Share Fair 11 - Rome / Session Outcomes / Mobile Technology and Social Media / Practical answers to poverty – lessons from a global knowledge sharing network (227)

Mobile Technology and Social Media

Mobile phones are no longer a luxury item and have become a ubiquitous and essential part of our lives. Similarly, social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs have radically changed the way we interact and communicate. The many sessions under this theme highlight:

  • innovative use of mobile telephony in agriculture
  • how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have helped improve the bargaining power of smallholder farmers and provided a more direct link to markets
  • the power and potential of social media in connecting people and creating local, national and global networks
  • how social media tools can create conducive learning and sharing environments across geographical and language boundaries
  1. Community radio an extension to telecentre. What is the next frontier? (154)
  2. El encuentro, la participación, el diálogo y el intercambio genera impacto (210)
  3. Ethiopian livestock market information system: Using ICT to deliver information to rural communities (1)
  4. FARM 98.0 FM: Your vocal gateway to agricultural information (53)
  5. Freedom phone: Marriage between telecentres and mobile telephony (102)
  6. Helping farmer Identify fake or genuine agro-inputs using SMS (138)
  7. How GIS systems help farmers engage in environmentally sustainable agriculture (51)
  8. How technology is helping to raise awareness about the Malagasy land reform (46f)
  9. iCow Farmer mobile management platform (241)
  10. Land matrix knowledge system: a sneak preview of what the world’s largest database on large-scale land-based investments tells us (50)
  11. M-Kulima linking mobile technology to farmers to share their experiences (108)
  12. Mobile Agribusiness - delivering information to farmers in Congo (133)
  13. Pakistan emergency food security assessment (200)
  14. Practical answers to poverty – lessons from a global knowledge sharing network (227)
  15. Promoting the use of ICT for market information exchange among women producers in Cameroon (79)
  16. Providing food assistance using modern technology (199)
  17. Radio Lake Victoria assist Kenyan farmers with nitty-gritty of food security (107)
  18. Remittances and postal networks: expanding services using existing infrastructure (35)
  19. Sensemaking: The cognitive map of farms - experiences of sharing agricultural knowledge in Southern Africa (171)
  20. Text to Change: Providing Bolivian farmers commodity prices (54)
  21. The Ending Hunger movement (29)
  22. The role of social media in development (206)
  23. Use of technology to facilitate information flow and collaboration (99)
  24. Utilisation de Google Earth pour le suivi de la riziculture (221)
  25. 21st century rural development projects and programmes: with or without mobile technology? (63)


Practical answers to poverty – lessons from a global knowledge sharing network (227)

Last year, 2 million beneficiaries received agriculture information through knowledge-sharing networks. This session will discuss different formats and channels and the diverse circumstances in which they work – such as podcasts and SMS messages for farmers in Zimbabwe, websites in Latin America focusing on the dairy sector and library networks in Nepal. With the right format and channel a real impact on poverty can be achieved at limited expense. The presentation will highlight the common factors in making these initiatives successful and explain how we know they are successful.

Rob Cartridge
Practical Action

Products / Outputs from the session