AgLinks Feedback Synthesis

1. AgLinks Feedback Synthesis Tim Martyn

2. Overview 1. General improvements – user friendliness, look, categorizing information, searching for information, expanding on what is there, keeping it current and facilitating social media 2. Donors – using value chain analysis to analyse project interventions, summarizing, and sustainability. 3. Farmers – visual information, audio, info available on mobile phones and access to practical tools 4. Industry – prices, regulations, standards, contacts, transport and freight costs, and business devl. tools 5. Government – improved technologies, improved inputs, ICT extension aids, statistical trends, case studies, trade rules and negotiations

3. 1. General improvements PRESENTATION OF INFORMATION • Change the font/size for text to make it biggest, easier to read. Particularly over front photo so it can be read more easily. (Hold cursor over the photo, stops scrolling?) • Can we make the front page more colourful, with more photos of a range of different products available? Can we make it all fit on one page to avoid scrolling to the bottom to get access to most recent information, etc. • Arranging information via commodity, making it more searchable by commodity is a great idea – SO WE NEED MORE INFORMATION FROM YOU. More on all the important commodities • Make it easier to locate information by country. Perhaps a drop down box accessible from the front page? Also a search box on the front page could help. • Include a date of publish for all the documents so we know how recent they are (particularly for market reports, etc) • Include an abstract or short description of each paper or document

4. 1. General (cont) FACILITATING DISCUSSION , INPUT AND OUTPUTS • Discussion forums on some of the ‘big issues’, about problems encountered from the region, the sorts of interventions that worked, etc. Host webinars to help provide more information about these issues, and create discussion. Could link to agriculture ministry help desks where experts provide more information and follow up. • Separate out the ‘solutions’ from the big issues, and associate with a ‘how to’ portion of the website to provide positive guidance on the steps that farmers/industry could take • Develop a suggestions box which displays comments and suggestions for the website, on the website. We can leave this open for the next month or so while the website is being developed. Use this to make our improvements

5. 1. General Cont KEEPING IT CURRENT AND USERS UP TO DATE • Latest news displayed on website – we have events calendar, blogs, can also link the webpage to latest agricultural newsletters (e.g. LRD, Spore, AgrikultaNius from Solomons or others) and stories in print media • Send regular updates and links back to the website via email (from contact list) and facebook (for those that have become facebook friends of SPC) • Can we make use of country contact points to help facilitate information coming from countries – are there communication officers in ministries who can help with materials, contacts, events, news, etc?

6. 1.General (cont) SOCIAL MEDIA • Use social media to run competitions to generate new content for the site, i.e. writing case studies in order to win prize (trip to come and present at a regional forum) • Can we have more training on use of social media for encouraging connectivity and relationship building between government, farmers, industry, others in the value chain.

7. 2. Donors/project partners • CO-ORDINATION: Website could be used to provide information on all the different projects that are working in the region, which people can access. Website can also assist with project co-ordination by ‘value chain mapping’ project intervention by commodity by country For Fiji we developed a ‘map’ of all the different projects by the areas they targeted along the value chain, whether improving inputs (soil, seeds) or post-harvest handling, markets (market access). Can we help do this for other countries, for other commodities? • Ministries of Finance maintain lists of all the agriculture sector projects, can this information be sorted/filtered by commodity and intervention type, so that we can get value chain or commodity chain maps of all the agriculture sector interventions • Could be done in association with the agriculture sector plans and policies being developed in partnership with SPC and other donors (FAO, etc)

8. 2. Donors/project partners (cont) CO-ORDINATION CONTINUED • Also value chain concept can be extended further to map contact database by a chain, rather than just location. Once we have contact list developed we can locate all the actors for each commodity by country, or for the region, and present that in a commodity map (rather than a geographic map)?

9. 2. Donors/project partners (cont) COUNTRY SUMMARIES • Could provide access to country factsheets, key statistical information and industry information, any other key issues. SPC PRISM prepares regional statistical handbooks with information on all countries, and many country statistical offices produce national factsheets with key information and trends. These could be added to the website as part of country profiles.

10. 2. Donors/project partners (cont) SUSTAINABILITY • Given the amount of agricultural research, market research and other information available here, the costs of maintaining it all on the website, are there ways of developing revenue streams via this website?

11. 3. Farmers ICT’S • Need to link into mobile phones, identifying that connection issues may mean that farmers in remote areas unable to access, so need to be able to send some information via mobile phone. REMEMBER the website is designed for smart phones as well so that it can be read on all electronic devices • ITC and Fiji AgTrade developing some great new mobile phone based tools, which are farmer focussed, private sector driven developments: mAlerts, weather, Makete, etc. We will try and link to these via the website and promote the replication of these in other interested countries through our new PAPP project.

12. 3. Farmers (cont) VISUAL, AUDIO AND PRACTICAL TOOLS • More information on gross margins, profitability ratios, other tools to help farm as a business • More extension guides, practical tools for farming added here (probably many, many of these in agricultural ministries around the region – please send them to us!) • Use of other mediums – audio ‘podcasts’ of farm extension, video extension tools, other ways of communicating technical information to farmers. Graphical representation, cartoons and other visual aids to help explain the issues. Farmers learn by watching and hearing, not so much by reading

13. 3. Farmers (cont) LOCATION AND CO-ORDINATION • Collect all the contact lists of all the farmer associations and organisations out there, so we can load these up, will be critical to making this work. We need name, organisation, location, commodity. GIS location would be great

14. 4. Industry MARKET INFORMATION • More information on prices. Interest in having access to world prices, spot prices, market prices in Pacific countries and the major trading partners. Where this information is publically available we can link to this – e.g. to AgTrade trade statistics database for Fiji, and Fugalei market prices for Samoa and Tonga market prices studies (links to Agriculture Ministry and Statistics Office website publications); to world prices for major commodities like coffee, cocoa, copra (links to commodity association websites, like ICCO); to the Pacific Trade Statistics database (www.pacifictradestatistics.com) which maintains a searchable database of Pacific trade flows by commodity). PTI&C in Auckland also maintains market prices website, link to that.

15. 4. Industry (cont) TOOLS • More posters and practical guides on quality standards could be produced and shared here, help get into the hands of farmers and focus them on market standards. • More information on market access issues and requirements, per product, per country: labelling, biosecurity, food safety, rules of origin, etc • Include business development services and software, accounting tables, software to help prepare a business plan, to help prepare for a loan.com, etc

16. Industry (cont) LOCATION AND CO-ORDINATION • Lists of exporters and importers, what commodities they are interested in, to expand contact database TRANSPORT • Transport schedules – shipping schedules and aeroplane schedules. Not likely to be able to get these for all countries. Costs of freight from different countries also commercial info often; but major issues around freight, new developments could be identified and shared.

17. 5. Government TECHNOLOGY • More information on farm and processing technologies. Need a new technology component. Good examples of some countries in the region utilising appropriate technology (e.g. hydroponics, crop coverings, land management, contour farming etc) can we have more information on them, how they were used, their impact, etc. Information on traditional knowledge and technologies here could also be shared through this website. DSAP, a previous project funded by the EU, trialled a lot of appropriate small-scale, sustainable technologies and case studies on the design, and impact of these, could be shared

18. 5. Government (cont) TOOLS • Also could add more information on soil type and crop suitability maps to help with planning. These have been produced for some countries (e.g. Fiji and Samoa), more could/should be produced for other countries • Posters and other visual tools on production techniques great way of helping with extension, need to produce more and upload those that exist.

19. 5. Government (cont) ANALYSIS • Case studies – success stories, learn more from these. Can commission some more of these (along the lines of Learning for growth series). Perhaps focus on one country per month, provide a new story or series of stories from that country on what is happening there. • Display more information on statistical trends in graphs, to help illustrate some of the key trends that have been identified. Help to policy-makers.