RE: Rationale Behind Cell Phones for Nigerian Farmers




The Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme is a wonderful idea which delivers farm inputs via electronic medium to pre-registered farmers directly through their phones. The fact that middle men have seemingly been eliminated from the system, thereby getting to the target of importance which is the farmer is commendable. However, I find some taking points interesting;
1.      The according to the minister, he said “Some people think that our farmers are uneducated and cannot use cell phones. The evidence does not support that”. Right! So if this is the case one would expect that these farmers would already have phones and don’t need one. 

2.       There are farmers already registered on this scheme, does it register their phones or the SIM?  Because it is possible to affix the SIM on another phone and the number would remain the same. Or are these phones going to be equipped with special features that the SIM can only work on these phones? Now what would be the rational of doing so? Is it to disallow the farmer use the phone for other purposes like his daily calls and text messaging? 

3.       How frequent is the message from government that the farmers must have a dedicated phone solely for government information?

4.       Another laudable idea is the issue of preventing contractors buying old and/or refurbished tractors, now to be done by government who directly give it to farmers. Again what is the role of the cell phone in this? I don’t exactly see it, if my SIM is already registered and it is in the data base of government, I don’t see how it matters what kind of cell phone I use to get the information be it htc, BlackBerry, Nokia, Huawei and what not!

5.       Now the contradiction. If the article already said our farmers are educated enough to use cell phones it then automatically means they would own the one, because they would also know that it is a vital accessory of their business, yet same article is telling us 71% of our farmers do not have cell phones according to their research? In my opinion it is either the farmers are indeed too uneducated to won a phone hence, the 71%, that there is no network coverage in those areas or the information supplied is simply incorrect! I mean how poor is a farmer that he won’t be able to afford a phone yet can hire a tractor? And what kinds of phones are we looking at here?

6.       Now if the information that we have up to 14million it then follows that we have about 10million farmers without phones if they are in places with no coverage of what use would the phones be for them? And of these 10million farmers do we know how many are in areas with coverage? If these farmers are widespread in the country what is the incentive for a network company who didn’t see the need to expand to such remote area before now do so? Of what economic benefit is a few scattered coverage is to them? And BTW have these company been spoken to, to see the feasibility of same?

7.       The anti-climax. Farmers have been screaming hollow that they don’t even need the phones, because they now fear that they would be forced to jettison their old phones for  the so called  new phones,  even though subsidised would still be an added expenses. 

Conclusion
How much really is a phone in Nigeria? And how much is a SIM? Is it not surprising that a farmer can rent a tractor, buy fertilisers, hire vehicles to transport their goods yet cannot afford a phone? If most farmers are truly ‘educated’ enough to own a phone, how can this be correct? I don’t really see the sense in this phone-for-farmers thing no matter the angle government wants to come in from, there is hardly any farmer really into farming business  that does not own a phone. However , this is not to say ICT or technology is unimportant in agriculture far from it, in fact it is the bedrock of opportunities in agriculture. The GES scheme is a good and laudable one, if the claims that it has been more effective than previous are correct. The intentions seem good even though I am yet to see physically a farmer using this scheme, not that I am denouncing it that it exist. I would personally want to meet a farmer on this scheme sooner or later.

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