User Activated Access (UAA) on Smartphones, a new age for rural farming communities

Otieno Cliff
Aug 31, 2018 · 9 min read

Africa’s developing economies are projected to reach an unprecedented 2.5 Billion people by 2050, roughly 1.3 Billion more to nourish. Although improved, hunger is still a challenge to be overcome. To achieve SDG 2 “Zero Hunger”, a more populous and urban Africa will need to re-imagine the current system of food production, processing and distribution. Innovation, coordination and management of the food ecosystem need to consider the 80% arable land in the hands of smallholder farms.

The following is an attempts to paint a time coming, a possible future, a time when AI is harnessed, not only to improve the livelihood of Akoth a small-scale farmer but that of her family, village and a nearby town. A time when AI revolutionises the revolutionary and turns the ‘smart’ in smartphones truly SMARTER. Unequivocally, AI will continue to usher profound changes in our lives. For better or for worse, the direction and impact of the transition and transformation are for us to collectively decide.

Great Food (source uky.edu)

Paints, Brushes & Canvas

Routinely, Akoth arose at 05:45 am. Hurriedly, she walks towards their beds and wakes them up. Preparations end with Robert, 7, tying the goats in the green bushes near the stream. Linda, 12, feeding the fowls and Isabel, 6, watering the seedlings. Off to school, the kids go. It’s 07:30 am, Akoth locks up the house, the gate and heads to the farm.

“11:37 am, I’m late”, she whispers to herself. Midway towards the market, her phone beeps. A message informing her to pick her package at the bus station. At the local market, she sold $75 worth of fruits, eggs, Kunde (vegetable) and goat milk. It’s evening, homework is done and bellies are full. “After 3 months of delay, it finally arrived.” Akoth sighs. Enthusiastically, Linda aid’s her with the new gadget, an AI-powered smartphone that employs User Activated Access (UAA) enabling features incrementally based on user data and behaviour. “Mum, free? Are you sure? No monthly fees?”, Robert asks. Yes, she answers.

Akoth, an avant-garde recipient of the multi-stakeholder partnership to offer free smartphone in exchange for user data. Countrysides were the perfect background for the project, little concern on data privacy since potential users aren’t well informed, users hoping to be hip as the city folks, new revenue channels and the golden opportunity to connect the last…to the internet.


Painting the Painting

Having read the pictorial manual, she connects it to power to charge. Tired, all four head to bed after tea. A new tone chirp’s at 05:45 am, it wakes her up. She walks towards the beep, turns it off. The app layout is similar to her feature phone. Kids are off to school, a new day begins. Using her Personal Identification Number (PIN) and government-issued Identification (ID) card number, she logs into her phone. First, a short clip reminding her of the purpose of the phone, her luck in being among the pioneers and her obligations.

She confirms the details she filled up during the application, with exception of one change, it’s a GO! Today, she will fill up information about her family including personal details, schooling, finances and farm. While sleeping, the information is uploaded and processed. In a fortnight, the enabled features on her smartphone render her feature phone obsolete. Akoth texts, listens to local and international radio, accesses Youtube, she is a member of a local farmer group on social media, accesses Mpesa (mobile money platform) and can make weekly voice and video calls to a select number of people. In a prepaid packaging, Akoth ships her feature phone and used power adapters to the recycling center, contributing to the circular economy. During processing her account is credited with 3 redeemable points, she hopes to transfer them to her eldest before university.

At the monthly Chama (table banking) meeting, she discusses with her friends, how her new phone is transformative. ”Mpesa and Mshwari (phone-based banking service), are my banks. Daily, I watch short clips of farm improvement. Soon, I’m planting tree seedlings received from the “company” as part her effort to increase forest cover in the region. Yesterday, my TV added Chemistry 101 channel for Robert, and a Do it Yourself (DIY) robotics channel for Isabel, the engineer”, she said. Stirred interests lead to, inquiries about sign-up procedures and rules of engagement. Like a veteran, she responds with ease. After back and forth discussions, she sends the introduction video link via Bluetooth.

Back to business, she is the recipient of the $200 for this month, via their phones, all members approve crediting Akoth’s Mchama (a platform that facilitates recording of Chama activities). Immediately, she receives a text informing her of the watermelon-seeds order she placed has been approved and will be delivered tomorrow evening. Another notification, informs her the balance after cost deduction for watermelon seeds. She shows them the messages, prompting a chat about personal finance.


Choosing subjects

Later, the chama members receive a message inquiring about their interest, all but one reply. They go through a similar signup process. Based on several parameters including proximity to Akoth’s house and farm, half are chosen to join the project. Soon, they receive their new smartphones. Like clockwork, in a fortnight all ship their older phones to the recycling center.

Two-thirds of the farmers in Akoth’s village are now connected to the platform. According to their farm sizes, availability, farming interest, family size, creditworthiness, market needs, government policy, expected rainfall, produce shelf-life, farming tools and machinery, climate etc they receive complimenting advice on animal rearing and crops to plant for the new season.

The local extension officer now visits less often and often to confirm the progress of the new and different initiatives the farms are undertaking. On one of such visits, Akoth’s neighbour points out that he planted the excess seeds he received on his other farm, beyond the valley but they are not doing so great. They hop on the electric-bicycle. On arriving at the farm, the extension officer accesses the information about the farm on his phone. They discuss the two separate farms.

Querying the farm assistant system, it suggests an upload of several pictures of the seedlings. Immediately, the system notices the soil color is different from the one on the other farm. After discussion, the AI suggests goat manure from Akoth as a remedy and inputs a 04:00 pm calendar entry on both the extension officer calendar and Akoth’s neighbour’s calendar for follow-up. The neighbour approves the purchase. Akoth receives the request, sets a reminder to confirm available quantity. The next day, her account is credited with $75 from the manure sale and redeemable points for facilitating organic farming.

Three months later, all of the project participants meet at the local market. For the first time, there are no more than two people who have similar produce to sell. Their usual customers, walk past their stalls looking for the ingredients to cook Kuon bel (a sorghum & millet based Ugali), the area’s signature and staple dish. The flour runs out, whispers begin. The town administrator is requested to come address the situation. Mumbles and grumbles later, shoppers are clicking on their phones checking out the new recipes they received via free LiFi. The recipes are based on foodstuff available in this season.

It’s 05:00 pm, Akoth heads home. Tugging along is her neighbour, to whom she had sold goat manure. They have sold all the fresh produce they had. He confesses, that he had doubts about selling all the new stuff, “I’m yet to memorize their names, yet I’ve sold all of them”. At dinner, she discusses her day. Isabel, now 7, suggests a business idea of preparing and packaging ready to cook ingredients to match this season’s recipes and selling them for an extra $1. She promises to try, her phone adds it to her to-do list.

Three years later, an assessor accompanies Akoth to the small forest of indigenous trees she planted at the edge of her farm. The assessor does the same for her neighbours’. Results of the assessment, confirms that as a group they can join the carbon trading project and trade carbon-points as a down payment for the new John Deere utility AI-10 tractor. They all approve the transaction and agree on a new forest cover target.

After a month, the barn is ready to receive the utility tractor. Akoth host’s the trainer for the 2-week aftersales training. Delivery is set for the weekend, a huge village delegation is expected for the inaugural tractor ride. If all goes per plan, mechanisation could improve yields by 70% (Verma, 2006).

Linda passed her final high school exams, the first in her family to get admission to university, 30 kilometres away. “ I will research on how interaction with AI is influencing school going children”, she said. Celebrations give Akoth’s husband pretext to visit, it’s been 4 years since he was home. He notices that a lot has changed at home. After discussions, they decide that he’ll quit his mechanic job in the city and lend a hand in the farming business, selling produce in the city.

A familiar beep, she reads “Hello Akoth, your participation and cooperation in this groundbreaking program has contributed to Zero hunger, Improved Nutrition and Clean Water, Equal Earth Goals(EEG)1 for the first time in history. Thank you very much & Happy New Year, 2050! ” United Nations.


Interpreting the art

Today, 80% of food in developing economies is produced on small-scale farms. Majority of small-scale farming is done by women (HoltGimenez, Amin & Patel, 2011), as their primary source of income. “Increasing the share of household income controlled by women can change a family’s income in ways that benefit children” (Chichester, Pluess, Lee & Taylor, 2017), who are often helpless in periods of scarcity.

According to World Urbanization Prospects Report (UNDESA, 2011), it is predicted that the global rural population will peak in 2020 at 3.4 billion people and thereafter decline to 3.1 billion by 2050. Inversely, world population will be at a record 9.8 billion with most of the growth occurring in Asia and Africa which have a greater number of developing economies characterised by small-scale farms in rural areas, as in Akoth’s country. The huge difference between urban and rural populations can result in more food insecurity. AI will provide the much-needed assistance as illustrated in Akoth’s village. AI will change the livelihoods of small-scale farming rural communities for the better. Yes, there will be numerous situations where AI will have challenges understanding societal structures as signified by the “grumbles and mumbles in the market”.


Ere Singularity and Beyond

Disruptive Innovation (Dyer, Gregersen & Christensen, 2011), the new normal is here to stay. Yes, we should be concerned. Responsible societies need to discuss the new age coming and what citizenship will mean(Ralston Saul, 2018). The quest for enlightenment nudged societies to evolve(Science, evolution and creationism, 2008). Stone tools wielding ancestors gave way to explorers, inventors and innovators who will likewise give way.

Akoth’s livelihood drastically improved when she received a new smartphone. Correspondingly, developing economies have jumped classical development stages as a result of new technologies which also found success in developed economies, for example, mobile money. Foremost, the mobile phone continues to cause an untelevised revolution, welcoming millions of previously unconnected societies into the global sphere. Unprecedented will be the future of “personal” AI on Smartphones.

Generation Y has received lots of criticism (Jenkins et al., 2016). However, this is the generation that will live the first wave of AI disruption in multiple spheres of life. Homo Deus (Harari, 2016), an economically useless class will manifest if the society continues on the same course and give the critics more fodder.

Augmenting oneself for tomorrow is about seeking to put the power of disruptive innovation to work (Johnson, 2016). Millennials will not only reach across the socio-economic and technological divides but do so as philosophers capable of understanding, evaluating and critiquing different ways of thinking, decisions taken and values espoused (Begg, 2018) thereby complementing AI.

Against a backdrop of population boom and increasing food insecurity that forces 800 million people to go hungry (Grebmer et al., 2017), developing economies are copy-pasting antiquated development strategies, leading to an overrun on arable land within cities by the concrete jungle which is perceived more lucrative(Robinson, 2014). Consequently, cities ship food from the countryside, grown on small-scale farms. Moreover, rural-urban migration leads to the decrease of potential farmers as young people move to urban areas, contributing to reduced productivity. Limited arable land and even fewer farmers summons us to envisage novel measures to advance productivity.

Artificial Intelligence(AI)-powered smartphones can tip the scale, leading to renewed “green” Agrarian Revolution and considerably improve the productivity of current farms, thus decreasing food insecurity. Farmers would live respectable lives, business will thrive, politicians can deliver on election promises and the society more equitable.

A glimpse into the future, ensuing is an attempt to paint a life and a village disrupted by AI.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade