US President Barack Obama. A suspect is reported to have confessed that he and three accomplices planned to stab Mr Obama with a knife during a summit in Istanbul on Monday. Photo/FILE

Photo: Edgar Mwakaba/IRIN

Mobile phone technology could be used to correctly diagnose and treat crop diseases

Such a project would, for example, make use of mobile devices equipped with Global Positioning Systems and cameras.

“A trained community worker can input the location coordinates, take a photo of the diseased crop, send it to our database, from which we would forward the image for expert review and feedback,” Whitney Gantt, a project officer with the Grameen Foundation, told IRIN. “In addition to being able to identify a disease, people will know what to do.”

The Grameen Foundation is conducting a seven-month pilot project in two Ugandan districts, whereby community workers collect and disseminate information on crop acreage and projected harvests through mobile device surveys.

In the scheme, 45 community knowledge workers (CKWs), selected from existing farmers’ groups, are trained in using mobile devices for data collection.

Each has a mobile phone, some of which are equipped with cameras. From a drop-down menu on the phones, the CKWs are able to enter the required data, which is then transmitted to the foundation’s database for agricultural forecasting.

The phone cost ranges from US$30 each to $330. “It is a cost-effective method and we are also testing the three devices to see which collects better data,” Gantt said.

Challenges

Finding CKWs who are literate and fluent in English is a challenge and it is difficult reaching women farmers as most phone-owners are men.

Network connectivity and lack of electricity in the rural parts are a problem and can delay information transmission.

Ensuring accurate data is also a challenge. “Getting information that is actionable is very useful… how do you ensure that the data is accurate?”

Photo: David Gough/IRIN David Gough/IRIN

Location-specific information will not only maximise crop yields but also reduce uncertainties in production, according to researchers

Mapping

In another application, a study in Ethiopia is expected to capture information on rural road types, sea and inland water ports, airports, border crossings, private and community depots and silos and market locations for use by farmers and other service providers, according to Tesfaye Korme of the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development.

The use of high-resolution mapping is another possibility. “High-resolution mapping for fields would not only help with field acreage knowledge but could also be a precursor for sustainable land management,” said Pierre Traore of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. It could also be used to map low fertility areas within farms.

Crop yields

According to researchers, geospatial information on soils and the best crops, appropriate farming techniques and early warning on droughts, floods, diseases and pests, as well as up-to-date market and price information, would not only maximise crop yields and market access but also improve livelihoods and reduce uncertainties in production.

Such information does not reach those who most need it. “The information is often used by a select group of project farmers yet many such projects do not last beyond project funding,” said Jennifer Barnes of the consulting group CH2M Hill. “Current data is also not provided in relevant time and map scales yet there is a need for the information to reach farmers rapidly.”

According to Enrica Porcari of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) : “There is a lot of information at the policy level yet the problems are at the local level … Although we have solutions, they often don’t come off the shelf.

“There are challenges in the nodes of the chain from the researchers to the farmers,” Porcari said, adding that the mandate of research institutions did not extend to dissemination of information to the farmers. CGIAR is holding a meeting in Nairobi on opportunities in geospatial technology and accessing a broader range of users.

aw/mw source.www.irinnews.org

Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN

Doctors have begun performing near-free caesareans in Benin (file photo)

COTONOU,  – ‘s government is in its first week of helping women pay for caesarean operations in an effort to reduce the number of women dying during childbirth every year, estimated at 2,000 according to the government.

As of 1 April, the US$200 caesarean subsidy is offered to women seeking care in more than 40 hospitals in mostly urban areas nationwide.

Market vendor in Benin’s business capital Cotonou, Marie Reine Amouzouvi, told IRIN that when her doctor recently told her she needed a caesarean section to safely deliver her child, she was worried. I did not know it would be free. If there were not this free operation, I would have died along with my child because I would not have had money to pay for the operation.

The head of the gynaecology clinic at the state-run National Hospital and University Centre in Cotonou, José de Souza, told IRIN that before the subsidy, the hospital had to absorb costs to perform life-saving caesarean operations. This [subsidy] helps medical practitioners. We are able to cover our costs, which makes our job easier.

The government has linked the country’s high level of maternal and infant deaths in childbirth to long hospital waits for caesarean operations as underfunded hospitals scrambled to assemble the necessary equipment.

In launching the subsidies earlier this month Minister of Health Issifou Takpara said in a nationally televised address that women will have a shorter wait time for their operations and instructed hospitals to take the necessary steps to render [gynaecological] services operational 24 yours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year.

But hospital director Souza told IRIN that for the subsidies to make a difference, hospitals need more cash. The state has pledged more funds to solve staffing shortages, improve operating rooms and purchase equipment.

…If there were not this free operation, I would have died along with my child…

As of 2004 Benin fell short of the World Health Organization-recommended minimum of one doctor per 10,000 people to ensure basic care.

In December 2006 President Boni Yayi pledged free health care for pregnant women and all children under five years old, which would cost the state $50 million, according to the Ministry of Health.

Governments and health analysts have considered cutting health fees as one way to improve the health of some cash-strapped patients.

A government health inspector who works with midwives in Cotonou, Adèkambi Adjovi, told IRIN that even a steeply-subsidised caesarean operation may not be enough for some women. The circuit [of health care costs] for women who have caesarean operations should be covered entirely because now they pay post-operative costs themselves.

Medical director Souza told IRIN it is important to make sure hospitals do not increase their operating costs to take advantage of the subsidy at the state’s “ and patients’“ expense.

The Ministry of Health reported 14,000 women giving birth through caesarean in 2008 and has estimated an additional 3,000 mothers will need the operation in 2009, based on population estimates.

pt/gc/np
source.www.irinnews.org

It is strange that the Kenyan PM Raila Odinga thinks his boss’s style of leadership is primitive.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga (centre), Fisheries minister Paul Otuoma (left) and local residents at Mombasa’s Mkomani area on Monday. Photo/Laban Walloga