Mobiles for agricultural development : exploring trends, challenges and policy options for the Dutch government

Currently many initiatives for m-Agri Apps for smallholder development are taking place. The effectiveness and sustainability of the development is promising, however factual evidence of its impact on livelihood improvements is still rare. As a whole the development of m-Agri Apps is mainly stimulated by donor incentives. Among different stakeholders there is the wish to collaborate more and exchange knowledge on: good practises, setting up learning communities, developing m-Agri Apps with open software, making existing data available, developing locally scaled agricultural content and connecting the poorest to mobile networks. Chances lay in better involvement of the agribusiness sector, which gets currently more and more involved with the smallholder communities around the world.