ICT in Agriculture e-Sourcebook
Connecting Smallholders to Knowledge,
Networks, & Institutions
www.ICTinagriculture.org
Motivation for book
Agricultural
Context
• Centrality of agriculture to
development
• Challenges facing agriculture
ICT Context
• The rise of rural connectivity
• Enormous diversity of on-theground implementations
---ICTs hold great promise for transforming agriculture, but research and
lessons learned are scattered and often anecdotal--www.ICTinAgriculture.org
Creating Sustainable
Businesses
in the Knowledge Economy
www.ICTinAgriculture.org
Expanding Our Knowledge
THE SOURCEBOOK IS:
• Two-year long effort to synthesize and develop reliable information
about the impact of ICTs on agriculture and projects around the
world
• Effort to spark enthusiasm about promising applications and tools
• Contributions from 50+ experts (internal and external)
• Over 200 examples from five regions (including OECD countries)
• Easy to use, modular structure—aimed at agriculture sub-sectors
• Challenges, key enablers, lessons learned...
THE SOURCEBOOK IS NOT:
• A cookbook!
• An academic paper!
• A policy report!
www.ICTinAgriculture.org
Module Topics
Cross-Cutting Themes
Access & Affordability
Markets & Value Chains
The Role of Mobiles
Supply Chain Inclusion
Gender Equality
Risk Management
Enhancing Productivity
Food Safety & Traceability
Increasing Productivity
Public Service Provision
Agricultural Innovation
Systems
Governance &
Participation
Financial Services
Land Administration
Farmer Organizations
Forest Governance
Agricultural Marketing
www.ICTinAgriculture.org
Sourcebook includes:
Key Findings and Themes
• Focus on the demand for services, not the technology
• Understand your users and their constraints (e.g.
language, time availability, literacy)
• The enabling environment matters
• Sustainable business models, partnerships and scalability
• Be aware of differential impacts (e.g. including gender, age,
socio economic status)
• Smart and higher capacity tools becoming more affordable
www.ICTinAgriculture.org
www.ICTinAgriculture.org
What’s next at the World Bank?
• Module on operational challenges
• Developing Regional Task Force
• e-Fora on selected topics with FAO e-agriculture community (first
one on “Strengthening Markets” conducted in December)
• Continuing updates of emerging good practices and lessons
learned on the website
-----> GOAL: enhanced development efficiency and effectiveness
through mainstreaming of ICT in agriculture operations
www.ICTinAgriculture.org