ICT works for Agriculture

• Nearly 50% of the population is employed in the agricultural sector, many on small family run farms but the country’s poor infrastructure, underinvestment, and constraining policies continue to challenge extension and advisory delivery in rural areas.
• Low access to farm inputs such as certified seeds and fertilizer limits the potential of rural farmers.
• Conventional public agricultural extension services need to shift from training and visit model to demand-driven, client-oriented agricultural advisory services
• Lack of use of ICT tools (radio, television, SMS, smart phone applications) in extension and advisory prevent farmers to access to reliable and rapid access to expert information support which is much needed in increasing food security, nutrition and resilience to climate shocks.
• Male bias in conventional agricultural extension strategies traditionally constraints affecting rural women’s ability to improve yield, profit, and efficiency in agriculture

Project Overview

TICmbay (combining “ICT” in French and “farming” in Wolof) leveraged the power of local radio and mobile phones to promote uptake of improved climate-smart agricultural technologies and practices to complement existing agriculture extension.

Location: 12 regions in Senegal

Project date: 2015-2019

Partners: United Purpose (formerly Concern Universal), SBC4D, Eclosio (formerly ADG), University of California, Santa Cruz-

Funding: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and other donors under Cooperative Agreement AID-OAA-A-15-00010 – New Alliance ICT Extension Challenge Fund in Senegal

• TICmbay leveraged trusted voices in local languages to deliver credible, accessible messages to hard-to-reach, last mile, farming households though interactive local language radio broadcasting combined with IVR voice messaging services (YouTalk, M-Alert)
• Local radio stations broadcast programs featuring local leaders and farmers discussing their experiences with the promoted agricultural technologies.
• TICmbay has succeeded in securing financially viable ICT services to over 800,000 rural men and women in 12 regions of Senegal This was achieved through the incorporation a social enterprise, Jokalante, which continues to provide ICT services to clients seeking to dialogue with hard -to-reach communities.