Title: ICTs for the exchange of information among female producers - The story from Cameroon
Author: Appolinaire Tagne
Publisher: e-Agriculture
Date (published): 27/09/2011
Date (accessed): 09/11/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Agriculture is the back bone of the economy of many developing countries, and these activities have a direct impact on their Gross National Product (GNP); with the distribution of roles in society in the western region of Cameroon, women are highly involved in the production of food crop.

Farmers, and particularly female farmers of the western highland region of Cameroon, lack good market information, and for this reason they are obliged to accept the low prices paid by "buyers and sellers" (these are the middle agents). In addition, information from agricultural advisory systems and research is not well disseminated. Under the GenARDIS round (PDF), three small grant projects were aimed at facilitating the access to such information through the use of ICT, and especially the mobile telephone.

The activities were conducted in 2009 at Kamna, Bafoussam, Bagang and Santa in the Western region of Cameroon. The learning approach was sensitization and practical training. The practice involved 3 sub-topics:

* the access to prices of input including fertilizers and pesticides,
* the access to technological packages (advices, improved seeds for maize) and
* the increase of bargaining power of producing farmers."