News

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 18:18

OMPT has partnered with CEASPA (Center for Panamanian Social Studies and Action), an NGO based in Panama that educates indigenous peoples and promotes equity, economic growth, democratic...

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 18:17

OMPT's Action Research projects' aim is to gather evidence in the field on the effectiveness of education through videos shown via pico projectors. With these Action Research projects and by...

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 18:14

Recently, we were contacted by the Sunrise Education Foundation in Kathmandu, Nepal. This foundation works to improve the quality and effectiveness of community schools throughout the country....

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - 22:54

Your Tax-Deductible Contribution Goes Directly Towards Equipping Instructors Working in the Poorest Places on Earth. Their future is in your hands.

Friday, May 6, 2011 - 17:24

OMPT spoke with Andy Lieberman; the former executive director of a Guatemalan non-governmental organization called Ajb'atz' Enlace Quiche. Currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area, he has...

Friday, May 6, 2011 - 17:22

Impact Network is a NPO that builds sustainable schools in rural Africa. They have built two community schools in Zambia so far and are now working on their...

Friday, May 6, 2011 - 17:21

OMPT had an opportunity to correspond with Kwame K. Ohene-Adu, a native of Ghana. He has been working in the field of IT, especially software development....

Friday, March 25, 2011 - 20:37

Digital Green, an India based non-profit organization, aims to teach agricultural practices by using videos in remote areas in India. OMPT has supported Digital Green through providing audio/...

Friday, March 25, 2011 - 20:34

Literacy Bridge is an U.S. non-profit organization which focuses on the empowerment of children and adults through literacy education and knowledge sharing. They work together with rural...

Friday, March 25, 2011 - 20:25

Internews is an international media development organization located in Northern California. Its mission is to empower local media around the world so that people can get information they need and...

Project Name (Full name): 
21st Century Agricultural Education and Information Systems Project (WorldAgInfo)
Country: 
Various
Project Dates: 
2007
Subject: 

The WorldAgInfo Design Team was given the opportunity to explore the landscape of agricultural education and information systems in South Asia and Africa. The goal of the project is to recommend potential areas of investment that will improve the effectiveness of agricultural education and ultimately the practice of small-scale agriculture at the local level.

Target Audience: 

Smallholder farmers in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Year Produced: 
2007
Results: 

More cell phone use was found than expected. However, agricultural information was not often available or sought via cell phone. Though many areas are constrained by access, building data bases which make real time agricultural information available to farmers by cell phone is a promising area to pursue.

Traditional print media area still an important source of information for many (literate) smallholders.Perhaps technology-delivered alternatives can be developed to more closely parallel those traditional delivery systems.

Smallholders seem open to new ideas – new crops and new sources of income, but in general they lack the infrastructure support that would give them confidence to try, since they lack good safety nets and have little margin for failure. Exploring alternatives would seem to be a good investment.