用短信搭建的農戶朋友圈 Small holders turn to message service to share farming advice
Coffee plants belonging to growers on the edges of the Peruvian Amazon basin have been infected with a fungus said to have originated in Kenya more than a century ago.
在祕魯亞馬遜盆地邊上，種植戶的咖啡樹感染了一種真菌，據說這種真菌起源於一個多世紀以前的肯尼亞。
For many smallholders, advice from African growers on how to cope would be as welcome as water in the desert. But, as many do not have internet access, it can be just as hard to come by.
對於很多小農戶而言，來自非洲種植戶有關如何應對這種真菌的建議如同沙漠中的水一樣珍貴。然而，由於很多種植戶無法上網，他們很難獲得這種建議。
That is what WeFarm, a London-based start-up, is aiming to achieve for the more than 43,000 smallholders signed up to its services, who use simple mobile phone text messages to share advice and information. For Arianna Valentini, WeFarm’s Peru-based Latin America co-ordinator, the service is “creating a social network of farmers”.
這就是總部位於倫敦的初創企業WeFarm計劃爲簽約其服務的逾4.3萬小農戶實現的目標，他們利用簡單的手機短信共享建議和信息。對於WeFarm駐祕魯的拉美協調員阿里安娜•瓦倫蒂尼(Arianna Valentini)而言，這種服務“爲農戶創建了一個社交網絡”。
With established programmes in Peru, Kenya and Uganda, and pilots in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, it offers a peer-to-peer service that lets farmers ask questions and receive crowdsourced responses. WeFarm is now looking to move into Colombia, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and India.
該公司在祕魯、肯尼亞和烏干達已實施項目，在海地和多米尼加實施了試點項目，他們爲農戶提供對等網絡服務，讓他們提問並獲得衆人推薦的答覆。WeFarm正計劃進軍哥倫比亞、巴西、科特迪瓦、坦桑尼亞和印度。
“This has been useful to coffee farmers here, especially because many like me do not have internet at home but do have mobile phones,” says Celia Aysana, part of a co-operative of coffee growers near San Martín de Pangoa in Peru. “You can get quick answers from Andean as well as African farmers.”
“這對這裏的咖啡農戶很有用，特別是因爲很多像我這樣的人家裏無法上網，但有手機，”祕魯San Martín de Pangoa附近的咖啡樹種植戶合作社中的塞莉婭•阿伊桑那(Celia Aysana)表示，“你可以從安地斯山和非洲農戶那裏快速獲得解答。”
Even if most smallholders do not have access to a computer or a smartphone, many at least do have basic phones. According to Peru’s statistics agency, 85 per cent of households have at least one mobile, while just 40 per cent of the country’s population uses the internet. Moreover, a report in January by the World Bank says that “nearly 70 per cent of the bottom fifth of the population in developing countries own a mobile phone”.
即便多數小農戶沒有電腦或智能手機，但很多人至少擁有普通手機。根據祕魯統計機構的數據，85%的家庭至少擁有一部手機，同時該國僅有40%的人口可以上網。另外，世界銀行(World Bank) 1月發佈的一份報告稱，“在發展中國家收入最低的五分之一人口中，近70%擁有手機。”
Carolina Trivelli, an economist and Peru’s former minister of development and social inclusion, who now runs a nationwide mobile money initiative, says: “There is huge potential in trying to squeeze as much as possible out of these basic mobile phones, particularly in rural areas.”
經濟學家、祕魯發展和社會融合部前部長卡羅麗娜•特里維利(Carolina Trivelli)表示：“充分利用這些基礎手機有着巨大潛力，特別是在農村地區。”特里維利現在執掌一個全國移動貨幣計劃。
Kenny Ewan, WeFarm’s chief executive, developed the service following experience working in Latin America with Cafédirect Producers’ Foundation, a UK-based charity, and other non-governmental bodies. It was launched last year with ￡500,000 seed funding from tech company Google through the Google Impact Challenge, and Wayra, the incubation hub of Telefónica, a telecommunications company.
WeFarm首席執行官肯尼•埃萬(Kenny Ewan)開發了這項服務，此前他曾供職於總部位於英國的慈善組織Cafédirect Producers’ Foundation以及其他非政府組織，其間在拉美工作過。去年，WeFarm藉助科技公司谷歌(Google)（通過谷歌Impact Challenge）和西班牙電信(Telefónica)的創新孵化中心Wayra的50萬英鎊種子基金成立。
Mr Ewan says he wanted to challenge the traditional model of how information is shared. “In international development, the power usually resides with the people who are ‘experts’, but in reality farming communities already have lots of expertise,” he says. “We’re giving farmers a voice and showing them that their knowledge is valuable, and I think that that’s a very powerful message.”
埃萬表示，他希望挑戰傳統的信息共享模式。“在國際發展領域，權力通常掌握在‘專家’手中，但實際上，農業社區已具備大量專長，”他表示，“我們正賦予農戶話語權，並向他們展示知識是寶貴的，我認爲，這是一個非常強大的信息。”
WeFarm now hopes to raise ￡2.3m so it can grow its service to reach 1m farmers around the world by the end of 2016.
WeFarm現在希望籌集230萬英鎊，使其能在2016年底之前將其服務覆蓋全球100萬農戶。
Smallholders using WeFarm send texts to an in-country shortcode for free. The message is then processed and filtered automatically by the organisation’s online system. An algorithm determines who are the most relevant people to receive each question and WeFarm forwards the answers.
利用WeFarm的小農戶免費向一個國內短代碼發送文本信息。該信息由WeFarm的在線系統自動處理並過濾。算法決定了誰是接到每一個問題的最相關人士，WeFarm會轉發答案。
For instance, answers to coffee questions are directed to coffee farmers. The farmer who asks the question receives a handful of messages from local, national or international peers. Ms Aysana has already had tips on how to deal with rust, a fungal disease affecting coffee plants.
例如，咖啡問題的答案會發送給咖啡農戶。提問的農戶會從當地、全國或國際同業那裏獲得幾條信息。阿伊桑那已獲得有關如何應對影響咖啡樹葉的鏽病（一種真菌病害）的建議。
WeFarm has a network of volunteer translators for international answers — say from a Kenyan farmer replying in English or Swahili to a Spanish-speaking one in Peru — and can also provide answers in French and Haitian Creole.
WeFarm擁有一個翻譯國際答案的志願者網絡，例如從一位用英文或斯瓦希里語答覆的肯尼亞農戶到一位說西班牙語的祕魯農戶，還可以提供法語和海地克里奧爾語的解答。
Ms Valentini says WeFarm is also looking at providing translations in Quechua, which is widely spoken in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.
瓦倫蒂尼表示，WeFarm也在考慮提供克丘亞語翻譯，這種語言在玻利維亞、祕魯和厄瓜多爾廣泛使用。
In Peru, Ms Valentini first started spreading the word through coffee and cocoa co-operatives and appearances on local and national radio shows.
在祕魯，瓦倫蒂尼最初開始通過咖啡和可可豆合作社，以及現身地方和全國廣播節目來推廣這種服務。
What started as an advice service for coffee and cocoa growers now deals with problems related to banana, cotton and other crops.
最初的建議服務是針對咖啡和可可豆種植戶，如今應對的問題涉及香蕉、棉花和其他農作物。
Increasingly, says Ms Valentini, there are questions about animal husbandry. For example, a coffee farmer from Kenya’s Meru district has boosted his income by rearing rabbits.
瓦倫蒂尼表示，現在有關畜牧業的問題越來越多。例如，來自肯尼亞梅魯區的一位咖啡農戶通過飼養兔子增加了收入。
After sending a text message, he started receiving answers from a woman who had bred rabbits for more than 20 years in Peru’s region of Cajamarca. She offered advice on the best rabbit breeds, how to raise them and what to feed them. Six months later, the Kenyan farmer had sold 50 rabbits.
在發送短信後，他開始從一位在祕魯卡哈馬卡(Cajamarca)地區飼養了20多年兔子的女士那裏獲得解答。她提供了內行的建議，涵蓋最佳兔子品種、如何飼養以及飼料。6個月後，那位肯尼亞農戶賣掉了50只兔子。
