IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 20

government to continue popularising it. The private
sector will only enter when it becomes profitable for
them to spread awareness regarding the fRS. Hence,
a major challenge in the further promotion of fRS is
finding leverage points that work sustainably.
How Applicable are these Lessons Globally?
One of the notable features of the fRS and the overall
design and implementation of the system by Katalyst
is that the lessons learned from this system - technology design, design of the business, and organizational
model, experience with implementation - would have
relevance in contexts with similarly poor and marginal
farmers globally. The overall system is such that its
elements are potentially generic rather than localized
and thus lessons learned concerning good practices
could be of global interest.

Ways Forward
Is there an Exit Strategy for Katalyst?
One of the looming questions for Katalyst arising
from the fRS is how or whether it will be possible
for it to withdraw from its catalytic and organizational
role in the fRS ecology - notably as the focal point
for the various partnerships (SRDI, Banglalink, Grameenphone) and as the "animator" of the system. This
issue arises because of the difficulty that governments
have in developing ongoing "partnerships" with private sector entities since there is the perceived possibilities of conflicts of interest. As well, there may
be formal/legal restrictions on certain types of relationships - as for example, non-tendered contracting.
finally, from the private sectors' perspective there are
difficulties arising from the tendency of governments
to be somewhat volatile in their program (and policy)
priorities given changes in political direction, personnel, and so on.
Building on the FRS: Can the FRS
be the Center of a Cluster of Services?
One of the most likely and desirable ways forward for
the fRS would be for it to emerge as the center of a
cluster of parallel information processing intensive
services available to Bangladesh's farmers. for this to
happen there would almost certainly need to be a continuation of the cross-sector partnerships found with
the fRS. But in addition, there would be a continuing need for a catalyzing agency to perform the role
that Katalyst has done in dynamizing the partnerships
and facilitating the development of the system and the
broader system ecology. This would suggest the need
for some sort of ongoing agency to perform these technology oriented "Research and Development" functions as Katalyst has been doing. One possibility is
that such an agency could be, at least in part, funded
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through a royalty arrangement linked to the dissemination and use of revenue-based services by private sector
channels.
Taking the System Global?
One way forward for the fRS is to think about taking
the model global. While the specifics of the fRS itself
are quite likely nontransferable (the relative simplicity of the underlying soil structure is unlikely to be
reproduced elsewhere) the overall approach to the use
of complex systems in information-constrained environments and linking this with the use of emerging
new dissemination channels is something that might
be explored for possible replication in other parts of
the world.

Author Information
The author is Executive Director, Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training
(CCIRDT), Vancouver, BC Canada. Email: gurstein@
gmail.com.

References

[1] Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2010, Bangladesh.
[2] World food Program Overview http://www.wfp.org/countries/
bangladesh/overview
[3] http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/
SOUTHASIAEXT/EXTSAREGTOPAGRI/0,,contentMDK:20273
763~menuPK:548213~pagePK:34004173~piPK:34003707~theSite
PK:452766,00.html
[4] http://www.agnet.org/library.php?func=view&id=2011080409382
4&type_id=1
[5] http://irri-news.blogspot.com/2012/08/bangladesh-workshops-heldon-farmers.html
[6] https://sites.google.com/site/internethistoryasia/book2/bangladeshsnapshot-2000
[7] http://www.btrc.gov.bd/index.php/industry-focus/telecom-sectors/
mobile-industry
[8] http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=241836
[9] http://news.priyo.com/business/2012/09/11/teletalk-set-launch-59563.
html
[10] http://www.btrc.gov.bd/ op.cit
[11] http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/bd.htm
[12] http://vbn.aau.dk/files/47313715/Akther_Georgsen_Telecentres_as_
learning_hubs_ final.pdf
[13] Robbani, M.; Siddiquee, S.U.; Zaman, S.; & Nakamura, H. "Agriculture in Bangladesh - Recent Trend and Agroenvironment Toward
Sustainability", Journal of faculty of Agriculture Shinshu University,
vol. 43 no.1-2 (2007) pp. 17-24 https://soar-ir.shinshu-u.ac.jp/dspace/
bitstream/10091/964/1/v43_03.pdf
[14] Katalyst field Observation.
[15] http://www.Csu.Edu.Au/__Data/Assets/Pdf_file/0003/109605/EfS_
Journal_Vol_5_No_2_05_Sarker_Et_Al.Pdf
[16] Bangladesh's fertilizer use would appear to be at the high end of the
range as compared to other South Asian countries http://www.eolss.net/
Sample-Chapters/C10/E5-24-08-05.pdf
[17] Http://Www.Katalyst.Com.Bd/Docs/ 160212%20flyer%20design%
201-%20 fINAL.Pdf.
[18] Katalyst: Concept Note: Piloting of fertilizer recommendation
software through different ICT channels (n.d.)
[19] Interview with Katalyst.
[20] fertilizer Recommendation Software (fRS)Dhaka April 4, 2010,
Innovision Consulting Private Limited (unpublished internal report)
[21] KATALYST Study Report on fertilizer Recommendation Software
(fRS) Center for Strategic Research (CSR), Dhaka 15 August, 2010
(Unpublished internal report.)
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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fALL 2013

http://www.wfp.org/countries/ http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/ http://www.agnet.org/library.php?func=view&id=2011080409382 http://irri-news.blogspot.com/2012/08/bangladesh-workshops-held https://sites.google.com/site/internethistoryasia/book2/bangladesh http://www.btrc.gov.bd/index.php/industry-focus/telecom-sectors/ http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=241836 http://news.priyo.com/business/2012/09/11/teletalk-set-launch-59563 http://www.btrc.gov.bd/ http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/bd.htm http://vbn.aau.dk/files/47313715/Akther_Georgsen_Telecentres_as_ https://soar-ir.shinshu-u.ac.jp/dspace/ http://www.Csu.Edu.Au/__Data/Assets/Pdf_file/0003/109605/EfS_ http://www.eolss.net/ Http://Www.Katalyst.Com.Bd/Docs/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013