Information System for Farmers to Fill Void of Extension Services

An enterprise information system has been launched to help farmers improve their business capacity.

At an initial cost of Sh12 million, the National Information System (Nafis), is seeking to fill the vacuum left out by lack of extension services.

Since extension services in the country collapsed in the late 90's, farmers have had to do with the little information they gathered on their own.

The Government has however been reviving the services through hiring of additional extension officers.

The new system which is targeting to reach 1.2 million farmers in two years relies on modern technologies like the internet and mobile phone networks to get information on best practices to farmers.

Funding for the new venture which is being run by the National Agricultural and livestock Extension Program (Nalep) has been provided by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida).

The Nalep training co-ordinator, Mr David Nyandika, said that the programme will provide farmers with information on high value crops.

"We have started with French beans, tomatoes, poultry and dairy farming which are all high value enterprises," said Mr Nyandika.

In future, Nafis hopes to include more high value crops to the system he said.

According to Mr Nyandika, Nafis also hopes to create a demand for extension services among farmers.

"We want to create a need for extension services and get farmers to go out and seek for more information from extension officers," said Mr Nyandika.

Nafis staff who are located in the field in various areas will help to update the system on a regular basis.

This will help farmers by informing them on any new developments in agriculture so that they can stay updated.

"So far, farmers have shown much interest in the programme and we have been receiving calls of people wanting to know more about it," said Mr Nyandika.

Currently, Nafis is looking for a consultant to help in developing a system for tracking the number of people using the system.

"This will help us to know the number of beneficiaries that we are reaching and the impact of our work," he said.

The information being provided through Nafis emphasises on marketing linkages, increasing yield and improving the livelihoods of farmers, he added.

To ensure the system runs for more than the four years it has initially been planed for, other stakeholders who include the Government through relevant ministries are being urged to come in and support.

The programme also hopes to take advantage of the Government's programme of creating cyber villages in rural areas.

According to Mr Nyandika, this will be boosted by the laying of the fiber optic cable which is currently in progress.

Among the areas which the system has already started are Kiambu, Embu, Nyeri, Vihiga, and Kisii where farmers have started using computers with the help of various NGO's.

Many small scale farmers are however not versed in the use of the internet and some do not have mobile phone network coverage.