Publication: ICT in Agriculture : Connecting Smallholders to Knowledge, Networks, and Institutions
Loading...
Date
2011-11
ISSN
Published
2011-11
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The livelihoods of the world's poor rise and fall with the fate of agriculture. Enhancing the ability of smallholders to connect with the knowledge, networks, and institutions necessary to improve their productivity, food security, and employment opportunities is a fundamental development challenge. Where once rural areas were largely disconnected from the greater world, today, networks of information and communication technologies (ICTs) enmesh the globe and represent a transformational opportunity for rural populations, both as producers and consumers. However, climate change and price fluctuations in the global food market remind us that realizing this opportunity requires a long-term commitment to mobilizing appropriate resources and expertise. It is for this reason that we are particularly pleased to introduce the ICT in agriculture e-sourcebook. This resource was designed to support practitioners, decision-makers, and development partners who work at the intersection of ICT and agriculture. The authors hope is that it becomes a practical guide in understanding current trends, implementing appropriate interventions, and evaluating the impact of those programs. It combines cutting-edge expertise in ICT with empirical knowledge of a wide range of agricultural sectors, from governance to supply chain management. As an online knowledge source, it will continue to evolve and be updated to reflect the emerging and changing challenges and opportunities facing the sector. This activity was carried out as part of the program on creating sustainable businesses in the knowledge economy, for which the Government of Finland provided generous support. The publication represents a partnership of infoDev and the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank Group, with significant contributions from outside experts.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2011. ICT in Agriculture : Connecting Smallholders to Knowledge, Networks, and Institutions. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12613 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication ICT for Development : Contributing to the Millennium Development Goals - Lessons Learned from Seventeen infoDev Projects(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003-11)The aim of this paper is to create a publicly available resource that provides concise descriptions of selected infoDev ICT-for-development projects, and their impact on poverty. The paper first presents case studies of a cross-section of projects funded by the infoDev Core Program, followed by an in-depth analysis of the impact, and limits of those projects. The main criterion for selecting projects for case study analysis was to be as representative as possible of the various environments (political, economic, social, geographic) in which infoDev has been operating since its inception. An attempt was also made to provide a balanced sample relative to the success rate of the projects. Rather than selecting the "best projects," the authors, in consultation with the task managers of the projects, gave priority to those initiatives likely to offer the best lessons and knowledge about how to use ICT for development purposes. infoDev case studies show that the presence of a project champion enhances the success of a project (FOOD, Manobi, Voxiva, Fantsuam). The cases also demonstrate that technical and organization capacity can be built over the life of a project.Publication Rural Informatization in China(World Bank, 2009-06-01)China's recent economic growth has expanded industrialization and urbanization, upgraded consumption, increased social mobility, and initiated a shift from an economy based on agriculture to one based on industry and services. Still more than half of China's people still live in rural areas where average income per capita is less than a third of the urban average, a gap that is among the largest in the world. Reducing these differences is critical to building a harmonious, inclusive society. This report draws from background research conducted by the advisory committee for state informatization, and attempts to provide an overview of China's rural information and communications technology (ICT) development primarily in the past 15 years. The report first describes the status of China's rural informatization infrastructure. It then reviews existing rural ICT initiatives in China and summarizes them by organizational models. International examples are included to draw lessons from. Finally, the challenges of rural informatization are examined, and policy recommendations identified to address them.Publication Survey of ICT and Education in Africa : Senegal Country Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-07)This short country report, a result of larger Information for Development Program (infoDev) - supported survey of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education in Africa, provides a general overview of current activities and issues related to ICT use in education in the country. Senegal's hand on commitment to incorporating ICT in education is still in the beginning stages of progress and evaluation. Although Senegal's public officials and government bodies recognize ICT as a powerful engine for progress in economic expansion and modernization and have a national ICT policy in place, it has not yet been integrated into the education sector in any kind of formal policy. However, the Ministry of Education and several organizations have taken initiatives to launch and continue activities that will facilitate the modernization of schools and other educational institutions. Initiatives have also been made in the informal sector, such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Community Multimedia Center Scale-Up Project, to make ICT accessible to community members. Although obstacles remain, such as the need for more telecommunications infrastructure and computer materials, the outlook for integrating ICT into Senegal's education system is very optimistic.Publication Survey of ICT and Education in Africa : Rwanda Country Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-04)This short country report, a result of larger Information for Development Program (infoDev) - supported survey of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education in Africa, provides a general overview of current activities and issues related to ICT use in education in the country. ICT is central to Rwanda's Vision for 2020, and ICT in education is one of the core pillars of the country's national information and communications infrastructure policy and plan, adopted in 2000. Tremendous progress has been made since then and the country continues to receive plaudits and support from its development partners. The pace of development of a national ICT infrastructure is remarkable as is the progress within the education system on disseminating computers and providing connectivity and teacher training. Moreover, there is a nationwide effort to provide universal access to both infrastructure and the Internet in order to facilitate ICT4D in the broadest sense.Publication Broadcasting and Development : Options for the World Bank(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003-09)Broadcasting can have a significant part to play in the fight to reduce global poverty. At least 77 percent of the world's population is estimated to be within easy access of broadcast technology (compared to perhaps 4 percent for the Internet), broadcast services are easily accessible by the illiterate and those that speak minority languages. Broadcast operations have been proven sustainable even in low income rural areas. They can play an important role in information transfer (conveying crop prices and employment opportunities, for example). They have played an important role in a range of development projects-including interactive radio instruction, where they have been found to be a highly cost effective intervention. Access to broadcast technologies also has been found to correlate with improved access to government services. Convergence of information and communications technologies (ICT) is allowing broadcast services to be provided over telecommunications networks and Internet services to use broadcast systems. Differentiating broadcast and telecommunications is becoming increasingly anachronistic, many countries are already moving towards a model of convergence regulation that encompasses both sub-sectors. For the World Bank Group to be involved in telecommunications while eschewing broadcast will frequently involve forcing our client countries into suboptimal policy and regulatory solutions. Further, the use of broadcast to provide Internet services is a potential development opportunity that should not be ignored by the Bank in its operations.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication China 2030 : Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income Society [pre-publication version](Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012-02-27)China should complete its transition to a market economy--through enterprise, land, labor, and financial sector reforms--strengthen its private sector, open its markets to greater competition and innovation, and ensure equality of opportunity to help achieve its goal of a new structure for economic growth. These are some of the key findings of a joint research report by a team from the World Bank and the Development Research Center of China’s State Council, which lays out the case for a new development strategy for China to rebalance the role of government and market, private sector and society, to reach the goal of a high income country by 2030. This report recommends steps to deal with the risks facing China over the next 20 years, including the risk of a hard landing in the short term, as well as challenges posed by an ageing and shrinking workforce, rising inequality, environmental stresses, and external imbalances. The report lays out six strategic directions for China’s future: * Completing the transition to a market economy; * Accelerating the pace of open innovation; * Going “green” to transform environmental stresses into green growth as a driver for development; * Expanding opportunities and services such as health, education and access to jobs for all people; * Modernizing and strengthening its domestic fiscal system; * Seeking mutually beneficial relations with the world by connecting China’s structural reforms to the changing international economy.Publication Developing China’s Ports(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-05-17)Many countries in Africa and Asia have coastlines that present opportunities for them to become gateways for trade between the hinterlands and global trading routes. However, policy makers struggle to translate this potential into engines of economic development and social transformation. In the past 40 years, China has taken advantage of its strategic geographical location and its status as one of the world’s top manufacturing regions. From a very low position on almost all metrics, today China has become home to more than half of the world’s top 50 ports. The rapid development of China’s ports was critical for the country’s remarkable economic growth. What China achieved can be informative; how and why China revived and modernized its port sector is especially relevant and provides valuable lessons for other countries. This book explores the transformation of China’s port sector through four topics and four periods, beginning with China’s major economic reforms that started in 1978. The first topic addresses the links between China’s macroeconomic and regional development strategies and development of the port sector. During this period—through about 1991—China began decentralizing port management to facilitate development of special economic zones. The second topic—during the period 1992 through about 2001—is more specific about the ports and analyzes changes in port governance, including the way in which essential investments were determined and financed. The third topic examines the relationship of ports to the cities where they are located and to the hinterlands on which they depend—coinciding with the period 2002–11. Domestic and international investment resulted in many new export-oriented processing factories during this period. The accompanying boost in trade required further expansion of port capacity. The fourth topic addresses how—from 2011 onward—human resource and innovation policies in the port sector have responded to changing demands as the country looks to become a less resource-dependent and more regionally balanced economy.Publication Growth through Innovation : An Industrial Strategy for Shanghai(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-04-22)In broad terms, the sources of economic growth are well understood but relatively few countries have succeeded in effectively harnessing this knowledge for policy purposes so as to sustain high rates of growth over an extended period of time (commission on growth and development 2008; Yusuf 2009a). This study argues, however, that a high growth strategy which puts technology upgrading and innovation at the center might warrant a different approach from the one currently favored. It derives from the experience of global cities such as New York and London and the empirical research on industrial performance and on innovation. This has yielded four significant findings: first, monosectoral services based economies grow slowly because they benefit less from increases in productivity and from innovation. Second, manufacturing industries producing complex capital goods, electronic equipment, and sophisticated components are more Research and Development (R&D) intensive, generate many more innovations, are more export oriented, have a solid track record of rising productivity, and having achieved competitiveness, are in a better position to sustain it because the entry barriers to these industries tend to be higher. By giving rise to dense backward and forward linkages these industries can serve as the nuclei of urban clusters and maximize employment generation. Third, industrial cities create many more jobs for a middle class and tend to have a more equal distribution of income than cities which are dominated by services. Fourth, and finally, cities with a world class tertiary education and research infrastructure linked to industry, are more resilient in the face of shocks, more innovative, and better able to reinvent themselves.Publication Transforming the Urban Space through Transit-Oriented Development(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017)Imagine a city that is more competitive, with higher-quality neighborhoods, lower infrastructure costs, and lower C02 emissions per unit of activity. This city has lower combined transportation and housing costs for its residents than other cities at similar levels of economic activity. Its residents can access most jobs and services easily through a combination of low-cost public transport, walking and cycling. Its core economic and population centers are resilient to natural hazards. It is able to finance improvements to public space, connectivity, and social housing by capturing value created through integrated land use and transport planning. Such a vision has never been more relevant for rapidly growing cities than it is today. Transit-oriented development (TOD) can play a major role in achieving such a vision. Based on an observation of methodologies applied in different countries, the World Bank's Community of Practice on Transit Oriented Development has developed a methodology called the 3 Value (3V) Framework, which outlines a typology to facilitate TOD implementation at the metropolitan and urban scale in various contexts. The 3V Framework equips policy and decision makers with quantified indicators to better understand the interplay between the economic vision for the city, its land use and mass transit network, and urban qualities and market vibrancy around its mass transit stations. This book provides examples of approaches taken by cities like London and New York to align their economic, land use, and transport planning to generate jobs and high value. We hope this book will help readers develop a coherent vision, policies, and strategy to leverage the value created through enhanced connectivity and accessibility and make cities even more appealing places to live, work, play and do business.Publication Two Dragon Heads : Contrasting Development Paths for Beijing and Shanghai(World Bank, 2010)In broad terms, the sources of economic growth are well understood, but relatively few countries have succeeded in effectively harnessing this knowledge for policy purposes so as to sustain high rates of growth over an extended period of time. Among the ones that have done so, China stands out. Its gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, which averaged almost 10 percent between 1978 and 2008, is unmatched. Even more remarkable is the performance of China's three leading industrial regions: the Bohai region, the Pearl River Delta, and the Yangtze River (Changjiang) delta area. These regions have averaged growth rates well above 11 percent since 1985. Shanghai is the urban axis of the Yangtze River Delta's thriving economy; Beijing is the hinge of the Bohai region. Their performance and that of a handful of other urban regions will determine China's economic fortunes and innovativeness in the coming decades. The balance of this volume is divided into five chapters. Chapter two encapsulates the sources of China's growth and the current and future role of urban regions in China. The case for the continuing substantial presence of manufacturing industry for growth and innovation in the two urban centers is made in chapter three. Chapter four briefly examines the economic transformation of four global cities and distills stylized trends that can inform future development in Beijing and Shanghai. Chapter five describes the industrial structure of the two cities, identifies promising industrial areas, and analyzes the resource base that would underpin growth fueled by innovation. Finally, chapter six suggests how strategy could be reoriented on the basis of the lessons delineated in chapter four and the economic capabilities presented in chapter five.