APPLICATION OF ICTs IN ACCESSING AGRICULTURAL

INFORMATION TO THE RURAL WOMEN OF KYANGATTO IN

NAKASEKE DISTRICT

bySarah KadduCoordinator

Presented at the EIFL Kampala Meeting 20- 22 August 2012

Introduction

A grant of USD 15,000 was approved to implement the project: Application of ICTs in accessing agricultural information to the RW of Kyangatto, Nakaseke District.

Project duration: 1 year April 2012 -March 2013

Aim of the project

To provide basic information and computer literacy skills to enable

utilisation of agricultural information by rural women of Kyangatto,

Nakaseke district.

Project objectives Sensitize 50 rural women and their spouses

about the importance of using the ICTs services

Offer refresher courses to the rural women in information storage and retrieval.

Project objectives cont’d…

Teach computer and information literacy skills- basics i.e ICTs in word processing, storage and retrieval of information - the agriculture web portal

Teach Information literacy skills – to help women farmers know their information needs and where and how to satisfy them and document these information needs

Project objectives cont’d…

To produce basic information resources in local/vernacular languages – translations, posters, pamphlets, etc

Use of ICTs machines – mobile phones, radio, among others for agricultural information access and retrieval to be able to meet their information needs

Project objectives cont’d…

Teach social networking tools using Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies – women group activities

To train them in reference and information services – question and answer sessions to satisfy the rural women’s information needs.

Progress made

Activities undertaken

Identification of 50 women farmers

Identification of the women & community leaders

Purchase of computers

Training of 50 women & sensitisation of their spouses 23rd – 27th July 2012

Image 1: Training session

Image 2: Training session

Image 3: Training session

Training manual developed Introduction to the popular ICTs- computers, mobile

phones etc Introduction to the Internet & the WWW What the Internet and mobile phone can do to the farmer Introduction to the Emails Introduction to the web 2.0 technologies Introduction to the ms word & excel Introduction to mobile sms services using frontline

software

Activities undertaken cont’d…

Face book page created -a plat form for rural women in sharing agricultural information amongst themselves. https://www.facebook.com/groups/332744883486948/

Data collection and data entry into the database

Activities undertaken cont’d…

Face book page

Challenges

Language of communication Basic qualification- min requirement of S.4

was high Inadequate computers Accessibility to the Internet - first days Inadequate training time

Pending activities

Approval of the Agricultural Web Portal

http://agrobiz.i-com.co.ug Linking face book page to web portal –as a

plat form for rural women in sharing agricultural information amongst themselves

Posting women farmers experience Translation services by Agric Expert

Thank You