Mobile applications for weather and climate information: their use and potential for smallholder farmers

Abstract

Mobile phones are increasingly being used to provide smallholder farmers with agricultural
\nand related information. There is currently great interest in their scope to communicate
\nclimate and weather information. Farmers consistently identify demand for weather
\ninformation and whilst ICTs may be one way of delivering this at scale there are concerns that
\nthis should not be seen as a panacea. At a time when there have been a range of initiatives and
\nprojects that have been implemented this paper seeks to draw lessons and identify key
\nconsiderations to inform the development of future mobile applications to provide climate
\nservices to smallholder farmers. A literature review, interviews with key informants and
\nexperts and 15 case study reviews were conducted. This focused principally on Sub Saharan
\nAfrica but included some examples from India.
\nDespite numerous initiatives few have developed fully beyond the pilot stage and few have
\nbeen evaluated. Some of the provision to date has been of questionable value to farmers. A
\nkey observation is that relatively little attention has been paid in design, to the needs for and
\nuse of both the information and technology by farmers, and few attempts made to differentiate
\nprovision according to gender and other demographic variables. Other factors contributing to
\nsuccess included communications approaches, which are interactive and/or involve trusted
\nintermediaries who can add context to and help interpret more complex information.
\nProviding weather information alongside other services as ‘bundles’ and in conjunction with
\ncomplementary communications approaches appears to work well. An important challenge is
\nhow to meet farmers’ needs for location specific, timely and relevant information in
\neconomically sustainable ways. More widely there are challenges in achieving successful
\nbusiness models and potential conflicts between initiatives driven by mobile network
\noperators and public goals.
\nThe study identified areas of considerable potential which include: the use of increasingly
\navailable mobile data connections to ensure locally relevant content is available to farmers in
\ntimely fashion (including both historical climate information and forecasts); development of
\nparticipatory decision making tools to enable farmers to interpret information for their own
\ncontexts and consider implications and management options; use of visual applications and
\nparticipatory video on mobile devices to enhance learning and advisory services for farmers; the potential for increased feedback between farmers and service providers as well as
\nincreased knowledge sharing between farmers provided by the use of social media.