The Future of Farming expressed via Social Media

Photo Credit: @Farming_bants 

As the whole world got round to celebrating  the World Food Day week, groups gathered everywhere from the global movements,to regional, national and even local levels to celebrate the progress they had achieved in reducing the effects of the never ending problem of hunger and poverty and the subsequent challenges encountered on the same journey. The World Food Day celebration designated by FAO for October 16 targets to increase awareness of the problem of hunger  in the world, promote transfer of technologies in the world  while strengthening both international and national struggle against hunger, poverty and malnutrition. Read on the objectives of the World Food Day HERE.

World Food Day isn't about 1 day, 1 week or even 1 month, as events take place thru the year. Here's what's going on: http://t.co/KsAJFhFKWr
— World Food Day (@FAOWFD) October 31, 2013

In line with the 2013 theme on Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition, European Twitter chat groups led by @agrichatUK brought together farmers from all over the world in a closely coordinated twitter chat to discuss and share their experiences as pertains their producing food for the global population. The event attracted participants from USA, UK, Netherland, Australia, Kenya, Canada and EU culminating to a total of 3664 tweets,890,282reach from 632 contributors(Source:AgrichatUK) This was held under the guidance of six questions that follow thus:

• Q1a : Please introduce yourself by saying who you are,where you are from and what food you produce and share any farm pictures! #AgriChatWorld
• Q1b : Tell us about Agriculture in your country.What is your country famous for and what are you most proud of?  #AgriChatWorld
• Q2 : What is the biggest challenge and/or opportunity facing you as a farmer in your country? #AgriChatWorld
• Q3 : As a farmer or consumer, do you feel the effects of globalisation? What are the local or global aspects of farming? #AgriChatWorld
• Q4 : How do you think farming and our food system will change in the future? #AgriChatWorld
• Q5 : Do you think farmers around the world can work together? If so, how and why? #AgriChatWorld
• Q6 : What would be your number 1 wish for the future of food and farming in the world?

Two questions grabbed my attention (question 2 and 6) as they provided insight on whats happening in the field of farming globally and presented an uniform view around the same.Some of the challenges farmers face turned to be similar and at the same, some challenges presented an opportunity in themselves.As reported during the chat,these challenges included:

*Tuberculosis
*Lack of local slaughter facilities. Can't get sheep processed in time
*One of our biggest challenges in many parts of the USA is water issues (too much or too little)
*High land prices and slipper farming (claiming subsidy but not actively farming)
*Biggest challenge for NZ is market access and dispelling the myth of the footprint
* Large problem is having all sectors constantly placed in competition with each other.Need to begin to work together more
*Biggest challenge in my mind is educating the public about where their food comes from, it's scary how many have no idea
*Biggest challenge is competition for land
*Problems? Changing, extreme weather and constantly evolving rules probably top of the list.
*Maintaining a diverse, sustainable agricultural base in face of mono-culture commodity farming has to be common challenge
* Biggest challenge is to feed the world using sustainable production methods
(Find a continuation of the challenge/opportunity tweets  HERE)

The other question looked at the future of farming where participants expressed their wish for agriculture.These included;

*To preserve the earth we have and still feed the mouths that need to be fed.
*That everyone would have enough nutritious food to eat while preserving a sustainable world
*More small farms = more farmers = system for food resilience
*Top quality food at a fair price for consumer, producer and farmer
*I wish we could all be #Agvocates and tell our story to all!
*That people would appreciate the real value of food. If we do that everybody including the environment will benefit.
*My one wish would be reduced food waste - so much work goes into its production - more respect for food and farming
*Healthy farms, healthy environment, healthy farmers
*That I leave my soil for the next generation capable of sustainable production
*That we could manage as farmers to feed the already 842 million people going hungry globally
*I wish the weather could learn to behave itself & do as its told.
*That we pull off the miracle of feeding everyone over the next 40 years. I really hope we make it.
*That farmers got the respect they deserve & bad farmers disappear
* Profitably produce highly nutritious food at a level that is globally abundant and affordable
*That I leave my soil for the next generation capable of sustainable production
*Sorry I've got 3: educated buyers, sustainable farming systems, closer farming community
*My #1 wish is for consumers to learn everything about where how their #steak and other food gets to their plates
* That everyone is educated on the power of ag & the necessity to support our farmers in sustaining our world
( Find the whole set of the wishes from farmers HERE )

Farming is the big thing almost happening. What is your one wish for the same?What challenges do you face as a farmer? And its my hope that as we set on the path of producing food for millions of people, Chief Seattle words will constantly echo in our minds ;  that we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors but rather we borrow it from our children.

Social Media Handbook for Agricultural Development Practitioners

“The future is already here- its just not evenly distributed” reads a William Gibson quote on the Social Media Handbook for Agricultural Development Practitioners and one previously extracted from The Economist , December 4^th 2003

Its one quote that well applies to the world of social media, a field that is constantly evolving with each passing day. And with agriculture being a very vital sector for the global population, it becomes paramount for it to adjust to the changing world.

The handbook, prepared by Dustin Andres and Josh Woodward with the help of USAID and FHI 360, is intended for use by agricultural practitioners interested in the social media use for their projects with more specification for those in sub Saharan Africa or other low bandwidth environments around the world. It goes without say that the same is also applicable to any person interested  in learning or expounding their knowledge on social media as the applicability of these tools cuts across various sectors. 

With a lot of current social media interventions in  agriculture targeting  large scale farming, agribusinesses and agricultural practitioners, its hoped that, with the onset of mobile technology, this handbook will be of greater use to the smallholder farmers who form the bulk of Agriculture in Africa.It’s intended to provide a clear view on the benefits that accrue from using social media and the related limitations from the same. A plethora of all social media platforms and the corresponding social media tools has also been provided.

The handbook will also provide you detailed  information as entails:

• The definition of social media and its importance in agricultural projects. 
• An overview of the global state of social media,
• The general requirements/ considerations before embarking on using social media for your projects
• Challenges one might encounter in using social media in agricultural development.
• A brief overview of the top 11 global social media platforms,their categories, tools and their most common uses.
• The ongoing and potential applications of social media in agriculture and in low bandwidth environments using in depth case studies from several agricultural projects around the world.
• The steps to undertake while planning to use  social media in your projects
• How to develop content for your social media postings.
• How to measure your social media effectiveness

This is not a stick to it guide.As i mentioned earlier the social media field is highly dynamic and keeps changing every now and then. Also not every tool might be applicable so its more of choosing the most applicable ones in ones case. As a rule of thumb, its usually beneficial for one to try the tool in question on a personal capacity before applying it on a profession level.

The Social Media Handbook for Agricultural Development Practitioners 

What tools do you use personally and professionally? Why do you use them? Feel free to drop your comments below.

Paying it Forward: Social media Training for Kwale Arts Troupe

A Section of some of the participants

Kwale Arts Troupe is a very active youth group that uses arts/acting to pass various messages to the community. They have been in active collaboration with Plan International Kwale WASH program and the Ministry of Health especially on issues of reproductive health.

Just recently they produced a movie called KIZA and even performed a poem during this year's Madaraka Day. Looking at the potential they have and the data I got from them during the APPR process, I sought to help profile their presence online.

For two days, (27th and 28th June, 2013) I led them through the social media training whose objectives were:

• To expose the trainees on various social media tools at their disposal.
• Learn how to open and operate a various social media channels (Blogs, Twitter, Facebook page and YouTube)
• To come up with a social media strategy to aid their activities online.

The first day was mainly introducing them to social media. We delved in to the objectives of the training, their expectations from the training and what social media is general is. The group expected to gain insights as to the use of various social media tools.

One of the powerpoint slides

Later on, we set on a step by step illustration on how to open a gmail account as none actually had before delving on how to create blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts and YouTube accounts. My choice for these tools was for the reason they are most used platforms online. For instance there are more than 126 million blogs on the internet, we have over 2 billion views on  YouTube videos, Facebook has over 500 million users and at least 50% of these make a log in daily and over 65 million tweets are sent daily. Hence maximizing on these four channels is of paramount importance. More so, I realized they are very green in to the world of online media and hence a step by step usage of these tools was important.

On the second day, we delved in to the social media strategy meant to help pave way for their online engagement. This was in a detailed process looking at their social media goal/objective, their target audience, sample work plan, monitoring and evaluation, measuring impact and risk control process.

Achievements
By the end of the training, the participants were able to:

• Operate their twitter accounts. In total 9 all of them created their accounts. I encouraged them to experiment with their own accounts before embarking on their institutional one.
• They were able to upload videos on YouTube and foster conversation and engagement on the already existing ones.
• They were able to create a Facebook page “Kwale Arts “though new and modification is ongoing. Feel free to drop a like on the same page.
• They learnt how to create a blog using blogger.

Projections
After a week deliberation, the group will come up with a social media strategy which will help them in their engagement online. I will step in to help them get on their feet as pertains all these social media channels.

Recap of My Blogging Journey

Dear Readers

 
Thank You Photo:Courtesy Navjot Sharma

Its been almost 17 months since i created this blog and set out on a course to bridge the information gap surrounding agriculture, research and use of new and upcoming ICTs focusing on agriculture. Many a things , both nice and challenging have occured which has only made this blogging journey worth continuing. Your presence as evidenced by everyday s traffic rise, comments, and constant sharing of the posts in other social media channels has contributed to making the blogging journey more of a success. I owe you big time for this.


Well, I have received a couple of emails from readers suggesting some of the topics they would love to see featured on this blog. Some of them happen to be students in colleges seeking out companies where they could get placements for their internships,others on agricultural policies, new and applicable technologies in the field of agriculture and still more on step by step details on poultry keeping, urban and peri urban farming amongst many others. Well the list is endless and i am more than happy to offer a hand for each and every one of my readers in their area of interest.

In the coming weeks, i will be aggregating information concerning the same.

Well stay put as we set the ball rolling!

PS: Of late i have been involved in too much of social media reporting and hence once in a while i will be posting pieces on social media

The GCARD2 social media team receives certificate from Uruguay’s Minister of Agriculture

Members of the GCARD2 social media team receive their certificates from Uruguay’s Minister of Agriculture, Sunday.

After 2 days of intensive training on social media and social reporting, the GCARD2 Social Media Team received their Certificate from H.E. Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Tabaré Aguerre

The opening ceremony of the second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD2) took place on 28th October 2012 at the Conrad Hotel in Punta del Este, Uruguay.
Over 700 participants from around the world were present and came to discuss and share experiences on the 3 themes of the conference: Foresight, Partnerships and capacity building. The main issue to be addressed here is how to innovate and have high quality research so that the results help improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers?


Present at the opening ceremony of the conference were the GFAR Chair, Monty Jones, CGIAR Consortium Board Chair, Mr. Carlos Perez del Castillo, the President of IFAD, Kanayo Nwanze, and H.E Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Mr. Tabaré Aguerre.

In his speech, Mr. Monty Jones introduced the 3 themes of the conference and highlighted that Uruguay is a good location for the GCARD2, since they have many best practice case studies to learn from when it comes to agriculture and involving smallholder farmers for agricultural development.
The CGIAR Consortium Board Chair, Mr. C.P.del Castillo shared with the audience the importance of research for agricultural development and gave examples from the work being done by CGIAR. According to him, climate change will have a significant impact on Agriculture and the CGIAR has undergone reform to adapt to the situation. The research being carried out by the CGIAR centres is being done collectively on a wide range of topics.

The speech of the chair of IFAD, Mr. Kanayo Nwanze, was very focused on the conference themes. He highlighted that 2 years ago, Agricultural development was not acknowledged at national, regional and international level, but today it is not the case anymore. Agriculture is the concern of every one of us. The President of IFAD said that today we have the interest, commitment and funding, but how do we seize the opportunity?

Climate change is is here and going to affect us, and the President of IFAD said that future research to be carried out should be focused on climate smart agriculture. To do so, there should be partnerships among different stakeholders. Mr. Nwanze believes that f we want a change, we need to work with the farmers in the field and it is there that the impact of research will be seen. And he ended his speech with a very interesting statement: “The day when no child dies from hunger and malnutrition, we will know our work has been done”!

The Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Mr. Tabaré Aguerre gave an overview of Agriculture in Uruguay. He said that Uruguay is a net exporting country, while many countries in the world are net importers. But we have the same environment, challenges and opportunities. How has Uruguay been able to achieve success in its Agricultural sector?

In fact, the Uruguayan Agricultural strategy is based on competitiveness, social integration and natural resources policies, and we have a lot to learn from the country.

For the youth of the Social Media Team, it was a great privilege to receive their certificate for social media and social reporting from the hands of the Minister. As some said, it was a magical moment that will be engraved in our memories!

And talking about rewards and recognition to attract youth to agriculture, this is a concrete example of how young agriculture professionals from all over the world got the opportunity to cover the conference events and interact with the agriculture professionals present in Uruguay!

Blogpost by Nawsheen Hosenally, one of the GCARD2 Social Reporters.
Photo: Bernardo Thompson

Reblogged from the GCARD2 Blog : http://gcardblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/the-gcard2-social-media-team-receives-certificate-from-uruguays-minister-of-agriculture/#more-2315