Smart Phones Assist Farmers in Zambia in Faster Organic Certification
News
Jul 07 2010, Zambia [ZM], Agriculture
- Source:
- Olaf Erz [oerz(at)iicd.org]
- Country:
- Zambia [ZM]
- Sector:
- Agriculture
Over 1000 organic farmers throughout Zambia will be able to receive organic certification through the use of smart phones in the future. With the support of IICD a digital data collection system will be put in place and people are trained in the use of this new system.
Farmers will be visited by extension officers of the
Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ). These
officers store product data on their phone and send the information to
a central database located at the OPPAZ head office. Extension officers
now mostly use pen and paper to collect data. It takes
a considerable amount of time until the data is received at the
headquarters. And not everything ends up in the database
correctly.
With the support of IICD, data collection through a combination of
web application and smart phones with the Android operating system will be put in place. The
collected data will be analysed and records are computed and stored on
the central system or linked to the website of OPPAZ.
By using the new system, certification will become easier and more
transparent. Most of the required data and documents are collected
within a short period of time and with less labour involved. This leads
to faster national and international certification.
What’s more, the system has a double function as internal control
system and as a marketing tool. In the near future, international
buyers can easily find information on member farmers’ goods on the
OPPAZ website.