[kictanet] New Research Paper - What really impedes the scaling out of digital services for agriculture?

Thu Jan 20 13:38:52 EAT 2022

Bw. Kieti,

Asante. A comparison with Asia and South America would be quite 
interesting. Live streaming seems to be quite popular in China [0][1] - 
where it seems that "naomba serikali isadie"[2] is not the way to do 
things. The cost of communication relative to typical annual incomes is 
also lower.

The issue of raising trust levels is also important to enable digital 
transactions.  A traditional solution, hawalas existed before the 
internet enabling commerce over very large distances, so technical 
issues are not the only problem.

The response rate is relatively low, 887 responses from 300,000 likely 
users, though the group sizes have changed since 2019[3][4]. SMS seems 
to be useful for conducting surveys and engaging farmers[5][6].

For online surveys, might it be possible to engage directly with farmers 
groups that do not just exist online if online groups with a high level 
of engagement do not exist? One could consider medium size farmers in 
the grain sector, for example through the East African Grain Council[7], 
or dairy farmers through the Kenya Dairy Farmers Federation[8]. These 
might get higher relative response rates, though would still not reach 
many of the smaller farmers for which SMS and radio would be more 
effective, as an example in Ethiopia, many chicken farmers have a mobile 
phone and a radio[9].

Finally, efforts such as DigiFarm are nice. If DigiFarm succeeds at the 
same level as MPESA, there is the worry that the same entity controls 
both the network infrastructure for communication as well as the digital 
service, squeezing out other possible innovators such as Twiga Foods. .

[0] 
https://www.alizila.com/taobao-helping-farmers-reap-gains-in-livestream-boom/
[1] 
https://www.alizila.com/alibaba-agriculture-festival-ushers-in-harvest-season/
[2] 
https://janelubale.blogspot.com/2014/01/naomba-serikali-asaidie-i-am-pleading.html
[3] https://www.facebook.com/groups/254019644745036/
[4] https://www.facebook.com/groups/291955461617527
[5] 
https://www.iica.int/en/press/news/brazil-first-latin-american-country-slated-benefit-agricultural-digital-solutions
[6] https://precisiondev.org/where-we-work/kenya/pad-lab/
[7] http://eagc.org
[8] https://www.kdff.co.ke
[9] https://data.ilri.org/portal/dataset/acggethbaselinepublic

On 1/18/22 9:21 AM, Ali Hussein via KICTANet wrote:
> Hi John
> 
> Thanks for sharing. Looks like an interesting read.
> 
> Regards
> 
> *Ali Hussein*
> 
> Fintech | Digital Transformation
> 
> 
> Tel: +254 713 601113
> 
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
> 
> Skype: abu-jomo
> 
> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim 
> <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim><http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely 
> mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the 
> organizations that I work with.
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 10:10 AM John Kieti via KICTANet 
> <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke <mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>> 
> wrote:
> 
>     Hello Listers,
> 
>     Allow me to bring to your attention our new research paper, peer
>     reviewed and published in the  new Smart Agricultural Technologies
>     journal. The title is: *What really impedes the scaling out of
>     digital services for agriculture? A Kenyan users’ perspective
>     <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772375522000016>.
>     *The paper, attached, can be shared freely on CC BY basis.
> 
>     In summary, the study sought conceptual clarity on barriers to the
>     success of digital services for agriculture as deployed by Startups,
>     NGOs, Government etc. We examined the latent structure and patterns
>     of association among such impediments as mentioned in the literature
>     and perceived by end users. Quantitatively and qualitatively, we
>     ascertained a three-factor structure comprising */(1) Technology
>     Accessibility/* /- digital skills, internet, devices, electricity
>     .../ /*(2) Service Discoverability - *awareness, collaboration,
>     one-stop-shop ..., / and*(3) Service Value Proposition */*-
>     *usability, relevance, service affordability... /According to the
>     study, the success of digital services for agriculture in Kenya (and
>     similar services or similar settings) boils down to how
>     practitioners and policy makers optimize interventions around these
>     three dimensions. Discoverability and Value proposition co-varied
>     more than with technology accessibility as they are more in the
>     purview of the digital service provider (than technology
>     accessibility). We also proposed a scale for measuring the impediments.
> 
>     We argued that public policy, one of our qualitatively generated
>     themes, was indirectly covered in the three dimensions of the
>     structure (that it is not necessarily a fourth dimension).
>     Confirming or disconfirming this bit about public policy may be a
>     topic for further research. Curious to know what KICTANET listers
>     think of this ...
> 
>     My co-authors were Prof. Waema, Dr. Baumüller, Prof. Ndemo, & Dr.
>     Omwansa
> 
>     Kind regards
>     -- 
> 
>     John Kieti
>     Whatsapp: +254-735-764242
>     Twitter: @johnKieti <https://twitter.com/johnkieti> // LinkedIn:
>     https://ke.linkedin.com/in/*kieti* <https://ke.linkedin.com/in/kieti>*
>     *Blog: https://kieti.org <https://kieti.org>
> 
>     The ordinary just won't do
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