The Internet and cell phones: pillars for location-specific agriculture
Information and communication technologies (ICT) play a critical role in location-specific agriculture. For both research and development, we won’t get very far without it. The Internet and cell phones are the two key pillars of ICT for Africa. Most would agree that Internet access and cell phone coverage could be much better in Africa. But what will it take to get there?
An article in today’s New York Times suggests that at least we are started on the path to a better Internet for Africa. Over the next year the SEACOM consortium will build 10 new undersea connections to Africa. The article points out that these connections will be the Internet highways. You still have to build the last 10 kilometers, but this is a big step in the right direction.
Hopefully, expanded cell phone coverage won’t be far behind. Piet Buys and his colleagues report in this month’s World Development that simply changing competition policies could improve cell phone coverage by 100% in Africa (the report includes highly detailed maps of recent cell phone expansion and the probability of coverage).
There is a lot of talk about how these developments in ICT are going to have important economic impacts. Location-specific agriculture will surely be one of the biggest winners.
Last Updated (Monday, 01 February 2010 20:45)