ZAMBIA NATIONAL FARMERS UNION. THE ZNFU SUBMISSIONS ON THE ROLE OF ICTs IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

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1 ZAMBIA NATIONAL FARMERS UNION THE ZNFU SUBMISSIONS ON THE ROLE OF ICTs IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SUBMITTED TO THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS, TRANSPORT, WORKS AND SUPPLY 4 TH JANUARY P a g e

2 1.0 INTRODUCTION Honourable Chairman, this submission is in response to a request made by your Committee through a letter dated 7 th October 2015 where ZNFU was asked to submit a detailed memorandum on the Role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in National Development, and specifically addressing the following questions: a. How effective is the National ICT Policy on the accessibility of ICT services? b. What benefits have been derived through the use of ICTs in the agricultural sector? c. What initiatives has government put in place to, if any to increase the accessibility of ICTs in Communities? d. What challenges, if any are faced by ICT consumers, in the agricultural sector? 2.0 NATIONAL ICT POLICY The 2006 national ICT Policy recognizes that Agriculture is the economic backbone for many Zambians especially in rural areas; and as such it plays an important role in the social and economic development of the country. Agriculture sector accounts for a significantly high proportion of the GDP and acts as the main source of employment and income in peri-urban and rural areas where the majority of Zambians reside. The national ICT s policy goal is to improve productivity as well as competitiveness of the agricultural sector through the use of ICTs in the planning, implementation, monitoring and the information delivery process. In order to achieve the above policy goal, the national ICT policy has the following objectives: 1) To facilitate the development of a diversified and competitive agricultural sector that produces to meet the nation s food requirements while contributing to export earnings; 2) To promote and support rural development in order to achieve long term growth in the agricultural sector and the economy as a whole; 3) To increase the competitiveness of farmers in production, processing and marketing of agricultural products and services through the utilization of ICTs; 4) To monitor the conservation and sustainable utilization of natural resources in the agricultural production process; 5) To promote the development of ICT entrepreneurs at SME level as part of the rural agro- business industry development and strengthen the development, application of ICTs in agriculture. 2 P a g e

3 The ICT policy also highlights a number of strategies aimed at achieving the above outlined objectives and these include: Create an integrated agricultural information system on agro-technologies and techniques, pricing and market information for all agro products in order to provide strategic information for farmers, government authorities, and other stakeholders at national, provincial and district levels; Undertake intensive ICT awareness campaigns for all types of farmers in the use of traditional and new ICT tools at all levels; Intensify the use of Radio and TV programmes and integrate new technologies as a means to reach extension workers and farmers alike; Develop weather and agro-meteorology early warning systems to support agricultural production and predict as well as prevent disasters; Develop incentives for deployment of affordable ICT solutions to support rural connectivity of farmers especially those within the catchments of existing ICT infrastructure; Develop and promote ICT skills development among agricultural extension workers and farmers; Develop database systems and applications including Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to support agricultural input resource management as well as to support land and water resource management, environmental monitoring and impact assessment; crop yield assessment and livestock management among others; Develop a monitoring and evaluation system for the conservation and sustainable utilization of natural resources in the agricultural production process; and Promote two-way information dissemination to support the physical and socio-economic planning processes in the agricultural system. The 2006 national ICT policy was the basis on which the current ICT Act of 2009, and the 2010 ICT Amendment Act was enacted by parliament BENEFITS OF ICTs IN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR There a number of benefits that accrue from embracing ICTs in the Agriculture sector at both individual farmer level and the country as a whole. Farmers now need real time information on weather and commodity price trends for better planning and execution of agricultural business decisions. Some of the key benefits of ICTs in agriculture are as outlined below: a) Access to real time commodity data and information; 3 P a g e

4 ICTs such as mobile phones are currently playing a crucial role in the agriculture sector in Zambia and the world over by providing farmers access to market information, which is vital for commodity pricing, and trade facilitation thereby raising farmers income levels. ZNFU 4455 market and price information system is one good example. Farmers are also able to access weather information on mobile phones and this helps them adapt to climate change challenges. b) Reduced transaction costs due to electronic payment solutions; ICTs have revolutionized the traditional way of paying for goods and services extended to farmers by agro-dealers across the country by using electronic visa card to settle payments in real time. This reduces the risk of handling cash by farmers who in most cases have to move long distances to access banking facilities in districts. The ZNFU Visa Card Platform facilitating the Lima Credit Scheme and the FISP E-Voucher pilot is another good example here. Over 218,000 farmers are accessing inputs using visa cards over point of sale terminals. c) Mobile-based extension; Extension services have also benefited from the advent of ICTs, which enables farmers to access information of disease diagnosis and prevention through mobile phones. The ZNFU is already implementing an ICT platform where farmers are able to access information on livestock/crop diseases through e-extension using mobile phones. Using this platform, farmers are able to communicate to a veterinary doctor in the district without the farmer travelling to Lusaka for veterinary help. d) Inclusion of the unbanked farmers into the financial system; The adoption of the various ICT platforms such as mobile phone banking has also incentivised most small-scale farmers to open bank accounts with commercial banks which has in turn increased the financial inclusion of the agriculture sector. Currently, most commercial banks in Zambia are offering mobile banking services and a large number of small scale farmers have jumped on-board. e) Development of a national electronic database base for farmers and crop inventory through GPS technology; Mobile electronic gadgets are also fitted with camera and Global Positioning System (GPS), which enables service providers to obtain secure information of the clients (farmers) in terms of photographs and actual farm location. ZNFU and 4 P a g e

5 Government are using this technology in the administration of the pilot e-card for FISP. Using this device, government has been able to wed out ghost farmers under the FISP programme who were abusing tax payers money. In addition, the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) provides a cost effective and efficient tool for conducting crop inventory. The Zambia National farmers Union has so far conducted crop inventories for wheat, barley and sugar cane for three consecutive seasons and this has helped to accurately determine production levels of these crops. The results of such surveys have been used to inform agriculture policy pertaining to the three crops. f) Weather Indexing Insurance; Crop failure resulting from weather variability or climate change has continued to affect agriculture productivity in Zambia. Weather shocks can trap farmers and household into poverty and conventional crop or livestock insurance, which relies on direct measurement of loss, or damage suffered by a farmer is normally costly and inefficient. Therefore, the use of ICT in weather-indexed insurance (WII) eliminates the need for field assessments and responds to an objective parameter, which is measurement of rainfall or temperature. ZNFU successfully piloted the use of WII on its input loan scheme, the Lima Credit Scheme during the 2014/2015 farming season. In order for farmers to mitigate against adverse weather effects such as droughts or floods, insurance companies are now riding on ICT platforms to offer weather index insurance to crop farmers. Weather Index Insurance uses camera and GPS coordinates to capture and identify farmers affected by droughts or floods in order to effect pay-outs to affected farmers. g) E-Transport solutions Use of ICT solutions such as the electronic Transport information system (Transzam) designed by the ZNFU help to improve the effectiveness of inputs and food chain logistics by providing information on available transport fleet. Transzam is an example of a unique cross-matching system linking loads to vehicles and vehicles to loads making it easier for a transport companies to obtain load and for a client to obtain a delivery. 5 P a g e

6 4.0. GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES TO INCREASE ACCESS TO ICTs IN COMMUNITIES Government has undertaken initiatives to increase access to ICTs in communities at different levels. Some of these initiatives include: 1. Erection of telecommunication towers through ZICTA to increase mobile network coverage in rural areas. 2. Adoption of Zedu pads by government in public schools to enhance ICTbased education at primary school level. 3. Introduction of computer subjects in government schools. 4. Promotion of the fibre optic cable to improve the quality of network connectivity across the country. 5. Distribution of 800 ipads to ministry of agriculture extension workers facilitate data collection, monitoring and extension services within the framework of e- governance initiative. Despite these few initiatives by government, ICT consumers in Zambia, and the agriculture sector in particular are still constrained by a number of challenges CHALLENGES FACED BY ICT CONSUMERS IN AGRICULTURE SECTOR ICT consumers in the agriculture sector in Zambia are facing a number of challenges that inhibit them from accessing a wide range of information technologies that are vital in improving productivity among farmers. Some of these challenges are as outlined below: a) Low levels of access to internet services. Despite the policy pronouncement by government to achieve universal access to internet services, Zambia s internet connectivity is still poor currently at 17% even lower that of regional competitor s such as Kenya and South Africa with internet penetration rates of 43.40% and 49% respectively 1. At these abysmally low levels of internet connectivity, farmers in Zambia are still facing high information and communication transaction costs which make them unable to compete with farmers from other countries in the region and beyond. 1 International Telecommunications Union database (2015). 6 P a g e

7 Source: International Telecommunications Union database (2015). b) High poverty levels in rural areas Due to high incidences of poverty in rural areas where agriculture is the main economic activity, only 38.8% of rural population actively use mobile phones for the communication compared to 68.3% 2 in urban areas. Governments still needs to develop interventions that would accelerate adoption and use of mobile phones by the majority of people in rural areas in order to reduce their information and communication costs and increase production efficiencies. c) High levels of illiteracy in rural areas Due to high levels of illiteracy, most people in rural areas have not yet accepted and embraced the different feats of technologies that are available on the markets. The Union has witnessed a number instances where some FISP beneficiaries under the pilot e-voucher system resisted to be taken photographs. d) Lack of incentives for deployment of affordable ICT solutions to support rural connectivity of farmers One of the biggest challenges facing potential ICT consumers is the high cost of equipment and broadband services. The Capital cost of designing mobile phone based applications and ongoing maintenance costs are high. Similarly, the cost of hardware equipment like personal computers or television sets is still out of reach for the majority of Zambians. 2 ZICTA (2015). Survey on access and usage of Information and Communication Technology by households and individuals in Zambia. 7 P a g e

8 Lack of incentives to invest in the different feats of ICTs has a contributed to the low adoption rate of ICTs among farmers across the country. Mobile phones and other related electronic gadgets still attract VAT by the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) making it costly for farmers to acquire them. Further, most rural areas have poor networks which makes it difficult for consumers to use mobile phones efficiently. e) Unreliable power supply Lack of accessible telecoms and power infrastructure in rural areas limits available choice for new ICTs. Some parts of the country have no mobile phone coverage and this limits the type of ICT tools that can be introduced and rolled out in such areas. ZICTA in its 2015 ICT Survey report estimates that only 33.1 percent of the households in the country are accessing power from the national grid. The recent power deficit problems have also not helped the situation. Financial ICT innovations are also not accessible in some parts of the country due to poor infrastructure as services like ATM and point of Sale machines need mobile of internet connectivity to be able to function WAYFORWARD Going forward, the Union is recommending the following interventions to speedup deployment and adoption of ICTs in agriculture sector in order to improve competitiveness and increase productivity: 8 P a g e 1. Government should increase access to ICT hardware and software by zero rating VAT: Currently ICTs such as mobile phones attract VAT and therefore costly for most small scale farmers to access. 2. Government should intensify efforts to sensitize rural communities on the benefits of adopting ICTs in improving their livelihoods. The Ministry of Education should include ICT teaching in schools and address the shortage of ICT skills among teachers. 3. Government should speed up development of ICT infrastructure across the country to ensure equitable access to ICT technologies among citizens. One example is for government and private sector to collaborate in establishment of telecentres in rural areas, offering ICT access and training. 4. Promote Research and Development in ICTs in order to stimulate innovation. Government should provide an enabling environment to

9 encourage local software developers to develop small-scale packages that are suitable for local market conditions. 5. Bring in 4 th mobile operator to inject completion and fair pricing, i/e/ affordability 6. Upgrade the existing communication tower infrastructures to ensure good cell phone and internet/data coverage 7. Encourage service providers to create closed user groups for farmers to help reduces user fees END 9 P a g e