Technology and its Role in Transforming Smallholder Farmers in Rural Africa

With food security high on the global agenda, and the year 2014 declared as the International Year of Family Farming by the UN General Assembly as well as the Year of Agriculture by the African Union, there has been a lot of discussion about transforming smallholder farmers, particularly in Africa. At the forefront of these recent discussions is the financial inclusion of these farmers as well as the promotion of smallholder farmer groups that are linked to markets. However, what we also need to bring to the table is a key element at the core of transforming and strengthening these farmers: technology.

Smallholder farmers are a marginalized group that has previously been overlooked in the advancement of farming technology. The focus has primarily been on elevating commercial farmers in developing countries and not so much on smallholder farmers. These farmers primarily practice subsistence farming due to their low volumes of output in comparison to their commercial competitors. Unfortunately, this tunnel vision has resulted in the social, financial, educational and technological exclusion of a group of farmers that ironically represents a large majority of farmers in the developing world.

Farmer selling his poultry at a local market in Iki-Iki.

In Africa, one of the most common agricultural practices in rural households is poultry farming. Although it is often overlooked due to the tendency to relate farming to cash crops or to focus on larger livestock and fisheries, the reality is that poultry keeping is regularly a primary or secondary farming practice for smallholder farmers. What makes it so prevalent is because the landscape, size of land, weather conditions, and agricultural waste are conducive to free-range, poultry farming. Furthermore, the high reproductive rate and low maintenance costs, especially for chickens, make poultry farming a valuable source of income and food security. However, for these smallholder farmers to find success in any type of farming, they need to have access to the right technology, and in the case of poultry farmers, the technology that matters most pertains to the health of their birds.

Chicken awaits vaccination  under his owner's arm.

When referring to technology, it is not just about mechanical or electronic equipment. It is about all elements of technology that play a part in the success of a smallholder farmer. For rural poultry farmers, the health-related technology for their poultry is often inaccessible, inadequate and unaffordable. In Uganda, for instance, one of the greatest threats to poultry is Newcastle Disease (ND), a highly contagious, viral disease that kills hundreds of thousands of birds in sub-Saharan Africa every year. There are ND vaccines that can protect these farmers from losing their birds but the only vaccine that has been available to them does not suit rural settings. It is thermolabile and therefore requires a cold-chain delivery system, which makes it inaccessible to rural farmers who live in remote areas where this important requirement cannot be met. Fortunately, a local manufacturing company recently introduced a thermostable vaccine called KUKUSTAR into the market. This new vaccine can maintain its efficacy at room temperature for up to three days unlike the other vaccine that loses its potency in less than three hours. This new technology allows a more innovative and strategic distribution system, which will give rural farmers access to a quality vaccine that was designed based on their limitations.

Vaccinating ducks in a household in Eastern Uganda.

Poultry farming is just one of many examples where technology provided or available to smallholder farmers is not appropriate or adequate. The reality is that even if we provide farmers with financial support and give them access to markets, these initiatives cannot have their desired effect without the correct technology. Money cannot buy technology that is not available or does not exist, and market access depends on volumes that can only be achieved with the use of the right technology. So the bottom line is that technology, more specifically appropriate technology that incorporates local context, education and a strategic approach for distribution, is at the core of transforming and strengthening smallholder farmers.

Although there are other issues in play that affect their level of success, such as politics and climate change, it is clear that the introduction and creation of appropriate technology can have a sizeable impact on smallholder farmers. This in turn could significantly influence poverty alleviation, public health and global development as a whole in a sustainable fashion. So moving forward, we also need to focus on technology if we want to achieve this overall transformation of smallholder farmers.

“A Father Learning from his Son” - Profiles on Farmers using KUKUSTAR

Yokosofat Mwayi is a 48-year-old farmer in Budaka, which is located in Eastern Uganda. He has been farming poultry for years and has witnessed the loss of his birds on numerous occasions to outbreaks of Newcastle Disease. 

One day, his son came home and told him and his wife about KUKUSTAR after learning about the vaccine at a local market day (during our KUKUSTAR promotions). He advised his father and mother to vaccinate their birds because it would protect them from the outbreaks. At first, they doubted him and dismissed his claims. However, after many discussions, Omuria's son was able to convince his parents to try the vaccine and they administered it to three chickens.  To their surprise, the chickens survived while others died, and since then, Omuria and his wife started vaccinating their poultry. His son is now the advisor for the community and works as a community-based vaccinator, vaccinating their birds as well as those of their neighbors who pay him to purchase KUKUSTAR and vaccinate their poultry.