The dynamic growth of mobilecommunications technology is creating opportunities foreconomic growth, social empowerment, and grassrootsinnovation in developing countries. One of the areas withthe greatest potential impact is in the contribution thatmobile applications can make to agricultural and ruraldevelopment (ARD), by providing access to information,markets, and services to millions of rural inhabitants. Forboth agricultural supply and demand, mobile phones canreduce waste, make delivery more efficient, and forge closerlinks between farmers and consumers. This report providespolicymakers and development practitioners with a guide thatfacilitates the development and deployment of mobileapplications for ARD. It also informs their understanding ofthe key drivers for promoting such applications and servicesin their countries. Using James Moore’s (1996) reviseddefinition of ecosystems: economic communities based oninteracting organizations and individuals the reportidentifies a wide range of players in the ecosystem form-ARD apps, such as mobile network operators, m-app (mobileapplications) providers, content providers, and varioustypes of users. M-apps are software designed to takeadvantage of mobile technology and can be developed fortechnology besides mobile phones. But mobile phones havemany key advantages: affordability, wide ownership, voicecommunications, and instant and convenient service delivery.As a result, there has been a global explosion in the numberof m-apps, facilitated by the rapid evolution of mobilenetworks and by the increasing functions and falling pricesof mobile handsets. M-apps are markedly different indeveloping countries because they typically run onsecond-generation (2G) phones rather than smartphones, whichare far more common in developed countries. The reportreviews country examples and extracts policy lessons andgood practices. It also presents detailed studies of casesfrom Kenya, Philippines, and Sri Lanka, as well assummarizes 92 case studies from Africa, Asia, and LatinAmerica. The goal is to provide a comprehensiveunderstanding of the development impact, ecosystem, andbusiness models for mobile applications in ARD. The reportis intended to complement the recent ICT in AgricultureeSourcebook. One of the main findings is that an enablingplatform (or platforms) is probably the most importantfactor for the development of m-ARD apps. Platforms canfacilitate interactions among ecosystem players, increaseaccess to users, provide technical standards, andincorporate payment mechanisms.
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