Making ICTs work for Agro-pastoral Livelihood: Using the Telecentre as Learning Tool for Agro-pastoralists Communities in Tanzania

Abstract

Traditional agricultural extension services intended to serve agro-pastoralists in Tanzania and Sub-Saharan

Africa at large have failed to make significant impacts, due partly to the lack of knowledge-sharing practices to

disseminate timely agricultural and livestock-keeping information. A key problem has been inadequate access to

information due to weak linkages and interactions between agricultural and livestock research institutions;

including, the lack of knowledge and information articulating best practices; and deficiency of relevant research

information presented in easy to understand ways and localized to the needs of agro-pastoralists. However, in

recent years, there has been growing attention devoted to the implementation of information and communication

technologies (ICTs) in agriculture and livestock-keeping development. The growing ubiquity of mobile phones

presents an excellent opportunity to put timely agricultural and livestock-keeping information into the hands of

agro-pastoralists through direct linkages with the telecentres services in rural areas. The evidence has linked

ICTs to an increase in gross domestic product; it has prompted dedication to the research of the socio-economic

benefits and policy implications of ICTs consumption in Africa. Consisting of field case studies and

implementation frameworks for telecentres, this paper provides a Tanzanian rural perspective and understanding

of the developments in ICTs services for sustainable agro-pastoral livelihood. Therefore, the field results

indicates that, the extent of the interaction between the telecentre services and agro-pastoralists in terms of ICTs

access as a learning tool shows that more than half, 43.7% (178) and 23.6% (96) out of 407 respondents were

interacting; whereby agro-pastoralists access the services provided by the telecentres to improve agro-pastoral

livelihood. We conclude that the interaction between the telecentre services and agro-pastoralists has to be

transformed; since the potential of ICTs services in rural areas as yet remains untapped and urgent measures are

required to derive maximum benefits for sustainable agro-pastoral livelihood.