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Innovation of the Week: Open Source Software for Agriculture and Nutrition
WorldWatch Blogs Nourishing the Planet
By Mara Schechter
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/innovation-of-the-week-open-source-software-for-agriculture-and-nutrition/

Communication and information technology (ICT) are helping farmers access 
information about market prices and weather through text messaging, or SMS, 
on their cell phones. And a newer trend, open source technology, provides 
tools for organizations to take advantage of and scale up this technology.

Freely available, open source platforms like these are helping organizations 
spread messages, connect farmers to one another, track trends, and effect 
change. (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)

Open source (meaning the source code is publicly available for free) software 
is helping organizations reach small farmers and rural communities. NGOs can 
do this at low cost, on a large scale, and without an Internet connection. 
More people in the developing world have access to their cell phones than to 
the Internet, making cell phones an important information tool.

Created to help NGOs working in developing countries, FrontlineSMS enables 
users to send out and collect messages to and from groups of people, with 
only a laptop with a cell phone plugged in. Organizations can use this 
software not only to get in touch with people in need in places without 
Internet access, but also to take surveys, hold competitions, coordinate with 
other staff members, and run campaigns.

Ken Banks created the software, along with other initiatives under the 
umbrella of kiwanja.net, which focuses on “empower[ing] local, national and 
international non-profit organizations to make better use of information and 
communications technology in their work.” Many case studies demonstrate how 
organizations have used FrontlineSMS for all kinds of purposes, including 
monitoring elections, but most relevant here are the agricultural and health 
projects that the software has helped to run.

Dr. Robert Fitzgerald, Associate Dean of Research at the University of 
Canberra in Australia, found that small farmers in Cambodia lacked access to 
market prices, and wanted to help them be “in a stronger position to 
negotiate the sale of their crop.” He has developed two programs in Cambodia 
where small farmers can text a main server to find out information about 
crops, pest warnings, market prices, weather, and meetings.

Fitzgerald chose FrontlineSMS as a messaging system because it ensured that 
the project could be self-sustaining. He explained, “Because the project is 
working with two NGOs based in western Cambodia, it was imperative that we 
implemented a cost-effective solution that could be managed by local staff.” 
He found that FrontlineSMS was “simple to install and maintain.”

In Kenya, KickStart, which produces manually operated pumps for small farmers 
to irrigate their farms efficiently, also uses FrontlineSMS. KickStart uses 
the program to keep in contact with farmers and to reach out to prospective 
consumers of the pumps, who have already expressed interest at stores selling 
the products.

Also in Kenya, two radio stations have begun using FrontlineSMS to reach out 
to listeners. John Cheburet, the radio producer for The Organic Farmer, a 
Kenyan magazine that has started two radio shows, wanted his radio shows to 
involve a two-way dialogue among his audience of small farmers. Radio is 
still the best way to get in touch with the most people in Africa; up to 90 
percent of households own a radio. Yet with mobile phone use rapidly growing, 
Cheburet has used FrontlineSMS to answer questions he gets from text messages 
while on the show, which has helped farmers identify common livestock 
problems and work together to solve them.

And Winrock International has incorporated FrontlineSMS into its Farmer to 
Farmer program in El Salvador. It works with a local nonprofit, FIAGRO, the 
Agricultural Technology Innovation Foundation, which has begun using the 
software to link farmers directly to buyers and get better prices for their 
crops.

UNICEF Innovation has created a similar open source platform called RapidSMS. 
The program is part of the Open Mobile Consortium, which provides multiple 
technologies aimed at helping NGOs and nonprofits. RapidSMS currently 
requires a computer with a certain kind of hardware installed and a landline. 
So far, UNICEF has used RapidSMS to monitor food distribution after droughts 
in Ethiopia and to help improve the process of tracking the nutritional 
trends of Malawian children.

Freely available, open source platforms like these are helping organizations 
spread messages, connect farmers to one another, track trends, and effect 
change. Can you think of other similar innovations? Let us know in the 
comments section!