Promoting Agriculture through Tech Savvy and Access: Training the Bambui Farmers of Tomorrow

I notice that young farmers were generating a lot traffic on social media but were not doing anything particularly beneficial for themselves or their environment. So I founded my centre to train farmers also and to reach out to young people in my community by helping them learn about the opportunities that would open up for them if they were to study ICTs then pursue careers in agriculture, further their education either in the arts or sciences.

The “Ngong” Project in Bambui which trains the Bambui farmers of tomorrow is still expecting funding for the training of these farmers in ICTs. ICTs are very important because they are enabling the results of agricultural research to be delivered to an increasing number of end users some of whom are, in turn, suitably empowered by ICTs so that they can provide researchers with updated information on progress of their crops, appearance of pests and diseases.

I have been working at Tobby Vision Computers, an ICT school for 14 years now and have partnerships with Mendel Foundation a community- based organization for educational support to the underprivileged and protection of the environment, collaborating with Reignite Action for Development (RAD) Cameroon, a local branch of a UK charity, providing a multi-sectoral and holistic approach to natural resource management to the local community and Community Based Extension Common Initiative Group COBEX) all involved in agricultural practices. Since ICTs are now being applied to all parts of agricultural research in the development sector, connecting Tobby Vision Computers programmes with agricultural and rural change is a programme that is struggling to gain momentum when funding would be available for the Bambui farmers of tomorrow.

Many Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in Bambui and environs carry out their work at remote sites and collect field data manually, processing this data only when they return to their offices and this process naturally increase the risk of error. Today, more and more researchers are able to access data sources remotely using a mobile phone, notebook or tablet, for immediate submission via internet to a project data repository or sharing with collaborators.

Bambui–Tubah small farmholders are turning to the mobile phones to connect to agricultural and information services and markets. They are in need of smart phones, notebooks, tablets and hand held data capture devices. Tobby Vision Computers partner CBOs are using its centre to facilitate research by providing information to scientists about the condition of the land and crops. The increasing need for access to accurate geospatial data for application in diverse range of development activities (agricultural, disaster, conservation, climate change and economic development) has resulted in the advent of Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies.

We believe access to ICTs is a human right and its skills can enable communities into seeing that working together helps them to discover and put in place better, more sustainable solutions for a more food secure future. It is important that agricultural researchers’ work is disseminated to as many end users as possible and ICTs are an important tool for doing this.

There is no community radio in Tubah Sub Division broadcasting for the community even though traditional.

A management expect explains that several research studies are done without including farmers, who in the final analysis are the intended beneficiaries of the research results. Tobby Vision Computers and a community based radio can address this disconnect as the Tubah community radio will provide an excellent opportunity for mutual collaboration between agricultural research and development experts and farmers.

ICTs can help researchers to interact with farmers. The challenge lies in finding the traditional and new communication technologies, trainings, for stakeholders to be interactive, through using facilities like call–ins, call–outs, SMS, voice messages, interactive voice response, facilitated listening and web base platforms. Hearing about #DevicesforGood – a project of #MentorNations we believe visualize devices for good agripreneurs which would include a community radio in Tubah Sub Division.