ICTs for Enhancing Rural Productivity Shobha Shetty Sr. Economist EASRE March 29, 2007
ICTs and Traditional Media Traditional media (fliers, newspapers, radio and television) are suitable for disseminating information, but less useful for personal interaction or the completion of transactions. The Internet and the telephone may also be used to broadcast information, but when used this way i.e. to disseminate static content - the richness of information and understanding that can be achieved through interactive exchange is lost. The Internet and the mobile phone are no substitute for face to face communications, but they can empower farmers, rural communities and the poor, by enabling expanding and strengthening networks and allowing greater continuity of human interaction. However, it is important to see the need to apply a mix of old and new ICT tools to have the maximum coverage and impact in rural areas.
How Do ICTs Contribute to the Rural Agenda? The economic and productivity benefits of rural ICT access can be generalized in the following categories: Access to Information and Markets Access to Information on Techniques and Environmental Conditions Increased Business Opportunities, Efficiency, and Employment Creation Improving Governance
Benefits are wide-ranging Potential beneficiaries of improved rural connectivity include: Primary producers: communications infrastructure facilitates access to information on market prices, weather, agricultural extension services;improved research-extension linkages; Small and medium-sized enterprises: lower communications costs reduce Overall business transaction costs; communications infrastructure facilitates transactions, opens up new marketing and distribution channels, improves access to information about markets, prices, consumers; Service industries (rural non-farm economy): connectivity offers opportunities for entrepreneurship, establishment of new services such as internet cafes, call centres, financial services; Govt.agencies, particularly in decentralizing administrations: connectivity enhances their ability to exchange data between national and sub-national offices, e.g.,disease surveillance, planning and budgeting, land and property registration, BDS, voting, disaster recovery, and improving overall governance and delivery of community services
Selected Examples
Gyandoot (Dist. Govt. initiative C. India)
Intranet-based Government-to to-citizen (G2C) Service delivery portal started in 2000 in Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh (C. India) of a population of 1.7 million -54% tribal; 40% below poverty line 21 e-kiosks e now 39 (addnl( 18 private) E-clubs (in local schools) 32 Covers a population of 1 million
Services E-Governance Caste/Income/Domicile Certificates Land records Registration of birth and death Grievance Redressal Old age/social Security Pension Information on government schemes/allocations Guidelines for property registration Expert Advice E-Education Exam Results (10 th, 12 th grade) Question Banks School curricula E-library E-commerce Mandi (market) rates Vaivahiki (matrimonials) Village Auctions
II. Advisory Services Chirag kiosks India: Medical/Agric. Consultation through VC with experts Source: IIT Madras & n-logue communications
E-kiosk in a village n-logue Communications: a Rural Service Provider Gets an entrepreneur in every village to set up a kiosk Enables setting up of the kiosk infrastructure including multimedia PC with web camera, printer, power back-up, software, training, 6 months unlimited Internet at a cost of just US$ 1200 Partners with the Government, NGOs, private enterprises, schools, hospitals to offer various services through the kiosk
Kiosk: Bouquet of Services Education and Vocational Training Learning typing, Computer education & E-learning Photography, entertainment and movies DTP work, Email/voice & video mail e-government Tele-medicine & Vet Care E-Agriculture Crafts IT based Services VoIP Difficult to make kiosk economically viable with single service; needs to now make $90/month to be viable
II. Advisory Services (2 of 3) Chile Advice Online www.redsercotec.cl Microentrepreneurs send e-mails with specific queries. They choose from over 40 different topics, and, for each topic, have several consultants from which to choose. (CV & prior responses available online). Response issued within 48 hours & users rate every response. Free service.
II. Advisory Services (3 of 3) Indonesia e-petani - Advice Online Indonesia s Ministry of Agriculture started an advice service online in 2005 based on the Chilean model and, since March 2007, receives and answers queries using mobile phones. The questions cover a broad range of subjects, including marketing advice, product quality requirements of markets and opportunities for marketing through different outlets. Promising but needs close M&E to correct design flaws and improve service delivery. Will be strengthened through new Bank ag services project.
III. Mobile-based based Services In Senegal, Manobi, has since 2003 been providing price and weather information to fisherfolk. Market data is gathered in three locations in Dakar by four collectors using PDAs, and retransmitted to farmers and fisherfolk via mobile phones. The sms version of the Xam Marsé system launched on May 2005 and reportedly serves 3,400 farmers who receive a free daily update through their mobile phones. In August 2006 Manobi entered into partnership with IICD to realize pilot projects in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Uganda and Zambia. Globe and Smart in the Philippines have pioneered the use of low-cost mobile-enabled financial services (3.5 m users combined) for remittance transfers, micro-payments, designed primarily to meet the needs of the rural communities through extending banking and money management services to the largely unbanked sector. (InfoDev, 2006)
Key Issues (1 of 3) I. Importance of Connectivity/Infrastructure Poor access to, and high cost of telecom. infrastructure and services in rural areas is a critical constraint despite recent growth of mobile phone networks that has extended the potential reach of ICTs.. Other infrastructure constraints esp. lack of power supply) also reduces economic viability of innovative ICT applications.
Key Issues (2 of 3) II. Content/Applications Development: Importance of local content creation. Further, for the information to be useful, any content provider needs to (a) identify the critical information needs (linking to demand driven extension services); (b) integrate information resources; and (c) package information that can be understood and applied by the farmers. III. Training/Education: In rural areas where literacy (including IT literacy) is low, the e increase in ICT sophistication may lead to intimidation on the user side. Increasingly, ICT intermediaries e.g. head farmers, agriculture product associations, NGOs, are actively involved in providing information on with explanation and demonstration to the rural population.
Key Issues (3 of 3) IV. Scaling-up/Sustainability Needs appropriate technology, business model N-logue (India) uses low-cost technology,and local entrepreneurs to aggregate demand and provide a bouquet of services; $1000 (including taxes) per Kiosk providing telephone, Internet, multimedia PC with web-camera, printer and power back-up for PC; needs $2.5 per day to break even (7cents per person per month); and an enabling regulatory environment and supportive fisc policies Incentives (subsidy from USO funds) to pvt.. operators to provide service in commercially marginal or non-viable areas; stimulate rural access through creating rural service provider category Facilitating electronic transactions, provision of financial services by non-banks (e.g. mobile phone companies); supporting distribution of low-cost mobile phones (in many countries, these are still heavily taxed) and PCs
Questions for Discussion 1. What types of ICT applications are relevant to the rural economy and at what level (incl. but not restricted to farm level)? 2. The private sector has become extremely innovative in the development elopment of ICT applications. What, then, is the role for the public sector? Do information and knowledge services have attributes of public goods requiring government involvement to correct market failures and information asymmetries es? 3. What policies can governments put in place to support enabling ng factors, particularly rural ICT infrastructure and regulatory reforms e.g.. regulations permitting non-banks (e.g. telcos) ) to offer financial services? 4. The Bank s s ICT Sector Strategy has divided roles between center (rural access, cess, infra reforms) and regions (capacity building, applications). But how well is this working? Do sectoral TTLs have the knowledge and access to resources (within and outside the Bank) to help clients: (i) understand strategic goals within sector; (ii)( capture and understand information relevant to goals; (iii)understand( process and organizational changes needed; and (iv) design sectoral ICT projects where appropriate. What types of support are needed by ARD staff?