3 ENABLERS FOR DIGITAL AGRICULTURE TRANSFORMATION
3.1 Use of digital technologies among rural population and farmers
3.1.4 Mobile apps, social media and networks among agriculture stakeholders
STAKEHOLDERS
3.1.4.1 Mobile apps for agriculture
There has been extensive growth of mobile apps to support business, for example in tourism, entertainment, health, shopping, education and farming. Mobile agricultural apps show significant potential for modernization of the agricultural sector, in both developed and developing countries. For example, mobile apps can play a part in increasing the income of small-scale producers, reducing the supply and distribution transaction costs, improving traceability and quality criteria for consumers, but also for providing opportunities for financial institutions (Costopoulou, Ntaliani and Karetsos, 2016).
Mobile apps stores offer a wide variety of apps for food and agriculture, and it can be difficult for consumers and farmers to choose from the increasing number of available apps. Worldwide, in 2018, 115 percent more downloads were registered of the top five food-delivery apps compared with 2016. In 2018, the top two food-delivery apps by downloads were dUberEats48 and Zomato.49 Analysed by country, India had the strongest growth at 900 percent. App Annie (2019) states that there was also high demand for food-delivery apps in the western markets, such as Canada and the United States, up 255 percent and 175 percent, respectively.
In developing countries, there is also an impressive variety of agricultural apps, offered by either public organizations or local enterprises supported by MNOs.
In India, mKisan50 is a popular government portal that offers a variety of mobile apps for agriculture,
horticulture, animal husbandry and other agricultural fields. Also, Digital Green51 operates in India, an information provider with a focus on agricultural extension and increasing its efficacy and cost-efficiency.
In Kenya, there is a popular SMS and voice mobile app, called iCow,52 providing information as part of a subscription service. The aim is to increase productivity of farms through access to expertise, information and knowledge. This app also operates in Tanzania and Ethiopia. Similar to this, WeFarm53 is another SMS service app, aiming to enable small-scale farmers to ask questions via SMS and receive answers from other registered users in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the Ivory Coast. Esoko54 and M-Pesa (owned by the Vodafone Group) operate in various countries, providing information to farmers on different segments in the agrivalue chain through SMS and voice. In Nigeria, in 2012, the Nigerian Central Bank and country’s Ministry of Agriculture introduced a mobile wallet programme a digitized voucher distribution for subsidized fertilizer, or Smart Money. It is a saving-payment system and now also operates in Uganda and Tanzania. This solution substitutes cash payments in the entire value chain.
Large agribusinesses transfer electronic crop payments through Smart Money to e-wallets of intermediary buyers, who, in turn, also use the system to pay small farmers.
Large international companies are crucial players in this market. In recent years they have been focused on developing and introducing apps. For example, Monsanto offers “Climate Field View”,55 a digital agricultural platform that provides data on weather, soil and crops at field level to help with production decisions. DuPont Crop Protection developed a new “Tank Mix App”56 that helps farmers with calculation of products and water needed per tank or by area. Also, Bayer Crop Science in Germany offers apps for verification of 232 pests and 218 diseases in different crops, and also provides recommendations for applicable control measures. “Weed ID App”57 in the United Kingdom is implemented by BASF, with the main aim of identifying 140 weed species.
Moreover, BASF offers “Cereal Disease ID App”,58 which gives quick mobile access to information on 36 cereal diseases (information such as symptoms, life cycle, host, importance and control options).
In 2016, for users on the Android operating system there were 561 available apps related to agrifood activities. On the iOS operating system there were 589 apps. These apps can be divided into several categories: business and financial data, animal production, farm management (crops), pests and diseases, agricultural technology and innovation, agricultural machinery, spraying related activities, weather forecast, training, agricultural news and others (relevant to the agrifood sector).59
Table 3-2 shows the actual numbers by the end of 2016 for Android and iOS mobile apps for each category. As the Windows Phone was relatively new in 2016, it has only 42 mobile applications for the agricultural sector.
Many of these are displayed on more than one of the app stores. The most popular app is related to agricultural equipment and has been downloaded over 100 000 times (Costopoulou, Ntaliani and Karetsos, 2016).
3.1.4.2 Social media and agriculture Social media is a platform of engagement, and for agricultural producers the major reason for using such a platform is mass influence (Varner, 2012). It gives farmers a voice and an opportunity to directly connect with customers, which can help in direct marketing aiming to increase profits alongside facilitation of masspersonal communication (Carr and Hayes, 2015). To agriculture as an industry, the key values of communication provided by social media are peer-to-peer networking, farmer to processing industry to consumer engagement (Stanley, 2013). Sokoya, Onifade and Alabi (2012) opined that there is increasing use of social media among agricultural researchers, professionals and others stakeholders in the agricultural sector. Social media such as YouTube, Facebook, blogs, Wikis and podcasts provide large potential for use by extensionists, but the content and outreach must be determined based on users (Gharis et al., 2014).
Bhattacharjee and Saravanan, (2016) reported that a search on YouTube with the keyword “farming” gave about 300 000 hits, whereas the keyword “agriculture”
gave almost three times more hits, about 889 000, while
“agricultural extension” gave 10 400 hits.
In recent years, there has been trend for increased use of social media by farmers. “Farm selfies” are trending on Facebook. Bhattacharjee and Saravanan (2016) conducted a study of 62 countries, and found that Facebook was the most used social network among agriculture stakeholders (Figure 3-15). One of the largest
agriculture groups on Facebook is “Digital Farmers Kenya”, with 336 000 members, sharing good and promising practices for agriculture and food. Another is “Africa Farmers Club”, with 127 000 members, established by young, enthusiastic farmers, with the aim of bringing African farmers closer by sharing tips, experience, successful stories and encouragement.
Similar platforms exist in Southeast Europe, particularly in ex-Yugoslavian countries, and are equally successful.
The Facebook group “Dobra zemlja” has 124 000 members from the region, who share issues similar to those described for the platforms above.
Table 3-2 Agricultural Mobile Apps, 2016.
Category Android iOS
Business and financial
data 121 123
Animal production 65 65
Farm management (crops) 69 91
Pests and diseases 20 24
Agricultural technology
and innovation 73 88
Agricultural machinery 39 35
Spraying related activities 30 31
Weather forecast 18 17
Training 41 39
Agricultural news 41 46
Other 44 30
Total 561 589
Source: Costopoulou, Ntaliani and Karetsos, 2016.
Figure 3-15 Social media preferences among agriculture stakeholders (in percent), 2016.
Source: Bhattacharjee and Saravanan, 2016.
Note: Includes 62 countries.
70 60 50 40 30 20 10
0 Facebook Whatsapp Google+ Wikis Twitter Blogs YouTube
Social networks
Percentage of respondents
In addition to the social networks, digital tools (VoIP) such as WhatsApp are also used for interaction between agrivalue chain stakeholders. The Department of Agriculture in the Indian state of Karnataka has made it mandatory for agricultural development officials to have a smartphone so they can share information, messages and circulars through WhatsApp. Similar to Facebook, the WhatsApp group “Baliraja” allows farmers from different villages to seek and share agriculture advice as well as connect with experts in various fields and learn new practices.60
In 2017, MarketingtoFarmers.com61 reported that YouTube was the leading social network among farmers in the United States, where farmers were watching videos to acquire information on products and services for their farm (Figure 3-16).
In Australia, social media is commonly used to develop company images, market products and communicate with customers (ABS, 2017a). Relatively few farms report having a Web presence (6 percent) or a social media presence (5 percent), or both (2 percent), and this limited online presence of farms was also observed by the ABS (2017b). Across all sectors of the economy, agriculture, forestry and fishing had the lowest proportion
of businesses with a Web presence in 2015–2016 (12 percent, compared with 50 percent of all businesses) and the lowest proportion of businesses with a social media presence (11 percent, compared with 38 percent of all businesses) (Dufty and Jackson, 2018).
Rural Africa has experienced a particularly high uptake of ICT in the last 34 years (Jere and Erastus, 2015), which is changing the way farmers communicate and the way they access and exchange information, especially among younger generations (Odiaka,
2015). This fast penetration of ICT thus brings new opportunities for African farmers to improve their knowledge and livelihoods (Asongu, 2015; Aker and Mbiti, 2010).
High Internet cost and limited smartphone ownership cause limitations in information flow among farmers and restrict the agricultural support that can be achieved through social networks such as Facebook (Andres and Woodard, 2013). It is mostly farmers from Africa, Asia and other developing countries who are affected by these limitations. Additionally, information dissemination by farmers and agricultural extensionists at professional or organizational level through social media is still low, mainly because lack of awareness (Rhoades and Aue, 2010).
Figure 3-16 Social network use among farmers in the United States, 2017.
Source: MarketingToFarmers.com, 2017
Facebook Twitter
YouTube Pinterest
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
To find information
To share information/ideas
To discuss about a topic
To promote a new technology
To get suggestions from peers
Others
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Figure 3-17 Advantages of social media for gaining agricultural information (in percent), 2016.
Source: Bhattacharjee and Saravanan, 2016.
Uses of SM for agricultural informations
Percentage of respondents Note: Includes 62 countries.
3.1.5 ICTS FOR AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND