Banner image: Brenda Ronoh, NPA Kenya Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Officer, checks out the latest training sessiongs on the DigiCow app.


How do you get up-to-date information about agricultural best practices to millions of farmers speaking dozens of languages in multiple countries? Agricultural research organizations have spent decades researching the best grasses, legumes, and grains to feed dairy cattle, but getting that information out of the lab and to the farmers who need it can be challenging. Most dairy cattle in East Africa are owned by smallholder farmers — meaning any outreach program needs to reach millions of farmers to have a significant impact. What’s more, these farmers are often faced with the challenge of poor road infrastructure, which limits their access to in-person advisory services from extension agents.

East Africa has seen a huge increase in availability of smartphones, which has made it easier for farmers to access information and markets through internet browsers, social media, and a growing collection of apps aimed at digital extension. However, there is a concerning risk of leaving behind farmers who only have access to feature phones (simple cellphones without internet access), who are more likely to be women. The Nourishing Prosperity Alliance (NPA) project is working with local digital service providers to amplify the benefits of digital extension to inclusively reach farmers with up-to-date information to improve nutrition for their dairy cattle. By working with local tech changemakers, NPA is building access to information, high-quality inputs, and specialized equipment through innovative solutions that fit the diverse needs of farmers.

Access to Information

In Ethiopia, access to smartphones is still somewhat limited, but that hasn’t stopped NPA from building partnerships to help reach farmers digitally. Since smallholder farmers in Ethiopia may have less access to the internet on their phones, Interactive Voice Recording (IVR) technology makes getting answers to questions about dairy farming as easy as a phone call with a friend available at any time of day. NPA is working with the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI)  in Ethiopia, which already runs a popular IVR hotline that answers questions and provides on-demand information to food farmers. By adding information in seven local languages about growing, feeding, and accessing seeds or already grown feed for 12 kinds of climate smart forages, NPA is expanding ATI’s outreach to help dairy farmers.

NPA is also working to build Kenyan farmers ability to access information and trainings by partnering with DigiCow, a woman-owned Kenyan agri-tech company. The company hosts multiple apps that help connect smallholder dairy farmers to information about improving their farms as well as access to digital record-keeping tools.

While farmers with smartphones can access these resources directly on their devices, extra effort is needed to reach all farmers with these vital resources. That’s why DigiCow trains and supports a network of digital farmer assistants, rural community members who help bridge the digital divide for their neighbors with less access to technology. The digital farmer assistants are equipped with a small Bluetooth speaker and additional training, which allows them to host small farmer gatherings to listen to pre-recorded audio trainings in Swahili and lead discussions on the material. Through this network of community members, NPA hopes to train over 6,000 farmers in dairy nutrition, improved forage production, and basic business skills over the next year. Having the training sessions available in a widely spoken local language, hosted within the community, and available to all regardless of smartphone ownership ensures production-improving information can reach a much larger, more diverse group of farmers.



DigiCow representatives Daisy and Delvis explain how to use the application.
 

Access to Digital Marketplaces

NPA is also building digital extension capacities in Ethiopia through participation in a consortium with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Alliance Bioversity International – CIAT, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), GIZ, the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture, and others. The consortium has built a software tool that aims to digitize Ethiopia’s seed system, linking seed producers and users. While the tool originally focused on traditional food crop seeds, NPA has helped expand the tool to include forage seed producers, meaning dairy producers can more easily grow nutritionally dense grasses and legumes to feed their cattle. Expanding digital resources for access to high-quality seeds should help eliminate barriers to access and reach more farmers with new and improved varieties.

Access to Specialized Equipment

In both Kenya and Ethiopia, NPA is partnering with Hello Tractor, a digital startup that has been described as the ridesharing app of farm equipment. Farmers and ag dealers who own tractors, ploughs, harvesting and conservation equipment, and other agricultural equipment can loan the equipment through the Hello Tractor app, either directly to farmers with smartphones or through community-based booking agents, who support farmers without the smartphone app. Without this equipment, farmers may struggle to conserve forages to feed their cattle year-round, so NPA hopes to support Hello Tractor’s work to expand availability and ensure farmers have better access to forage conservation equipment by increasing providers on the platform offering these kinds of equipment. NPA and Hello Tractor are linking digital and physical by hosting farmer field days, where participating farmers can learn how to use different kinds of silage making equipment to conserve their forages, both at Hello Tractor’s community hubs and at NPA’s forage demonstration sites.

From an automated phone line capable of answering farmer questions in Ethiopia to easily digestible audio trainings in Kenya to an app that can bring silage making equipment to farmers’ doorsteps, NPA is supporting locally led digital development efforts. For many dairy farmers, this means they are now able to have the information they need to feed their cows right at their fingertips. Critically, these partnerships are also ensuring no farmer is left behind due to lack of technology literacy or access. The Nourishing Prosperity Alliance is part of a movement to use digital technologies to meet farmers where they are and build their ability to feed their cows better, produce more milk, and have more sustainable livelihoods.  

About NPA: The Nourishing Prosperity Alliance leverages a unique private sector-led approach to build a market for climate-smart, nutrient dense forage in East Africa. By bringing together implementing partners ILRI, Corteva Agriscience, and Forage Genetics International alongside local partners, NPA is strengthening inclusive forage markets, increasing productivity and profitability of forages, and reducing emissions intensity of East African dairy.