E-Karkara: Improving farming in Nigerien rural communities

Agriculture makes up the largest part of the economy in the Republic of Niger. 

Rural communities, however, struggle with limited access to information and costly mobile services. Smallholder farmers often miss out on critical information, such as weather updates and market prices, with negative effects on productivity and profits.

The new E-Karkara project aims to help Niger’s rural communities get connected – and thus start to overcome these fundamental development constraints.

Launched as part of an ongoing global Smart Villages Initiative, the project equips farmers with mobile services to obtain critical, timely agricultural information. E-Karkara strives to ensure more successful harvests in the semi-arid Sahelian climate.

Providing timely information

Karkara means “rural” in Hausa, one of Niger’s local languages. The project is jointly developed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the National Agency for the Information Society (ANSI), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Nigerien Ministry of Agriculture.

Since May 2021, it has been providing interactive voice response (IVR) and unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) to farmers. The services are free. Farmers anywhere in Niger can gain access by dialling 703 or #703# on a mobile phone. Callers can obtain a wide range of information in five key categories: agriculture, agricultural market prices, livestock and animal health, weather and crop calendars, and environment.

All this is available in at least five languages used in the country: French, Hausa, Zarma, Fulfude, and Kanouri.

E-Karkara services also enable community leaders to send messages to registered users in their respective communities, helping to disseminate reliable information during the COVID-19 pandemic and potentially providing life-saving information during emergencies.

Persistent challenges

The project represents an important start. It does not, however, signal a complete digital transformation or even begin to address all of the country’s connectivity issues.

“In Niger, you can use E-Karkara services only if you have network coverage,” notes Harouna Issaka, Head of Universal Access and Project Management at ANSI.

In the next phase, ANSI and the Ministry of Agriculture plan to expand E-Karkara’s reach by leveraging traditional communication channels, such as radio networks. “Many radio broadcasters carry regular programmes on disasters, animal health, and rural solutions,” says Habou Ousman M. Bassirou, co-founder and Director General of the local company Dev4smart. “We would like to cooperate with these broadcasters to cover regions where E-Karkara services are unavailable.” Besides the lack of network coverage and connectivity in many parts of the country, E-Karkara faces bottlenecks due to low literacy among farmers.

The literacy rate among Niger’s population aged 15 years and older is just 35 per cent, according to UNESCO.

“The majority of Nigeriens are unable to read and write, so translating and recording the messages in different local languages is an important task,” adds Bassirou.

Collaborative capacity building

E-Karkara’s early success is reflected in project statistics. As of October (six months after launch), the number of IVR sessions had reached 13,722, while USSD sessions numbered 64,250. Locals indicated positive experiences with the project. “When we carry out public education activities in some rural areas, people give us suggestions on which information to put on the service, such as data on agriculture, fishing, or diseases affecting plants,” Issaka says. This feedback contributes to decisions on which messages to prioritize and ultimately which additional services to develop. The project established focal points in local districts, who rapidly made the project their own and drove its implementation and expansion.

Going forward, the E-Karkara team intends to involve a wider array of stakeholders across Niger to better address local needs.

ITU’s Smart Villages Initiative, meanwhile, continues to gain ground elsewhere.

In 2021, Liberia and Pakistan came on board, while several Pacific Island states joined the parallel Smart Islands Initiative, intent on delivering scalable and sustainable connectivity services to marginalized communities. Learn more about Smart Villages.