The East African reports that community knowledge workers in Uganda are using mobile phones to disseminate crop disease treatment information to small farmers.
The initiative gives information on how to treat diseases, where to buy uncontaminated seed and how to improve soil quality.
"We have trained the workers on how to use mobile phones to get information to the farmers. They offer agricultural tips and advise through the phones on what to do and not to do to control the diseases," said Whitney Gantt of Grameen Foundation, an anti-poverty organization.
Farmers with phones also receive information on fertilizer use, seed/crop varieties and market prices where once they relied on their instincts to decide which crops to plant and had little knowledge of the regional market or prices.