Improving the Lives of Poorer in Our Communities Using Social Media in

Agriculture

Ednah Karamagi Executive Director

BROSDI Kampala, Uganda

Email: ednahkaramagi@brosdi.or.ug Abstract Social media can be used to improve lives of the poorer in rural communities. It is a common perception, especially among urban populations that rural people cannot use web 2.0 applications, digital cameras, digital radios, and audio CDs, which are ‘still’ alien in rural settings. At BROSDI (http://www.brosdi.or.ug) our focus is to support activities that use these technologies as enablers in addressing concerns of the poorest, with a special focus on farmers and rural communities, with the notion that “information is power”. We use blogs to share individual best farming practices in form of text and audio; mobile phones to collect and share information, computers to not only access the internet for information but also to repackage content from the farmers and prepare it ably for dissemination. The paper shares the experiences, success stories and challlenges of BROSDI's support activities and our agricultural programme - Collecting and Exchanging of Local Agriculture Content (CELAC) (http://www.celac.or.ug). During the 7 years of implementing CELAC, we have seen farmers improve their living style right from applying best farming practices and reaping increasing outputs to accessing markets and even positive behavioral change and attitude towards life. They have also shared this information using both traditional and modern ICT applications

1 Social Media, a growing trend In the urban areas, I see more people use Social Media with each passing day. If the user finds comfort in a site, LinkedIn for instance, addiction takes course. Before social networking, many read their emails first thing in the office then proceeded to perform their work duties. Today, this trend has changed with many logging onto their networks as well, stay glued to them, and before they know it, it is lunch time. It is for this reason that organizations are increasingly banning logging on during work hours. Some even block access to the platforms from their servers. This is because when one logs in, with the fun they present, time passes by so quickly and at the end of the day no work has been done in relation to the objectives of the organization or company.

The excitement is great with many subscribing to any new platform they hear about and at the end of the day, abandon it for more famous sites like Badoo for instance. It is not until they learn about the use of a site that they return and make better use of it. It is a bee hive activity room. Interesting is that more use them for fun purposes. These platforms, especially the social networking ones, present opportunities of meeting new people, many with the option to even choose the preferred friend description. Like Facebook for example, using the in-built search engine, one can relate with old friends and schoolmates from whom are long separated and even changed location. Flick R or Picasa for instance, will enable one upload the photos online and retrieve them at will provided there is access to internet. One can even choose which to make private and which for public viewing. An interesting addition is that a conversation can be built on each photo by different subscribed friends. Take another example of blogs – a new fast growing wave of citizen journalists is subconsciously mushrooming with people opening blogs and sharing bits of their passions and lifestyle at will and in a manner they prefer. With all these applications, communication in the world is moving to another level … …but stop for a moment and ask … suppose the rural persons were able to access these gadgets and applications just as well? What would they do with them? How would they use them? Would they find them as interesting? …as addictive? Suppose, with the growing popularity of Social Media, the applications and supporting equipment are easily accessible to the rural person? And that they were using them to share the information they have? What kind of information would they share? A quick guess to me would be: farming practices to include the best and bad; they would shift the night kitchen grandma stories to blogs for instance and probably village scandal and gossip like animal theft, adultery, co-wife fights, death from witchcraft and their relations would go online as well. Moving to the comments, I am pretty sure that they would be in the line of advice to avoid such future scenarios again. From my relation with rural people, they enjoy giving advise; and they give it using proverbs and/or with examples and lessons of past happenings. The point here is that they would probably share a different type of information. They would share information that would lead to better farm output and positive behavioral change in our homes and the community at large.

2 Social Media usage and the Rural Person That said and done, can the rural person really use social media? Or is this another upcoming innovation that stays in a dream state? and never a reality? Unfortunately it is still a common perception especially among urban people that rural people cannot use web 2.0 applications, much less for self-improvement. Worse is the need for digital cameras, mobile phones, radio, audio CDs, and their relations as enablers which are ‘still’ alien in rural settings and referred to by many as “for the educated”. Many are left agape in wonder and doubt when they learn about the existence of rural people using social media to improve their livelihoods. Incidentally, this is BROSDI’s path.

At BROSDI, we have had several visits from people near and afar wanting to relate with the beneficiaries just to quench their curiosity over the ability of a rural person to use social media in a self and community productive manner. I recall a visit from particularly one gentleman from Europe whose name I do not even remember, questioned the validity on a blog in my presentation - “Rural People is using Web 2.0 to Improve Livelihoods” that I made in Rome, Italy. There, he challenged the presentation and I responded with an offer to take him around to any of the farmers of his choice that we work with. He accepted and came. While in Uganda, he met with Elizabeth Mpungu and her group, the CELAC Masaka District Farmers network and they showed him what they knew. He said to us that he wanted to prove that we had not doctored whole session and so asked us to move out so that he relates with the farmers on his own. They later told us that he asked them practical questions, which they were to respond using a laptop that we had given to them. When we were still in the room, he even asked them how to send a document to the printer. I just shook my head in amusement as I watched them show him what they can and what they cannot do; for what they could not do, they asked him to teach them. This is just one example among many. Rural people are just like you and me. They have an advantage over the fact that many leave their lives under the saying of “practice makes perfect”. They do not have many of the amenities readily available in the cities and so have to make do with what is within their means. I for one find them very creative people and have always called upon them for advise several times. They are even the brains behind our health (http://yohaap.wordpress.com) and education programs (http://childrensclub.wordpress.com), agriculture as well. There is a common argument rallied around lack of electricity in rural areas as a hindrance to development. Even where it exists, in case of breakdowns, repairs are delayed. As such, electricity is still limited in the rural areas and both government and private sector are slow at investing in this direction. They still leave in the older thinking way that they cannot get back their investment because the rural people have no money to spare for the usage. I remember when we opened our office in Mayuge district. We were constrained by lack of electricity to great lengths. An opportunity presented itself when government allowed to meet part of the cost to install a transformer at our site. We were to meet the bigger portion of the cost. Today, the whole village has electricity and many more are still joining the grid. This is a common happening in those rural areas that have been lucky enough to get electricity in their villages. I see them use electricity for housing as well as business related activities. Use of social media calls for electricity for not only charging the equipment but also to run it.

3 Using Social Media From time immemorial, we at BROSDI have used Social media to address the concerns of the poorer in society. This was even before Web 2.0 and by then, it only covered “use of ICT”. Today the two terms have been married. In using these applications, we are careful not to impose anything to farmers. This is because experience has taught us that it is not sustainable. When you impose, it is your innovation and when you go away, which you will one day, you go away with it and the farmers go back to doing it their older way. This means wastage of resources and time which cannot be

retrieved. It is more lucrative and result oriented if you empower the community with the skill and technology and then let their curiosity, combined with creativity soar them to higher levels. True, it is time consuming and often calls for a lot of patience but worth it at the end of the day. I give an example of one farmer, Mulopi Joseph, 50years plus who we found very knowledgeable in using indigenous farming knowledge as well as an extremely hard worker. He wanted to learn how to use the computer because he wanted to be termed among the “more learned” in society. We taught him the Office package and also how to use the internet productively. By then, a cabbage farmer among his other farming activities, was selling each cabbage for UG SHS 100. He googled for “cabbage market in Uganda”, or something to that line and managed to get a telephone number of a cabbage buyer. Today, he sells the same size of cabbages from UG SHS 100 to UG SHS 300 to now UG SHS 500 per cabbage. There is a time when his customer fell ill and so he was left with so much cabbage and not wanting to sell for a lower price, went back to the internet and this time googled post-harvest ways for cabbages. Today, he sells both fresh and dried cabbage. He has also contributed to the body of CELAC Knowledge by sharing how to dry cabbage in a healthy manner. This BROSDI has shared with other farmers and yes, some too have adopted the trend. This is such an example of using technology in a productive way; combined with “necessity being the mother of creation”. Like said before, the process can be very slow but one has to be patient when initiating it to the rural population. One needs to also be mindful of the stigma that hoovers around technology usage in rural areas. To get to the level of using social media productively; we first got the farmers in organized registered groups. We then shared with them what we knew about the best way to make the most out of a single forum, they gave their view as well and we all then agreed of a project format. So, they do the basic packaging of the content shared and send it to BROSDI for re-packaging. They use several ways: by bus, by post, by hand and email. We collect this information, compile it and send to NARO for verification – I give an example: a farmer will say that “if your land is not fertile, it is because there is a night dancer (witch) bewitching your garden. He/she comes in the night and dances all over the garden. To chase him/her away, plant the lablab weed but be careful to plant it in several places of the garden for if you scatter it, the night dancer will dance in those parts where it isn’t and those places will remain infertile”. NARO will alter it to read: “if your garden is infertile, plant the lablab weed in several parts of the garden. This is because the leaves act as fertilizers to the soil”. From NARO, we break down the information in differing dissemination modes to include: pamphlets, SMS and brochures. We also engage the farmers in sharing best farming practices which are shared on the text and audio project blog. We also use Facebook and Twitter; and of recent, in close partnership with Davide Piga and Pete Cranston, developed a wiki – FarmAfripedia (http://farmafripedia.ikemergent.net) where anyone from Africa and beyond can add indigenous farming content to the platform.

4 Conclusion The journey has been long but worth it for us even if many still believe that it is wishful thinking for rural persons to use social media for household development. Use of social media to address concerns of the rural poor has reaps fruits. We have seen farmers build houses from farm output, appropriate take advantage of planning for their gardens and soil leading to higher yields; search for better markets; behavioral change while giving preference to issues that matter more, and above all, sharing productively using social media as the enabler. We share this on our success story organization blog: http://successtories.wordpress.com Acknowledgement: I would like to acknowledge and thank Hivos the main project (CELAC) funding partner who believed in an idea conceived by rural farmers in a rural town, Mayuge, in Uganda and have continued to support them through BROSDI in attaining their goal of improving food security and household development. Also to the farmers involved in the CELAC Project who are always willing to share their successes and challenges with everyone; and especially for learning purposes. Of course special thanks also go to several partners, inclusive of the Government of Uganda, Grameen Foundation USA, Google, MTN-Uganda and many more for stepping in at differing stages to also contribute to this common cause. Last but not least, I thank IAALD who gave me the opportunity to share this success from I know which many others will learn and probably adopt. It is from all your interventions that I have been able to develop this paper. Contact Information: Names : Karamagi Ednah Organization : BROSDI Address : P.O.BOX 26970, Kampala, Uganda Telephone : +256 392 963 527 Email : ednahkaramagi@brosdi.or.ug Web site : http://www.brosdi.or.ug ; http://www.celac.or.ug