Uganda - Mfarmer Provides Market Information Through SMS

Description

Mobile phone penetration in Uganda has grown from 1.9 percent in 2002 to a projected 70 percent by the end of 2014. With over 80 percent of Ugandan's employed in agricultural production, mobile technology has created new opportunities for smallholder farmers to improve their returns. MFarmer SMS is a text message based program designed to provide farmers with agricultural market price information and weather updates via their mobile phones.

The MFarmer SMS program was launched by the Nakaseke Community Telecentre and is built upon the FrontlineSMS platform. Nakaseke Community Telecentre's mission is to "...ensure that information Technologies are applied to stimulate and develop sustainable capacity for Rural development, reduction of poverty and minimize over dependency for a better livelihood of the Rural poor". In its first year of operation (2013), the MFarmer SMS program served over 600 farmers and is ultimately intended to support over 45000 farmers in the Nakaseke district.

Nakaseke district was selected as the site to initiate the MFarmer SMS program because it is the location of one of Uganda's Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs). The CMCs are part of a global initiative by UNESCO to promote community empowerment by supporting community radio and providing access to the Internet.