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There was an opinion of some participants putting the blames on government for the low level of adoption of ICT in the farming system. They strongly believe that government should show high level of commitment in handling issues associated with food systems. While others argue that farmer should not depend on the Government for everything and that the Government has little or nothing to do with a farmer not making use of a smartphone and not having access to agro information already available on the internet.

Agro input challenges as faced by farmers ; Mr Chukwuemeka Ogbuagu opined that the lack of farm machineries (as agro inputs) which makes farming easier and faster can be addressed by possibly finding or establishing functional farming equipment hiring services where these equipment can be leased and hired. Such hiring services can be conducted online with the use of ICT for efficiency and ease of access. He further suggested that there is need for advisory services to go virtual. A good example is virtual adverts on sourcing farm input materials. Role of Agro input Dealers Associations/ Cooper... Read moreatives in improving the use of ICT in Food system value chain; Mr Edoja John, CEO of FarmerShop, an agro-commerce platform that creates a link and connects farmers to agro-inputs dealers and farm-produce buyers, suggested that farmers should take advantage of agro- commerce platforms to sell their products where they decide the price they sell their produce to avoid unnecessary losses. Platforms like this helps farmers to list their farm outputs and connect directly with their consumers to sell their products faster. Application of ICT in Farming systems; Mr Iheanacho Patrick MD of Zardalic Consults listed the tools in ICT that can be used to facilitate different processes in Farming systems. Tools like Telephones for interactive voice response, Computers and websites for agricultural information and markets, Broadcasting for expertise sharing, advisory and information dissemination in communities, Satellite for weather, universal accessibility and remote sensing, Internet and broadband for knowledge sharing, social media, e-community, market platform, trading and so on. Sensor networks for real time information, better data quantity and quality, decision making. Data storage and analysis for precision agriculture and actionable knowledge. How ICT can help close up emerging gaps in Food systems in event of a disease outbreak; Engineer Chikelue Nwabuike an artificial intelligence engineer and also the Technical state head at Globacom Nigeria suggested that artificial intelligence can be useful for farmers whereby images captured by drones and satellites could be modelled to predict weather conditions, analyze crops and evaluate farms for the presence of diseases. He further said that this can be used to advice farmers and serve as a guide to farmers. How ICT Can work for farmers, Agro dealers and produce Collectors; Mr Buchi Ikeh an IT consultant, CEO Broad Digital Nig Ltd said that ICT can work for farmers and produce collectors by the use of cheaper digital platforms (Web, Mobile App, USSD, SMS) in accessing, sharing and exchange of agricultural knowledge, price info and sale of produce. He further state that this will help to strategize market activities as it is very useful in solving issues such as traceability, process control, transparency in market information, reduction in transaction costs, and identification as well as tracking of consumer needs. Read less

• It was discovered that most farmers experience huge losses during the sale of farm produce while the middlemen who buy these farm produce below cost price makes the profit. This is more evident with farmers who produce perishable products with low durability. They don’t always have better option than to sell off quickly to available middlemen who price down their products. This occurs due to the big gap existing between farmers and direct consumers. There is great need to promote the use of internet based applications or platforms where farmers can showcase their products directly to the... Read more consumers or connect with them in other to sell at a good price and attain high productivity. • It was also revealed that farmers incur much expenses in purchasing basic agro inputs like seeds, feeds and fertilizer. Some of the middle scale and commercial farmers in West Africa spend so much money importing seeds from abroad because it is not easy to source it in their location, where as it exists in large quantity somewhere in their home country but because they have no knowledge of it, it becomes expensive to buy from far away countries who leverage on online technologies to sell their products. There is urgent need to raise the awareness of using affordable agro-commerce platforms or social media handles among farmers locally to trace where agro inputs are available and cheaper in their locality. • Most farmers lack machineries for effective farming and this accounts for low productivity and high cost of labor. There is great need to establish functional farming equipment hiring services where these equipment can be leased and hired by the government or organizations whose duty is to assist marginalized farmers. • Lastly, it was made known that there is weak marketing linkage and poor information management in the farming system. Therefore, there is need for actors and stakeholders like farmers, extension agents to frequently consult ICT experts to eliminate this challenge. Read less

The major focus of this Dialogue is to know how seasonal supply of agro inputs and taking off of farm produce can be monitored and timed with the use of ICT. When farmers are given the right farming inputs, their yield gets improved and when the yield is counted into productivity by being collected / off-taken regularly and on time with proper information management system, Farmers become encouraged to learn more effective ways in order to produce more! Many farmers in Africa need a digital platform where their voices can be heard. They suffer losses due to produce boom or glut and are left to... Read more tackle the challenges that comes with it on their own. Sometimes, government aids may take too long to come and when it arrives, it becomes irrelevant because farmers who needed such aids have moved on in life even to the point of quitting farming. There is an urgent need to use Information Communication Technology as never before in salvaging the needs of farmers, input distributors, and farm produce off-takers for an effective service delivery towards more farm yields. The use of mobile applications, Social media, Web 2.0 and the ordinary GSM technology are tools already running in most country of Africa. This dialogue helped to answer questions on • How we can utilize these digital tools as building blocks for a smooth running food system value chain. • How to know when a farmer in ‘Town A’ is waiting for an off –taker in ‘Town Y’ who will definitely come despite another being on stand-by. There is no better period than this digital age. Also, the use of information and communications technologies in farming systems will also promote smart farming and make it attractive for youths who easily deviate from farming because of the traditional method adopted by most local farmers in the remote places. Some of the objective of this dialogue are • To identify challenges farmers encounter in receiving farm inputs, • To identify challenges farmers and produce collectors encounter in off-taking farm produces and proffer solutions that will bridge the gaps identified towards giving farmers direct access to verified input distributors and produce collectors / off-takers. • To create a road map for digitalizing information dissemination to farmers accessibility to inputs and off-taking. Read less

There was universal support from all panelists and attendees that work is needed to create a more food secure campus for students.

- Empowering youth and including young voices of people who are working in grassroots projects is so important to get different perspectives on student food insecurity and of students who have suffered from food insecurity. - Hunger will only be solved through the collective action of students form all backgrounds, there needs to be a collective engagement between all members of the university community to create student food security. - There is a lack of affordable nutritious food available on campus for students and action needs to be take on this matter. - The point was reiterated that stu... Read moredents should not have to make trade-offs between food and education. The responsibility of a student’s next meal should not be put on the shoulders of another student. - Food security should not be viewed as an individual issue, there is ripple effect that comes with a continues lack of nutritious food including mental health, physical health, university grades etc. - There are a number of initiatives on UCC campus helping students struggling with food, including food banks and now with covid, food vouchers, but when working on solutions we must ensure that not only are gaps plugged but that there is not a need for these food banks or initiatives in the first hand. - Food security needs a holistic food perspective with bottom-up and top-down action. Macro-economic policies need to be created at a university and national level to support the most vulnerable on campus. Read less

The main focus of our dialogue was to highlight the the importance of food security for students and discuss the problems associated along with solutions. Students have a reputation for struggling to afford nutritious food but through initiatives there has been small progress. We wanted to begin an open discussion between students who are working on grassroots initiatives and leaders and decision makers in the field of global food security to create a food security environment for university students.

Compared to the previous Bites of Transfoodmation workshops, during this Independent Dialogue, some stronger areas of divergence came out within and amongst the discussion groups. Particularly, participants highlighted some critical areas of divergence that involve difficult trade-offs for the following aspects: a) The question of how we could attribute the true value of food including people's perception and public subsidies. b) A tension in the definition of the terms: "healthy diets" and "personalized diets", how they should be determined and by whom. Participants had different understandin... Read moregs on the definition of these two expressions with stricter interpretations implying new technologies and DNA editing on the one side, and much larger interpretations implying eating what makes you feel good on the other. c) The trade-off between tailored diets and its implication or interference with the personalized diets of others and the costs both in economic and environmental terms that such diets could have. d) Within the group, we felt a feeling of opposition between the social and health elements of food. Innovation and personalized diets were considered by some participants as a mere response to health necessities, somehow taking away the human and social part of nutrition, and therefore the celebration of food and its anchorage to cultural narratives and traditions. e) The risk of over-romanticize the "celebrative power" of food, as for participants food - in some some circumstances -can be a source of conflicts (when it is limited) and of mental stress with a particular focus on eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. f) When talking about the social and health aspects of food, and the prospect of moving towards more personalized diets in the future, the topic of pills (i.e. vitamins, supplements, etc.) came up. Some of the participants highlighted that pills were not the solution nor were desirable, as food is strongly linked to culture and traditions. Other participants, however, stressed that this is fast becoming a reality for industries and companies are investing in it. g) Some participants suggested the idea to associate strict personalized diets (as the one adopted by professional athletes for example) with some sorts of rewards in the form of "cheat meals". However, others stressed out the idea that "cheat meals" can be perceived as a punishment and could therefore increase some negative consequences for mental and physical health (feelings of guilt). Furthermore, many pointed out that a "cheat meal" should not be necessary, as we should be eating food we like every day in a balanced way. No clear answers have been identified to address these challenges, however there has been consensus that we, as a group, have the power to overcome these dichotomies between the social and health elements of food, between personal choices and sense of collectivity and between personalized diets and environmentally and economically sustainable diets. We need to dismantle these dicothomies to build our Bites of Transfoodmation Manifesto as diversity does not imply confusion and fear, but rather the opposite. Read less