Farmers undergoing training on use of technology to boost production on their farmsThe practice of technocrats dictating the technological solutions to be used in agriculture without input of farmers will soon cease to exist as small-scale holder farmers take charge, to determine the digital solutions that work to boost production on their farms.The prediction was made by Daniel Ninsiima, Managing Director at M-Omulimisa, an agriculture technology company during an engagement with farmers under the Nabigingo SACCO Limited in Bugiri district yesterday.“So, I think in the future now, we shall actually be seeing, small-scale farmers influencing what actually comes to them. So, the practice of sitting in boardrooms in towns, in big cities, and designing for the farmers, I think, is going to be long gone because now, technology is going to be influenced by the farmers that actually use it and that is how it should be. So instead of sitting and designing something that you think is going to, you know, be fit for them, they now basically decide what they want,” explained Ninsiima.He defended his stance noting that when decision makers engage the communities, they get a better understanding of their needs arguing, “You get their thoughts on the technology, what they want to see on the application, and when you incorporate that, of course, they feel they are part of the process, they are part of the app. They see their needs being incorporated into the technology. And for me, that is very important because they are part of the process. Next time they access the app and they see their thoughts incorporated into the technology; they feel happy. They feel they are part of this technology that is actually changing their lives. I think over time, as the farmers start using it, they will start bringing on board their comments through the digital connectors or even directly to us.”On how the need to incorporate views of farmers during the innovation of technology will impact the innovators, Ninsiima noted, “And I think, for me, that is beautiful because, you know, the farmers are our customers. If we do not incorporate what they want, then we will basically be losing business. They are now influencing, influencing what we actually develop for them. I think for me, that is beautiful, their voices are being heard and they are actually influencing the products that come to them. What is more beautiful than that?”According to Ninsiima, the M-Omulimisa App leverages on technology to provide agricultural services to farmers, mainly small scale farmers, owing to the fact that the bulk of farmers in Africa are small scale holder farmers, this creating the need for the establishment of a digital platform that would provide a wide range of products for these farmers.He exposing, “We all know that in Uganda and across Africa, and many other developing countries, farmers make the bulk of the farmers. And O-Mulimisa app is a digital application, that runs on a mobile device, and through that, farmers can be able to download it and access extension services. We have advisory materials on different enterprises, so you can actually go there and be able to learn how to plant, how to control pest and diseases. You know, there is a government scheme that subsidises insurance for small scale farmers, so on that app you can also be able to buy agricultural insurance.”Ninsiima added, “You can also be able to access weather and market information. You can be able to measure your land using the app. But if a farmer does not have a smartphone, they can also use their simple feature phone via USSD, because we have a USSD option as well.”Working alongside cooperatives and organisations like the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), that is providing the support to recruit a network of village agents, Ninsiima explains that the Digital agents work as intermediaries between the M-Omulimisa App and the farmers, and these are able to provide services to the farmers who may not have smartphones.He explained: “The digital connectors interpret information for the farmers. We have trained about 40 in Kampala. But they actually work as intermediaries between the technology and the farmers. They simplify, they demystify technology for the farmer and build confidence because some small-scale farmers may have the phones, but they may not actually know how to navigate the phones, especially smartphones, even feature phones themselves. These digital connectors or village agents, help demystify technology for small farmers.”Joshua Okonya Programs Officer, Agriculture Technologies and Innovations at ASERECA, further explained that although the key message passed during interactions with farmers in communities is the need to adopt technology, but this messaging goes alongside the need for these farmers to view agriculture as a business and not just subsistence farming to only provide food in their homes for consumption.“We to tell them that, you know, to break even in farming, they need to take agriculture as a business. If you do subsistence farming, you can’t get rich, and if you have nothing to sell, then how do you get money even to buy the good quality seed that we want you to plant? You instead keep using farmer saved seed, every season you are replanting, and with every season you replant, the yield goes reducing. So, you can never get out of poverty,” said Okonya.“So if you want to get out of poverty, for Uganda we are using the four acre model, where we are encouraging people to at least have four acres, you produce at least one crop on one acre commercially, and you have some money that comes into your pocket. In the end you want to improve the lives of the farmers, but you cannot do that when farmers are doing subsistence farming only,” added Okonya.However, to bring most of the farmers from subsistence farming to the money economy, Ninsiima called for improved access to capital, which he says can be improved through the lower community groups, but this can be amplified through digitization of the operations of Village Savings groups in communities.Ninsiima explained, “People come together, save money together, and borrow that money within, of course, the group. Now, because they are informal groups, they do not have access to formal credit. They cannot be banked, because most of them, even if we are going to banks, they have their small books where they save that money. So, what we want to do is to be able to digitise these records that happen in the meetings, and use that financial information to actually turn that into a product. And then you can actually turn that into data that can be used for them to access digital loans. So, that’s what we want to get to.”He added: “So, depending on how your group actually performs, we can be able to use that information to extend the digital loans for farm inputs to actually the respective groups working with these digital connectors. So, that technology is now available. Now we want to be able to work with this cooperative so that we can bring that down, so that you do not have to cry because you have no access to buy improved seed. You can actually, through your group, you can be able to actually have access to inputs through a digital loan, and then you pay basically that later within your groupThe post Small Scale Farmers To Dictate Future of Agriculture Technology – Experts appeared first on Business Focus.