Identifying Information Needs of Farmers and Responding to them appropriately

 

 

The Question and Answer Service (QAS) Voucher System (VS) in Uganda

2009

 

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) regularly carries out evaluations to review the relevance of its products and services to ACP recipients. Consequently in 2008, the Centre carried out an Information Outreach and Impact Review (INFOIR). INFOIR rated the QAS project highly.  It revealed good will and interest in the service by partners and the need to look at the location of QAS coordinating centres as well as the various approaches used to improve outreach to farmers and extension agents as the primary beneficiaries of the service. One of the action points being applied to the QAS in 2009 as a result of INFOIR feedback is the validation of various QAS approaches to recommend them as case studies / models through an evaluation.

 
The VS is the right given to a farmer or group of farmers to receive a customised response to solve a specific problem. It entitles them to submit an information request that addresses their problem and in return receive a response from an expert. It is a practical way of drawing out and addressing farmers’ information needs. The distribution of vouchers in different areas reveals recurrent grass root problems in various agro-ecological zones and or production systems. This allows for the identification of information needs of the larger farming community which are then responded to by mass media i.e. radio.
 
The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), in collaboration with Information Systems for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research and Rural Development (BLE-ISICAD) and other partners in Benin carried out a pilot QAS VS project in 2004. This project led to the further development of the QAS VS and the online platform. In 2005, a planning workshop was carried out in Nairobi, Kenya to upscale the project to the Eastern African countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The current QAS VS project in Uganda will capitalize on experiences gained from past voucher system projects. During the introductory phase of the QAS VS to Uganda in 2006, CTA in collaboration with REN successfully implemented the project in 2 districts i.e. Kayunga and Mukono in Central Uganda. The pilot project benefited fourty (40) farmers directly. 
 
In line with the roadmap that was developed to upscale the QAS VS in East Africa, the project was implemented at six sites in three districts of Uganda – Kayunga, Kyenjojo, and Nebbi in 2008. Three hundred (300) vouchers representing 300 new questions were handed out by Field Agents (FAs) to small-scale farmers in three different agro-ecological zones. Timely and accurate responses to all questions on best practices were provided to the farmers, and evaluated by them. Some of the project outputs included an online database and publication of 300 questions and their answers at (http://www.isicad.org/cta), mobilisation of agricultural expertise and the development of a database of experts with 29 entries. There was also increased outreach of relevant agricultural information through the production and broadcasting of fourty eight (48) QAS radio programmes in four languages (English, Luganda, Luo, and Runyakitara) that reached thousands of people.
 

The proposed project will maintain past sites in the districts of Kayunga, Kyenjojo, and Nebbi. Additional new sites have been selected in the districts of Kasese, Mityana, Soroti, and Wakiso. In total, the project will cover 7 districts and 14 sites. Five hundred and fifty (550) vouchers representing new questions, (50 for each of the old districts and 100 for each of the new districts), will be handed out by Field Agents (FAs) to farmer groups and small-scale farmers in each of the five different agro-ecological zones. Project outreach will also increase to six languages (English, Luganda, Luo, Runyakitara, Rukhonzo, and Ateso). Appropriate responses to all questions on best practices will be provided to farmers, and evaluated by them. The questions and their answers will be published on the project website.