Web 2.0 and Value Chain in Agriculture

Authors

Tanimola Abiola (oladele12@gmail.com)

Tomilola Bolaji (tomilorlah@gmail.com)

Rev. Popoola Kunle (popoolakunvic@gmail.com)

Abiodun  Atoloye (abiodun.atoloye@gmail.com)

Sonigitu Ekpe (soekpe@gmail.com)

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 and Social Media applications enable people to collaborate, create, share and publish information.  

How easy is it to identify tacit knowledge in your organization? The problem requires a cultural shift: people must understand that their knowledge/experience is not their job safety net but an asset that could help them growing. Therefore it is important that the organization set up a Knowledge Sharing Culture with the adequate incentives/recognition mechanisms. People should be encouraged to share what they know by being valued. Recognition mechanisms can be different from one organization to the other, but they are the driver.

The on going  training at Bowen University, Iwo is being supported by CTA in enhancing skills of selected participants from different parts of the Country.

Figure 1: A Cross Section of other Participants during the group work on blogging.

Figure 2: Participants of Group 2 facilitators and Coordinator of the Training 

Define value chain?

Definition: A value chain is the whole series of activities that create and build value at every step. The total value delivered by the company is the sum total of the value built up all throughout the company. Michael Porter developed this concept in his 1980 book 'Competitive Advantage'.

Description of Value Chain : The significance of the value chain: The value chain concept separates useful activities (which allow the company as a whole to gain competitive advantage) from the wasteful activities (which hinder the company from getting a lead in the market). Focusing on the value-creating activities could give the company many advantages. For example, the ability to charge higher prices; lower cost of manufacture; better brand image, faster response to threats or opportunities. Value chain can be further explained using the video

Figure 1. Chart showing value chain Flow

The women movement for value chain improvement in agricultural sector is quite a big deal. click

The recent years – especially since the 2007/08 food crisis – have shown that the anticipated benefits from agricultural liberalization have failed to translate into a significant reduction in poverty and that concerted efforts among different stakeholders are crucial to reduce the risks of future crises.

LIFESTYLE CHANGES

What are some of the lifestyle chsnges thst are in fact occurring? Land is unevenly distributed along racial and class lines. This issue is an increasingly worldwide phenomenon and is seen by many as the new form of colonialism in Africa.

Indeed Vidal (2010) reported that 50million hectares of land in Africa - an area double the size of the UK - has been acquired by rich countries to guarantee their own food supplies in a world where global food shortages is increasing.He said that it was ironic that a country like Ethiopia where hunger is prevalent is offering 3 million hectares of its most fertile land for growing food for rich countries rather than for themselves.

Competition for oil wealth in the Niger Delta has fueled violence between innumerable ethinic groups, causing the militarization of nearly the entire region by ethnic militia groups as well as Nigerian military and police forces (notably the Nigerian Mobile Police). Victims of crimes are fearful of seeking justice for crimes committed against them because of growing "impunity from prosection for individuals responsible for serious human rights abuses, [which] has created a devastating cycle of increasing conflict and violence." The regional and ethnic conflicts are so numerous that fully detailing each is impossible and impractical.

Public relations practitioners are constantly challenged to tell the story to the public. Providing information on an issue is not likely to change the behavior of the majority accross multiple disiplines indicates). People are rarely eagar to sit down and attentively absorb what you have to say about a given issue. Nor are members of a public typically ready to act on the message content.

Blignaut and Van Heerden (2009) in their paper entitled "Is Water Shedding Next?"state: "water cannot continue to grow at current rates indefinitely given the supply constraints and likely decline in the water availability due to change in climatic conditions, and the socio-economic and demorgraphic pressure to increase the use of potable water for domestic use and to allocate water to higher value added industries.  

Something has to change, and fast.

I am encourage and inspired by the literally millions of people in all walks of life who are making outstanding efforts to bring about solutions. Every pathway towards solution represents the work of thousands of dedicated professinals and volunteers, ranging from scientists and engineers to business people, laywers and public servants.

Indeed, we all are involved because our survival depends on to primary facts our "environment and neighbor"although, we can do without our neighbors but we can never do without the environment.

THE WAY FORWARD

Modern slavery cannot set the part for sustainability, quest for supremacies of nations are not the way forward;The present path of World development is generating vulnerabilities, imbalances, polarization, exclusion and inequalities which constitute clear threats to the present and future generations.

Issues on Environment and Resources, Globalisation and  Finance, International Development, Social Transformation, Peace and Security are major elements for sustainability, let's press for a more coherent systemic approach to the management of World issues, recognizing the fundamental transformations in progress and clearly facing the growing threats to the future.

Why do some feel others should be taught and never educated?

The programme of the Club of Rome on "A new Path for World Development"are great and laudable.

 

Cross River State a biodiversity sanctuary

Cross River State has been very active in the global climate change debate. Following its environmental activities and the success of the State Environment Summit, the State was invited to the World Environment Summit on Climate Change, Copenhagen, 2009, during which Senator Liyel Imoke was nominated into the Governor's Global Task Force on Climate Change, Chaired by the Governor of California, Arnold Schwazenager.

The State policy on environment, amongst which is the conservation of the rainforest. To this end, it has banned logging activities in the State and designated the State's mangrove swamp a reserve area. This has scaled up the value of the carbon stock in the State. The government also extended its urban aesthetics development up to 25Km radius of each of the five Urban Development Authories in Calabar, Ugep, Ikom, Ogoja and Obudu.

Procurement processes have commenced for Public-Private Partnership (PPP), to ensure sustainability and further improve on the efficiency and effectiveness of the waste disposal programme for a rapidly expanding city like Calabar and environs.

Governor Liyel Imoke has initiated, perhaps, the most massive and strategic intervention in rural development in the history of Nigeria. The core passion is the provision of infrastructure in rural communities as catalyst for economic growth and wealth creation.