[kictanet] Another wasted bumper harvest

Tue Feb 9 20:07:41 EAT 2010

Grain Futures, Equity and others are already implementing the this with warehouse receipting.  

The warehousing investors who put up grain storage facilities would love to know where there will be a bumper harvest so they can go and setup early.

Fertilizer marketers, FAO, seed producers, transporters, millers infinitum the list is huge but knowing peculiar Kenyan's just get the information the buyers will then show themselves.

Finally your so called ICT Board should adopt it as a pet project which actually helps Kenya, this is more critical than subsidizing BPO bandwidth.

Regards

 Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

________________________________
From: Mwangi Wamae <mwangi.wamae at gmail.com>
To: robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Tue, 9 February, 2010 18:37:47
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Another wasted bumper harvest

All:

There was an article in the Economist magazine of Nov 5, 2009 that talked about methods of obtaining forecasts of crop yields by "measuring electromagnetic radiation reflected from farmland" using satellite technology.  The article also said that the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi has begun cataloguing more
than 100,000 samples of African soils with the aim of incorporating
this information into existing satellite technology.

So the solution is just about there.

My question is this however, what is the business proposition for a private enterprise to develop this data?  Who would be the customer?

Our system is interesting though -- we seem to oscillate like an out of control pendulum between famine and flood.  Less than a year ago we were worried that 10 million Kenyans would need food aid, now food is rotting in the fields.  Clearly we need a grain storage and marketing solution that works -- and a strategic grain reserve to help us cope with future food emergencies.

-Mw

On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 9:09 AM, Rad! <conradakunga at gmail.com> wrote:

>Well said.
>
>>Although it's hard to beat Joseph's prediction system. God told him.
>>Let's see TEAMS & SEACOM beat that! :)
>
>
>>On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 3:44 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Yet again we suffer from a lack of information, farmers are pouring milk
>>> because the dairies cannot handle the increased volume and on another front
>>> maize is rotting in the shambas because NCPB do not have money to buy the
>>> maize due to an unexpected bumper harvest.
>>>
>>> I could understand the increased milk production as it could have been
>>> sudden but how is it that we did not realise, in good time, that there will
>>> be a bumper maize harvest.  Well, application developers can we get out an
>>> application that can help the government and millers be better prepared for
>>> a good or bad harvest or are we waiting for 3G connectivity or a 3rd fibre
>>> optic cable to land before we can role out such a product.
>>>
>>> Even Joseph had a prediction system that saved Egypt from extinction yet he
>>> did not have a high speed Internet link nor a 3G mobile phone and definitely
>>> not an IPAD.
>>>
>>> Lets apply ourselves to solving this basic issues instead of lamenting about
>>> a lack of 3G infrastructure, this is a challenge to the strathmore, IFC and
>>> other incubeter initiatives as well.
>>>
>>> Have a good day
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> Robert Yawe
>>> KAY System Technologies Ltd
>>> Phoenix House, 6th Floor
>>> P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
>>> Kenya
>>>
>>> Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
>>>
>>>
>
>> _______________________________________________
>>> kictanet mailing list
>>> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>>> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>>>
>> This message was sent to: conradakunga at gmail.com
>
>> Unsubscribe or change your options at
>> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/conradakunga%40gmail.com
>
>>
>>>
>
>>_______________________________________________
>>kictanet mailing list
>kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>
>This message was sent to: mwangi.wamae at gmail.com
>>Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/mwangi.wamae%40gmail.com
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20100209/d199c754/attachment.htm>