GDCO SUDAN win the i4d award for the third time

Oct. 2, 2009 - PRLog -- http://www.gedaref.com/
http://sudantelecentreacademy.org/
http://knowledgenets.net/gedaref
http://www.dse.nl/~gedaref/archief.htm

           Sudan is the biggest country in Africa.  It is 2,505,800 sq km.  Gedaref mechanized scheme (GMS) is the biggest rain-fed agricultural scheme in Sudan. The growing areas for big farmers (more than 500 feddan per farm) is more than 8 million feddan (1 feddan = 1.03acres).  This scheme has a high potential of building a national food stock and provide hard currencies which improve the economy of the country.  ICT is an economic and social key factor but is not part of the culture and it is not a priority and it is not used for development in Sudan.
Gedaref digital city organization (GDCO) is a nongovernmental and nonprofit organization (Gedaref Sudan), it is part of the Telecentres movement where it is using ICT for community development.   GDCO is the founder of the first national Telecentre academy in Africa and the middle east and 13th in the world (Sudan national Telecentre academy SuNTA). GDCO is the winner of information for development award i4d e-India 2007,,, also the winner of i4d 2008 awards for the best innovations at the grassroots Telecentre  also it Has more than150 links and blogs and 500 pictures,, in august 2009 is the  winner of i4d 2009 awards for civil society initiatives for development,,,, The Digital City of Eindhoven (DSE), the well-known partner of GDCO donated 750 computers and more than ten projects were established using ICT for community development one of them is the e-agriculture project which a public- private - partnership (PPP) and the winner project for the award e-India 2009.
          The e-agriculture project is a public private partnership for community development. It is a GDCO partnership with Gedaref state farmers union and mechanized agriculture farmers union, Gedaref state government, ministry of agriculture (Gedaref mechanized schemes), agricultural bank, Sudani, DRISHTEE (India) , Gedaref crops market, Mahgoub sons companies and the civil society.            It provides a good opportunity to invest in the ICT sector and make Telecentres sustainable. It is the biggest investment and social project in GDCO which aims to achieve the 8th millennium developments goals (8 MDGs).
         The objectives of the project are 1) agriculture development through ICT specially GIS & GPS and monitoring of agricultural resources   from being depleted or eradicated  2) development of national and global crop marketing online to help the farmers sell their products 3) increasing crop yield and decreasing cost of crop production 4) exchange of Knowledge and best practices between farmers to establish strong partnership to improve agricultural practices 5) enhance capacity building and improve the quality of training of the agricultural sector. 6) Farmers can monitor their farms from any place through satellites. 7) Achieving the 8th millennium developments goals (8MDGs).
       The final goal of the project is that, the farmer can monitor his farm from any place using the GIS and GPS system to increase crop production and reduce the cost.  There are many added value e-services that facilitate the life of the farmers and make it more comfortable (e.g. telemedicine, inclusion of disabled in the community).
 
Project implementations
a) GDCO and DSE donated 15 computers to Gedaref mechanized agriculture corporation, 21 PCs to the farmers union ( 10 PCs to Gedaref mechanized farmer union, 6 PCs to Gedaref state union as farmers information centre, 5 PCs to gala alnahal farmers union and 3 rural Telecentres in Doka, Hawata and Fao to establish training Telecentres. b)  GDCO trained 75 agricultural engineers and staff of Gedaref mechanized agriculture corporation the basic of the computers courses then 25 of them were trained more than 12 courses on computer and GIS and GPS courses in GDCO telecentres. C) A software (program) for Gedaref mechanized agriculture scheme was developed and the information of more than 13.000 farmers was included in the system of mechanized agriculture scheme. D)  Designing a web portal for the crops prices  http://gedaref.com/markets/   e)  a new partnership with Sudani (mobile operator and internet service provider) and EU and FAO through SIFSIA ( Sudan institute for food security information action) was established www.trade.net f) Finally the agro-mobile e-service under designed in partnership with Drishtee organization will be developed . (We get the experience and information of this mobile from Indian organizations and companies (e.g. TATA) at Grameen 5th convention.   The mobile will provide 6 e-services to the farmers, traders, companies or anyone who need it.
       The Agro-mobile services   will provide six services, including  Daily weather forecast, Crops prices,  fertilizers applications, Agriculture News beak,   online support (help desk) and  animal prices These services are provided in 4 ways a- SMS b- voice messages c- internet d- through a 3rd party for illiterate people and in rural area. (This party will also sell many e-services to community e.g. mobiles prepaid card, electricity prepaid card, and help farmers to sell their crops.

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Gedaref digital city organization (GDCO) is a nongovernmental and nonprofit organization (Gedaref Sudan), it is part of the Telecentres movement where it is using ICT for community development. GDCO is the founder of the first national Telecentre academy in Africa and the middle east and 13th in the world (Sudan national Telecentre academy SuNTA). GDCO is the winner of information for development award i4d e-India 2007,,, also the winner of i4d 2008 awards for the best innovations at the grassroots Telecentre also it Has more than150 links and blogs and 500 pictures,, in august 2009 is the winner of i4d 2009 awards for civil society initiatives for development,,,, The Digital City of Eindhoven (DSE), the well-known partner of GDCO donated 750 computers and more than ten projects were established using ICT for community development one of them is the e-agriculture project which a public- private - partnership (PPP) and the winner project for the award e-India 2009.