"CTA’s ICT4Ag project (2014–15) enabled seven organisations in Africa and the Caribbean to develop, test and promote information services for smallscale farmers and fishers, traders and lobbying groups. Key recommendations: Understanding users’ needs requires intensive interaction with potenti ... al clients before designing the app. Pilot testing can fine-tune the app and introduce it to the users. Simple or fancy? Many users still lack a smartphone needed to display graphics, but have a “feature phone” that can send and receive text messages. Offering a text-based service is cheaper and easier than developing and maintaining a graphical interface. Face-to-face promotion and training familiarise users with the app and help build a large client base. In the medium term, however, user fees are unlikely to sustain such services; they will still depend on other sources of income, espcially donor funds. Partnerships are vital – both as a source of data to analyse and disseminate, and for support in promoting the app among clients." (Page 1) more

"Agripol is a platform that facilitates lobbying and advocacy of government, decision makers and the public by farmers’ organisations and others interested in agricultural development. Yam Pukri, which maintains the site, runs workshops and training courses to help its clients gain lobbying skills ... and learn to use the information on the platform. Agripol lobbies via the website itself, as well as with posters, flyers, newspapers and video. Activities to provide these services have included developing and maintain the website, training the client organisations on information technology, and support on advocacy. The key resources have been staff skills and data. Major partners are the Ministry of Agriculture (which is itself a target of lobbying), research institutes, and civil society." (Page 5) more