Day 2: The National Agricultural Education Show

The activity was aimed at further skilling and training farmers on the use of digital tools like the ICT4Farmers mobile app for access to a market of the exhibited products to other people, and easy communication with the products sellers and product buyers.  Better and safer record keeping. ICT4Farmers record keeping and farm management module is a service on the mobile app that helps farmer better manage their farm activity record, financial record, and production record for all the value chain stages of farming. Pre-production, Production, and Post-production or post-harvest.

The exhibitors at the agricultural show were trained on how to download the app from the google play store, sign up and upload their products on the mobile app market access services, when products are uploaded different people will express their interests in products and contact the product owners by chart or by a call.

The objective for doing this was to easy access to product sellers since the show ground is very big and people couldn’t reach all the stalls. People would therefore log in to the app and order for the products they want. The app also helped to get in touch with the owners of the products with ease.

The exhibitors were also shown how to use the farmers’ toll-free call center services for any inquiries and the e-agricultural for agriculture content and training.

The show also had students from different schools who were given education about ICT and the role of technology in the social-economic development of the country.

THE IVR SERVICES (CALL CENTER).

The toll-free call Centre number (0800209003) supports the 5 major languages which include; English (1), Luganda (2), Runyakitara (3), Swahili (4), and Luo (5) the system offers Agricultural support for various value chains namely Animal husbandry, crop husbandry, fisheries, and forestry. Therefore, the people at the agricultural education show learned how to use the call center to seek information using the call Centre services and also encouraged training and promote the use of the service among the farmers.

E-Agriculture Academy.

E-Agric academy is the mode of delivery of learning and training through digital devices for the farmers. This makes it easy for farmers to learn anytime, anywhere, with few, if any, restrictions. Basically, an e-agriculture academy is a platform for training, learning, or education delivered online through a computer or any other digital device for the smallholder farmer.  The exhibitors and students were trained about how to use the e-agriculture academy to access the training materials on Agriculture.

To access the e-agriculture academy ensure that you have internet access on your laptop, computer or smartphone and load any web browsers. Type https://academy.unffeict4farmers.org/ and please enter to access the system on your device

ICT4Farmers Mobile App

The ICT4Farmers Mobile app was downloaded and used to train and demonstrate the market access service, uploading products on the market, press orders, chart and make phone calls. The mobile app helped to bridge a gap between exhibitors/sellers and people that were buying or want to learn about what was exhibited. They used the app to communicate and reach out to the exhibitors. Also, farm records management was trained and farmers learned how to use the ICT4Farmers to manage their farm activities and monitor their workers.

1. Exhibitor/farmers training on ICT4Farmers App.
2. Exhibitor/farmers profiling on the e-agriculture academy.
3. Product upload and marketing on the ICT4Farmers app marketplace.
4. Training students about ICT and the role of technology in social and economic development.
5. Profiling service providers and services offered.
6. Increase awareness and the purpose of the IVR farmers’ call center services to the people.

1. Over 50 exhibitors were trained on how to use the ICT4Farmers app.

2. Over 100 products were updated on the ICT4farmers market access service and several orders were made through the app.

3. More than 200 people called the call center toll-free line (0800209003) made inquiries and appreciated the services rendered.

4. Over 50 people were enrolled in the E-Agriculture academy and showed how they could use the platform to access the training material from anywhere.

5. Over 5000 Students were trained and inspired to do sciences and showed the role ICT plays in the social and economic transformation.