Farmbook Suite for e-Extension Program:

Kenya Ministry of Agriculture, CRS, MEAS Richard Githaiga

Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock & Fisheries

Kenya

2nd June 2015

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Presentation Outline

• What is Farmbook suite: an overview • Farmbook Suite Piloting in Kenya: MEAS/CRS/MOALD• Challenges, Observations, Way Forward

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What is Farmbook Suite?

Consists of three ICT tools

1. Map & Track– To Register agents, farmers, groups

– To track service delivery

2. eLearning– Agents learn and teach skills to farmers

3. Business Planner– Agents work with farmer and farmer groups on developing business

plans

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Map & Track

Extension management solution that help to improve the management of extension services • Android based application on iFormbuilder Platform• Consists of forms to register and to track service delivery.

Registration– Forms to register Agents, farmers, and farmer groups– Barcodes created to identify farmers and groups

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Map & Track

Service delivery tracking– Form used by field agents to record their georeferenced

activities in real time and displayed in maps– Enables managers to better link service delivery with

beneficiary group performance and results– Links allocation of resources to field officer performance– Can generate customized extension reports - Providing

evidence on performance of extension services

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e-Learning

Nine training modules for field agents focusing on five skills sets critical for smallholder farmer groups to sustainably produce and effectively engage with markets.

The five skills set

1. Group management

2. Financial management

3. Natural resources management

4. Innovation

5. Marketing and agro-enterprises including the e-business planner

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Business Planner

Functions• Registers farmers and groups• assess profitability of different enterprises, select most

profitable• develop production plan and clarify marketing strategies• develop customized business plans with projections on costs,

revenues, sales and profits. • Records production costs Labor, Inputs • Assess profitability and to learn potential benefits of

collective marketing

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Connectivity ConsiderationsWorking and Saving In the field

Synching to send data to cloud Can wait till in office to access Wi-Fi or use phone data bundle.

Map & Track Phone network or GIS function to obtain geo-location

Only need to synch to submit entries to the data base.

e-Learning Courses can be downloaded and studied and take quizzes offline

Only need to synch to submit LMS data.

Biz Planner Planning and profitability assessment calculation can be done offline

Only need to synch to submit data to cloud so that data can be accessed and shared remotely

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Piloting Farmbook Suite in Kenya

MEAS/CRS/MOALD Collaboration in Kenya • Rolled out 5 skills set eLearning courses to thirty extension

agents in two counties - July 2013 – Dec. 2014.• 60 groups 1500 farmers trained on the 5 Skills• Staff knowledge on skills improved from 44% to 92%

Mean score After Training Baseline Change

92% 44% 48%

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Smart Skills set training in session

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e business Planner

• Rolled out e business Planner along in the two Counties

• 1380 Households registered• 66 Farmers groups registered• 120 Farm business plans developed and implemented• Impact on farm income and productivity to be

evaluated

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Recording of farm holding data on e business planner

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Map and Track Roll out

• Rolled out map and track in 5 Counties in November 2014 and to another 5 Counties in April 2015

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign conducting study of the impact of Farmbook suite extension service delivery

Map & Track Agent Registration

Meru Kirinyaga Muranga KerichoW.

Pokot

# agents at deployment 42 14 18 12 9

Embu Kajiada Nakuru BaringoTrans Zoia

# expected to deploy 16 15 17 8 8

Number of Farmers and Groups Registered

Meru Kirinyaga Muranga Kericho W. Pokot# Farmers registered 739 63 771 995 122# Farmer Groups registered 18 1 28 3 2

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Challenges with Farmbook Suite

• Inadequate ICT facilities and equipment – Computers, smartphones, tablets, Internet

• Low computer literacy levels for field staff• Low County Government facilitation of extension

services such as transport and stationery • Low network/internet connectivity in the field

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Observations on the Farmbook Suite

Full impacts to be documented research study. However the following can be observed• Extension agents performance improved after taking the

SMART Skills eLearning courses. • Most reported that marketing and agribusiness, financial

management, and innovation courses will be most helpful in their work.

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Observations on the Farmbook Suite

• Most agents were able to help farmers acquire farm business planning and managements skills for the first time in their careers

• Extension managers and field agents in Counties exited about the prospects for improved extension management through Map and Track.

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Recommendations/ Way Forward

• The Ministry is seeking partnerships to upscale and out scale Farmbook suite to the rest of the Country.

• ICT Equipment procurement and training in basic computer skills to field agents be considered in upscaling projects

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Thank you for Listening