AgResults Joins Agrilinks Webinar to Discuss How Prizes Use #ICTforAg to Drive Sustainability

Funding for digital agriculture remains largely driven by donors: In 2018, donors provided $212 million for digital agriculture activities versus $57 million that came from private investment, according to The Digitalization of African Agriculture Report. Given this split, it’s not surprising that many digital agricultural services and platforms often struggle to find a life of their own when an aid program ends. Development actors must find ways to be more creative and impactful with ICT during their projects so that local populations will leverage them for long-term success afterward.

Agrilinks’ ICTforAg: Unpacking Sustainability Journeys webinar, which takes place from 9:30 – 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday, February 3, tackles this issue. During the session, development experts will highlight their experiences supporting and enabling digital agriculture platforms to scale and sustain after donor engagement has ended. The panel includes:

• Josh Woodward – Senior Digital Advisor, USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (Moderator)
• Parasto Hamed – Field Coordinator, AgResults
• Jean-Michel Voisard – Director for Market Systems, Food Security and Agriculture Division, RTI International
• Casey Harrison – Livelihoods and Agribusiness Director, Nuru International

During AgResults’ portion, Parasto Hamed will present on how the Tanzania Dairy Productivity Challenge Project, a Pay-for-Results prize competition, is using a digital tool to track dairy input sales and delivery. Ms. Hamed will demonstrate how the project’s Data Collection and Tracking System (DCTS) is shaping how competing input suppliers gather and use data, in turn driving shifts in business models as they learn more about their consumers. In time, stronger supplier-producer relationships should translate into a more resilient dairy value chain, positioning the sector for long-term sustainability. AgResults’ prize competition model provides one journey to sustainability; RTI International and Nuru International will present other journeys based on their experiences.

This webinar will wrap up #ICTforAg Month, during which Agrilinks further explored themes that arose during the ICTforAg2020 Conference from November 2020. These themes included the role of systems-oriented solutions, digital inclusion, and private sector engagement. By continuing these conversations, the development sector will be better positioned to leverage ICT tools to maximize the impact of digital agriculture efforts and funding in the future.

To register for the webinar, please visit the event page on Agrilinks’ website.

Funded by USAID (US), FCDO (UK), DFAT (Australia), GAC (Canada), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, AgResults has designed and implemented prize competitions since 2013 that focus on spurring fundamental change in market relationships between the private sector and smallholder farmers.