Use of ICT innovations to motivate youth in agriculture

Many farmers revealed that they wanted their children to move away  from agriculture – Reuters

Labour scarcity is a prominent issue in agriculture. This is clearly reflected in increasing labour prices. For paddy cultivation, on average a man-day will cost somewhere between Rs. 1,200 and Rs. 1,500. This includes meals and tea as well. Farmers note that a sufficient supply of labour is not there even at these high prices. 

In general retired labour is replaced by young labour. This is clearly seen in the government sector where youth are being hired to replace those who retire. However, agricultural labour is a bit different. It does not carry a defined retirement age but rather farmers will work as long as they are fit enough to do so. Therefore we could assume that agricultural labour will remain active labour for a longer time compared to other occupations such as government and private sector employment.  

Therefore to see labour scarcity even at these conditions is a proof of the significance of the issue. I have engaged with many farmers during my research work and the number goes beyond the thousands. However, conversations with old-timers reveal a common situation. The majority of them did not want their children to take up agriculture. 

A significant portion of them believed that a proper education would open new doors for their children to become government or private sector employees rather than farmers. The curious question now is ‘Why don’t farmers want their children to engage in agriculture?’ In order to answer this, one needs to understand the mindset of old-timers as well as their children. 

In-depth interviews with both groups have shed light on several issues and this has been the situation with other research work as well. In-depth interviews focused on three main areas: Identifying the common characters of farmers who oppose their children engaging in agriculture; farmers’ perspective on the necessary conditions for youth to be in agriculture; and the youth’s perspective on the necessary conditions for them to be involved in agriculture.  

The identification of farmers is important to understand where the youths come from. Farmers who argue against their children becoming farmers had several common characteristics: They were not commercial farmers; they operate on very small scales in terms of land, capital and other inputs; their level of mechanisation is low; their Information and communication (ICT) literacy was low; and they belong to areas with basic infrastructure. Backed by these characteristics, the popular view of the farmers was that agriculture is not a profitable venture anymore hence their children should move away from it. 

Therefore in a nutshell, farmers who operate at a lower level of economies of scale, with low ICT literacy living in very remote areas, hoped their children would move away from agriculture and find other forms of employment. However, this is not a very healthy situation since the majority of farmers in Sri Lanka share all or some of these characteristics.

The next question that should be asked of these farmers is ‘What should be there in order for you to recommend agriculture to your children?’ 

The majority of farmers expressed several key points: Their children want to be in commercial agriculture and they wanted close links with extension services; their children want mechanisation to be a main part of farming hence investing more money in machinery; their children lean more towards information hence they always prefer to know the input and output details. Once the farmers’ or parents’ side is heard it is important to hear the view of the children. 

The children of these farmers shared some interesting thoughts and ideas that will motivate them to stay in agriculture. The youth want to work with new technology. This technology ranged from high-level mechanisations to using the World Wide Web to find out details on input prices, output prices and other extension services. They believe ICT can fill the gaps created by limited physical infrastructures. These youth are ICT literate and far more technologically advanced than their parents. 

If the information from the farmers’ or parents’ side and the children’s side are collated it is clear that most of the conditions proposed by farmers or parents and children are on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in agriculture. Therefore an interesting proposition to focus on and analyse is ‘ICT innovations and youth in agriculture’.

Sri Lanka recently adopted the ‘E-agriculture strategy’, which the Department of Agriculture is spearheading. Therefore it is the best time to talk about encouraging youth to be in agriculture through the promotion of ICT technology. 

In order to do this, let me consider several important conditions suggested by the analysis of farmers or parents and children and see how ICT innovations can address that. The ICT innovations that are focused on here are predominantly ‘mobile-based applications’.

ICT innovations and market information

One of the main objectives of ICT innovations in agriculture is to bridge the information asymmetry gap. Market information in agriculture can cover many areas but the most important ones are input prices, output prices and input and output marketplaces (where to buy, how much is available, what brands are available, etc.). Mobile-based ICT intervention has the ability to create a database that is regularly updated and contains the necessary information on the above. 

The objective here is to make such a database “mobile-friendly”. We need to remember that every youth is not in a position to buy a computer or tablet. However, there are smart phones available at very reasonable prices. My experience is that a mobile that can enable a youth to engage with such a database would range from Rs. 8,000-Rs. 12,000. 

I argue that this is something affordable for a young farmer. I have seen many more expensive smart phones used by young farmers. 

There were several initiatives to formulate an online platform accessible through a smart phone, some of these are at the development stage and some are already at the testing stage with farmers. I do not wish to list these programs since I will not be doing them justice if I miss any of them. Rather I will highlight the two key elements of such a system, especially if these systems are to be youth-friendly. 

Firstly, it is important that this information is updated daily. Therefore there is lot to be done at the backend. Secondly, the ability to share the information online is critical. Youth are interested in sharing information online using platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Therefore it is essential that such activities are possible. 

ICT innovations in agricultural extensions

In the good old days the agricultural instructor (AI) and the farmer had a close connection. It still exists to a certain extent but I have repeatedly seen the broken links. This has to do with many reasons but I argue that agricultural instructors are simply overburdened with work. They have larger areas to cover and visiting all the farmers at their request might not be practical. 

This provides the basis for ICT to innovate the extension services. Let me provide an example. We are a quality conscious society therefore agricultural produce is subjected to many standards. Some of the main standards are Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Good Management Practices (GMP), ISO 9001, HACCP and ISO 22000. All this information is published but hardly any of it is digitised. While an old farmer might get a book from the department of agriculture, his younger peer might be interested in reading it online. Without simply uploading these documents to the relevant websites, it is possible to disseminate this information through a mobile application. What is ideal is a one-time download mobile application that contains the most essential information on the standards in a local language. Being a one-time download application is very important since data usage costs are quite high now. 

Another way to connect the agricultural instructor and the young farmer is through the use of SMS services. My emphasis here is not on the standard SMS service available on any phone. The focus is rather on an SMS platform that can accommodate several local languages, has a high number of characters and might also support a photo taken through a phone camera (Then it is fair to say it is an MMS). 

For example FrontlineSMS is a platform that is being used by many for such initiatives. This kind of initiative also provides youth with many other opportunities, such as the development of their leadership qualities. For example if all farmers start sending SMS/MMS to the agricultural instructor then it will be chaos to manage. Rather, such an initiative can train one youth who will offer leadership in that community and coordinate the information flow. The youth leader can be the intermediate link between the farmer and the agricultural instructor. Things like this could interest young farmers greatly. 

ICT innovations in agricultural microfinance

Microfinance has become a very integral part of agriculture. Research work shows that young farmers are more willing to take out loans and expand their agricultural enterprises, especially investing in machinery. 

Though informal sources do not include much paperwork, formal credit sources require plenty of paperwork and farmers must visit the credit institutions. The amount of paperwork and the delay is the same regardless of the size of the loan, hence the transaction cost is sometimes too high for a farmer (bigger loans sometimes might call for additional guarantors). This could push the farmer towards informal sources. A mobile-based application could well be a perfect solution for that. 

For example, it could provide a platform for the farmer to take a picture or scan (most smart phones come with scanning software) and upload the necessary documents such as national identity cards, birth and marriage certificates, copies of deeds, etc. An ICT-based innovation like this has the potential to motivate youth to be engaged in the formal credit process and make necessary investments. 

ICT-based weather and climate change products

Farming is closely linked with weather. Farmers are also interested in climate change. This includes the analysis of weather patterns and temperature patterns to look for any signs of heavy rains, floods, droughts, temperature rises, sea level rises and the rise of greenhouse gases. 

This information is essential for farmers in order for them to plan their cultivation seasons and to understand the climate change impact on crop production. Old-timers use their indigenous knowledge to deal with weather and climate change forecasting. However, young farmers are more interested in scientific information. Therefore it will be a great initiative if both indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge are combined and forecasting is done through an online mobile phone platform. This will increase the accuracy of the forecasting and the efficiency of information transfer. It will also be perfect for youth. 

Summary

ICT-based innovation in agriculture is for everybody. Access to these technologies should not be restricted based upon age. But it is important that we look at adaptability with such an innovation. 

Research has shown that in many instances ICT adaption is high among the youth. Therefore I believe it is fair to assume that the youth will be more receptive to ICT innovations in agriculture. My experience is that when an ICT innovation is introduced to an old-timer he or she will always ask us to explain the same thing to his younger children. This is because the farmer knows it could interest their children. Therefore when youth moving away from agriculture is an issue, why not develop ICT solutions that motivate and engage them? 

At the end of the day it could be a win-win situation. Imagine a young farmer motivated by ICT innovations and engaging in agriculture but at the same time becoming a technology steward for his family or village. Isn’t that an optimal solution? 

(The author is an economist dealing with agriculture and the environment. This article is based on field research involving vegetable growers in many parts of the country. He can be reached at [email protected] or on 94779867007).