very difficult to offer any advisory service to the farmer, given the lack of literacy and the language barriers.
GRASSROOTS AFRICA started its activities in January 2014 by offering advice to farmers through the internet, in English and via people who are in touch with the farmers and can post questions on their behalf and pass on the replies to them in their own languages.
Advisory service
It aims eventually to provide a direct advisory service to the farmers; the farmer would speak into a telephone into her own language, that question would be translated into words in English and posted on the website. Someone, somewhere in the world, with the right expertise and practical experience (very likely to be from a village not terribly far away…), would suggest some ways of coping with the problem that the farmer has raised. It would get back to the farmer into the language she has first used to place the question. But this will take some years.
During 2014 and most of 2015, communication from and to the farmers will be maintained through such intermediaries: government extension workers, secretaries of cooperatives and farmers’ associations, local personnel employed by national voluntary agencies and sometimes international agencies, heads of schools in rural areas.
There are increasingly small and medium scale processors of food, from breweries to biscuit manufacturers, as well as traders and exporters of tropical fruit and vegetables. In addition there are people employed by microfinance institutions and banks who sometime work on commission.
GRASSROOTS AFRICA aims to work through these intermediaries in order to support them in helping the farmer. Increasingly, most of them have access to computers and in some places to 4G telephony. They will be able to inform the farmers of the services they offer and become better qualified in the process. In the long run – perhaps over three or four years, it will become a huge cooperative enterprise, through which farmers will help one another.
Questions & Answers
The core activity of GRASSROOTS AFRICA is a service of questions and answers. The questions flow from the farmers to the intermediaries. The intermediaries post the question on the website for the relevant forum to discuss and come up with an answer. The range of questions is rapidly widening; eventually there will be forums discussing issues concerning cassava, maize, sorghum, rice, beans, potatoes and the huge range of other indigenous African commodities.
In each case, practitioners with relevant knowledge will discuss the questions that have been placed ion the website, sometime contradict one another and sometime improve on one another’s comments and suggestions. They will bring experience from different backgrounds and different points of view.
Most of the people who contribute to the discussions are based in Africa, working on a variety of projects in the field or for voluntary or government organisations, or in research establishments or are teaching different aspects of agriculture. Others will have worked on relevant projects in Africa but might be currently based in Europe, in the USA or Australia or other parts of the South.
In early 2015 GRASSROOTS AFRICA is also working with some radio and television stations in Malawi and Tanzania. The station broadcasts to large audiences and their listeners and viewers are invited to text their questions to the station which in turn is posting them on the website to kick off a discussion between practitioners and others.
The aim of the project is that the advice given should be free of charge at the point of delivery to smallholders. Income from annual subscriptions to commercial farmers and intermediaries will help to pay for the service as well as advertising.
The project is guided by an advisory committee comprising people, all working in their personal capacity, with considerable experience of African agriculture and with a range of organisations, including the Gatsby Trust, Foundations for Farming, FairTrade Foundation, Find-your-Feet, Sidai Africa, and the Tropical Agricultural Association of the UK.
The main sponsor of the project is Benny Dembitzer, an international development expert, who has worked in the fields of handicraft, small-scale industries and agricultural economics for the best part of 45 years. He was one of the prime movers of the FAIRTRADE movement in the UK in the early 70’s and was a member of the team awarded the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.
A large number of people are involved in the setting up of the project in a voluntary capacity. The directors welcome any enquiries and any offer to help. They would particularly welcome enquiries and participation from people who are working in various projects in Africa or have worked in such projects or are in touch with them.
A pilot project commenced in January 2014 and will last until mid-2015. The first three countries are Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. The project is expanding however slowly in Zambia and Zimbabwe because of the similarity of crops.Eventually it will be extended to all countries in sub-Saharan Africa. – For further information, please consult the website www.grassrootsafrica.com or write to info@grassrootsafrica.com
Post published in: Agriculture