UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM

COLLEGE OF ICT

CS336
Trends and Social-Cultural
Implications of Information
Technology
 Content
 Introduction to Course
 Computer Information and Communication
Technologies
 Computer and Agriculture
 Computer and Health
 Computer and Water Supply
 General Impact of computers
 Trends in development of IT
 Future of Computer Technology with AI
Introduction: Agriculture in Tanzania
 Almost 70 percent of population live in rural.

 Almost all of them are involved in the farming

sector i.e. the main economic activity in Tanzania
is Agriculture.

 By 2016 - Tanzania had over 44 million hectares of

arable land, only 33 percent is cultivated.

 Agricultural activities are largely contributing to

the country's foreign exchange earnings
Introduction: Agriculture in Tanzania
 Agricultural products contributes more than US$1
billion in earnings from cash crop exports
annually
 There seven 7 main cash crops:-
1) Coffee
2) Sisal
3) Cashew nuts
4) Tea
5) Cotton
6) Tobacco
7) Pyrethrum
Introduction: Agriculture in Tanzania
 Distribution of agricultural products in
Tanzania:-
Introduction: Agriculture in Tanzania
 Distribution of agricultural products in
Tanzania:-
Trends: Agriculture in Tanzania
 Agricultural land increase from 369,744sq.km in 2008 to
396,500sq.km in 2013, 7% increase over 5–year period
Trends: Agriculture in Tanzania
 Crop production rose by 44% during 2008 – 2013.

 Crop production beat Sub-Saharan Africa average

crop production growth rate of 18% during the same
period.

 Livestock production rose by 33% during 2008 –

2013.

 Livestock production exceeding the Sub-Saharan

Africa average livestock production growth rate of
11% during the same period.
 (Source: The World Bank’s crop production index)
Impact: Agriculture in Tanzania
 By 2015, almost 70% population engage in Agriculture
 Contribute only 29% of GDP of Tanzania.
Impact: Agriculture in Tanzania
 The impact in agriculture sector has affected by
various challenges.
o Lack of finances.
o Lack of farming education leading to subsistence
farming
o Poor adoption of agricultural technology
o Poor farming efficiency.
o Farm sizes remain very small with an average plot size
around 2.5 ha.
o Droughts, floods, and agriculture temperature shocks
o Pests and disease
Impact: Agriculture in Tanzania
 These challenges have severely impacted the
economy:-
o Decreased export revenues

o Increased trade and budget deficits

 The governments have set strategies to increase

productivity in agriculture.

 One strategies is integration of agricultural activities

with technologies to increase yields of crops.
ICT in Agriculture
 Technology projects for agriculture have targeted
to improve:-
o Agriculture research institutions (ARIs)
o Extension officers
o Government officials or
o Directly target farmers to improve provision of
information about weather, crops, and market data

 The governments have set initiatives to integrate

ICT into agriculture to increase productivity.
ICT in Agriculture
 Various stakeholders have partnered with Government
in fostering ICT4D projects for agriculture.

 Approach: ICT4D projects encourage development of

social informatics by evaluating the feasibility of
existing technologies rather than designing new ones.

 Purpose: ICT4D integrates design science research in

order to construct technological solutions that are
adaptive to the needs of local community.
ICT in Agriculture
 Key dimensions of ICT’s potential contribution
to agriculture and rural development
1. Increasing smallholder productivity and incomes e.g.
 Reuters Market Light, India;

 Life Lines, India;

 Mali Shambani interactive radio program, Kenya;

 National Farmers Information Service, Kenya

ICT in Agriculture
 Key dimensions of ICT’s potential contribution
to agriculture and rural development
2. Making agricultural markets more efficient and

transparent
 Esoko/TradeNet;
 Jenny Aker research on mobile impact on grain

markets in Niger;
 Kenya Agricultural Commodities Exchange;
 Xam Marse, Senegal.
ICT in Agriculture
 Key dimensions of ICT’s potential contribution
to agriculture and rural development

3. Linking poor farmers to urban, regional and global

markets

4. Improving services and governance for the rural poor

5. Promoting – and including smallholders in –

agricultural innovation

6. Helping farmers manage a range of risks

ICT in Agriculture
 Key dimensions of ICT’s potential contribution
to agriculture and rural development
7. Improving land and natural resource management and

addressing environmental pressures

8. Helping poor farmers participate in higher-value

agriculture

9. Supporting the emergence of a more diverse rural

economy, and supporting rural family decisions about

their mix of productive activities

ICT in Agriculture
 ICT4D projects in Agriculture in TZ (Nyanya ni Pesa):
o An ICT4D project to smallholder tomato farmers in Iringa.

o Target to increase productivity and easier access to markets.

o Use smartphone to collect data from early production stage to

harvest stage.

o Educate how to prepare seedbeds, best seed to use, apply

fertilizers for positive impact, and how to plant.

o Updates on market prices to farmers to make them aware of

details on the market.
ICT in Agriculture: The Evidence Gap in ICT4D
 What works? How do we know?
o The relatively recent penetration/adaptation of mobile services
in rural areas means that we still rely heavily on anecdote and
pilot “successes”, although more robust evidence/analysis is
starting to emerge (including the other presentations in this
session!)

o Shifting the focus of analysis from access and use to impact

o The inherent challenges in drawing robust conclusions about

ICT’s impact (mobile phones are not like vaccines), and the
(often-difficult) strategies for addressing these challenges (e.g.
randomization)
ICT in Agriculture: The Evidence Gap in ICT4D
 What lessons can we draw from a “success”?
o Thinking about which lessons to draw from the Kerala
fisheries case study

o The challenge of teasing out the contribution of other

enabling conditions

o “Success” of a pilot does not automatically equal

“solution” to the problem the pilot was trying to
address
ICT in Agriculture: The Evidence Gap in ICT4D
 “Replication” and its ambiguities: cautionary questions at
the design and implementation stages
o Is replication applying the same ICT intervention, effecting the same desired
change (e.g. in resources, capacities, networks), or achieving the same
outcome (e.g. productivity, incomes, price stability) ?

o How much do local context, local enabling conditions and local practices
matter?

o The importance of making explicit the “theory of change” behind an

intervention (and of having one in the first place!)

o The added challenge/opportunity of rapid innovation in ICT

devices/applications/services and the peril of replicating yesterday’s success

o Duplicating innovation or re-creating the conditions for innovation elsewhere?

ICT in Agriculture: The Evidence Gap in ICT4D
 The puzzle of “scale”
o Since many ICT interventions begin as pilots, the challenge of knowing
what and how to “scale” is particularly troublesome.

o At the pilot level, was the intervention a “workaround” of a problem that,

at scale, should be addressed differently?

o Will the impact change (or wash out) at scale?

o At scale, would a different intervention be more effective at achieving the

desired result? Even a non-technological intervention? (e.g. policy
changes, shift in public finance priorities, institutional capacity, etc.)

o Letting the market (for innovation) decide: creating the conditions for
multiple solutions to emerge and compete (particularly given the rapid
pace of technological change) – engineering the enabling conditions for
innovation rather than engineering the innovations
ICT in Agriculture
 ICT4D projects in Agriculture in TZ :
o Need for more ICT4D projects.

o Need for awareness campaigns of available

solutions.

o Need for youth engagement into innovative

solutions.

o Need for mobile revolution for agriculture

Mobile Revolution in Agriculture
(Importance)
 Why is the mobile revolution so important
for agriculture and rural development:

1. The vicious circle of rural poverty

o Physical isolation;
o poor infrastructure;
o few services;
o few assets;
o weak access to appropriate and affordable inputs
Mobile Revolution in Agriculture
(Importance)
 Why is the mobile revolution so important
for agriculture and rural development:

2. The significant intangible dimensions of rural

poverty
o Weak access to information and communication;
o poorly-functioning markets and institutions;
o poor knowledge flows;
o weak opportunities for collective action;
o high information and transaction costs
Mobile Revolution in Agriculture
(Importance)
 Why is the mobile revolution so important
for agriculture and rural development:

3. The growing challenges, and opportunities, of “the new

Agriculture”
o The growing importance of timely information and
response
o The increasing integration of regional and global
agricultural value chains
o The volatility of commodity markets and the
challenge of food security
Mobile Revolution in Agriculture
(Importance)
 Why is the mobile revolution so important
for agriculture and rural development:
4. The virtuous circle of access, affordability, appliance innovation
and applications
o Access: the growing mobile coverage of developing country
populations thanks to innovations in network design, hardware,
financing

o Affordability: the combination of pre-paid service and cheaper

devices

o Appliance innovation: multi-format, multi-function

o Applications: the unanticipated virtues of low-tech (SMS)

Mobile Revolution in Agriculture (Approaches)

 The Best Interventions begin with a proper

definition of the problem and clear design
principles
1. The problem is not “lack of ICT” but focus on the information,
communication, transaction, monitoring and/or networking
dimensions of the problem being addressed, and how ICT –
appropriately adapted and sustainably deployed – can assist

2. When thinking about “M”, focus on mobility, not mobiles

3. Be clear about when and why mobility is a virtue (timeliness?

customization? empowerment? Multi-directionality?)
Mobile Revolution in Agriculture (Approaches)

 The Best Interventions begin with a proper

definition of the problem and clear design
principles
4. Focus on applications/services, not devices (“access” to
what?)

5. The importance of “platform agnosticism”

6. The newest tool or application is not automatically the best

Mobile Revolution in Agriculture (Approaches)

 The Best Interventions begin with a proper

definition of the problem and clear design
principles
7. The vital importance of a locally-contextual understanding of
the rural information economy in a given place and its
constraints. How is information -- broadly defined -- produced,
valued, exchanged and consumed in a given context? How
can mobiles and/or other ICTs promote innovation and
improvement in that information economy? (ICTs don’t
produce valuable information; people, markets, firms and
institutions do.)
Mobile Revolution in Agriculture (Approaches)

 The Best Interventions begin with a proper

definition of the problem and clear design
principles
8. The importance of thinking about policy and regulation in a
cross-sectoral way – many of the key enablers of success
in using ICT in ARD entail several different areas of policy
and regulation