This document summarizes a pilot project using a digital learning platform (DLP) to deliver agricultural extension services to smallholder farmers in Tanzania. The DLP was used to provide an interactive course on sesame production and marketing to farmers in 4 villages. Community agents and farmers were trained on tablet devices. The course covered cultivation practices, post-harvest handling, and marketing. An evaluation will assess knowledge retention and adoption of recommended practices. Challenges include reliable power, internet connectivity, and developing a business model for sustainability at scale. The DLP shows potential but must be part of a holistic approach including enabling policies and market access.

1. Energy for Agricultural Innovation
A digital learning platform for strengthening
agricultural extension services for smallholder
farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa
Claudia Canales, Max Marcheselli; Tumaini Elibariki; William Mwakyami; Jon
Knight; Ross Taylor; Erik Childerhouse;
Email: claudia@b4fa.org

2. Biosciences for farming in Africa (B4FA)
Activity 1 – Novel publication and web site
Activity 2 – Journalism course in plant breeding technologies
Activity 3 – Scoping studies on how to strengthen
agricultural extension services for smallholder farmers in
Sub-Saharan Africa
Aim: encourage dialogue and promote a better understanding
of the available options for improving agricultural productivity
in four African countries – Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria and
Uganda.
Focus: plant genetics technologies (traditional and modern)
Funded by the John Templeton Foundation, Malaysian Commonwealth
Studies Centre (MCSC) and the Cambridge Malaysian Education
Development Trust

3. Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Main source of employment in rural areas: food and income
• Largely practiced at the subsistence level
• Rate of adoption improved crop varieties much lower than in the
rest of the world
• Productivity in African countries is well below the global average
Increasing agricultural productivity key development goal for
poverty reduction and increased food security

4. Agricultural value chains
• Increasingly knowledge dependent
• Increasingly energy dependent
ENERGY FOR KNOWLEDGE:
Pilot project set to determine if a Digital Learning Platform
on mobile devices can be deployed (offline) to add value to
existing initiatives delivering agricultural extension services to
smallholder farmers in East Africa

5. The Digital Learning Platform
Developed by the Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre (MCSC)
and the Cambridge Malaysian Education Development Trust to teach
English, mathematics and public health to children and adults in
Malaysia and India
• Multilingual, very robust data management system easy to
administer anywhere in the world
• 70 interactive activities (online)
• Supports text, audio, image and video files
• Records user data (individual log in required) and tracks progress
through time
• Deployed online on computers and on/offline on mobile devices

6. Case Study: FARM Africa
Sesame Production and
Marketing Project
• Sesame: suited to semi-arid conditions; high and stable
market demand
• Improved varieties released by Naliendele Agricultural
Research Institute (NARI), Tanzania.
• FARM Africa project: 1) distribution network of improved
seeds 2) trainings on best practices for production 3)
linkages to markets; marketing training

7. Challenges of traditional training methods
• Scaling up of traditional training programmes beyond
10,000 farmers prohibitively expensive
• Efficacy of training depends on the degree of
preparation, and on level of commitment and talent of
individual trainers
• Inclusion of farmers’ perspective technically difficult
and expensive
Aim of pilot: obtain proof of
principle of suitability of the DLP to
deliver agricultural extension
services to rural communities

8. B4FA/Farm Africa Collaboration (Sep 2013)
Endadoshi
Kakoi
Magara
Endagile
Babati
Babati
Dareda
Project sites: 4 off-grid villages in Babati District, Tanzania
• 2 villages trained on tablets: 5 contact farmers/community agents
(CAs) and 1 extension agent/village. Each CA to train 50 farmers
• 2 villages traditional training (demonstration plots)- 5 farmers/
village

9. Project components:
1. Development of a modular course on sesame production and
marketing (English and Swahili). All materials (images, videos,
audio) developed locally with the involvement of the farming
community
1. Development of the back-end application to increase off-line
functionality in mobile devices and cope with intermittent
internet connection during updating
2. Delivery of the course
Baseline level of knowledge determined, and demographic and
socio-economic data recorded (with users’ consent)

10. Module 1:
Land
preparation
Module 2:
Planting
Module 3:
Plant care
Module 4:
Harvesting
Module 4:
Post-
harvesting
Module 5:
Marketing
Sesame production digital course
Cultivation
practices
Post-harvest
management
and
marketing
Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
Land preparation
Selection of seed
variety
Soil testing
Credit
Planting
Thinning
Weeding
Crop nutrition management
Plant care (pests and diseases)
Harvesting
Drying
Storage
Sorting and grading
Record keeping
Market analysis for
better prices
Production
planning
Aim: deliver information when it can influence decision making

12. First tablet training with contact farmers
(community agents CAs)- Nov 2013

13. The education-entertainment model
Very ancient form of knowledge sharing (traditional fables aimed at
social change)
Very effective means of communicating
We value entertainment in its own right
Increases ownership of project
Ngarenairobi field trip:
cinema set up by Mobisol
customer

14. Sesame song competition, Endadoshi Farmer Day
Competition entered by 3 traditional music groups (over 20 people
each), 3 rappers/hip-hop singers from Babati, and a man who
composed a poem
Assessed on content (recommended sesame production practices)
and artistic merits- cash prizes
Very high attendance of event

15. • Project evaluation underway (knowledge retention and uptake
of recommended practices)
• Further modules to be developed: marketing & value addition;
farming as a business; conservation agriculture; integrated pest
management
For a scale-up project:
• Power source (now 6 km walk)
• Connectivity (mobile Internet)
• Business model for sustainability: establishing a functional
reward system for CAs (eg. linking the provision of education to
aggregation of sales as a business opportunity; subscription)
Next steps

16. Advantages of the digital learning platform:
• Timely delivery of information
• Availability of modules for repeat viewing
• Easier for women to access information (flexibility of timing to
view the course)
• Locally generated resources/teaching materials: ownership of
course
• Local knowledge can be easily incorporated.
• Administration system allows determining who is using the
course, and how successfully
• Information can be targeted to specific users (gender,
geographic location, language)
• Tablet can be used as portable
demonstration plot

17. Challenges:
• Local logistics (energy, connectivity, transport, etc.).
• Success dependent on commitment of individual CAs
• Information delivered needs to meet actual demand of users
• DLP currently linked to one economic activity- high risk (dry
year)
• A good business plan is required for scaling up the project and
ensuring sustainability
• Access to knowledge only one part of the puzzle: enabling
policies required (eg. financing, energy, infrastructure, access to
markets)- integrated approach required