United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

The Department of Agriculture, specifically the Programme: Farmer Support and Development, implemented the Smart (Digital) Pen and Paper technology to capture and monitor information on agricultural projects. Previously reports on project site visits done only reached head office three or four weeks later which delayed service delivery to the beneficiaries. With the introduction of the Smart Pen technology, information reaches head office in real-time which gives the department enough time to respond to the beneficiaries needs and to prevent possible failures of projects and provide the necessary extension to the emerging farmers to become sustainable and to provide for their families.

Helping farmers to optimise their output was also hampered by a lack of visits and support from Extension staff, lost forms, incomplete forms, delays in getting forms back to their offices, delays in capturing and processing forms, insufficient info on forms for managers to assist extension staff, difficulties of assessing information and reporting due to poor systems and poor spatial planning.

All of these are now addressed by the Smart pen technology through GPS monitoring, barcodes with digital pen, form validation (on mobile), real-time submission, X-station handwriting recognition, photos, Forms Admin System and GPS and X-station Buffalo Mapping.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The Department of Agriculture, specifically the Programme: Farmer Support and Development. Implemented the Smart (Digital) Pen and Paper technology to capture and monitor information on agricultural projects. Previously reports on projects site visits done, only reached the Head office three or four weeks later which delayed service delivery to the beneficiaries. Xcallibre developed a project and a farm monitoring system for the Western Cape Provincial Department of Agriculture using its proprietary digital pen technology combined with GPS & Camera enabled mobile phones. This solution allows the department’s extension officers to register projects with GPS coordinates and photographs and then do real time monitoring and provides support at regular site visits, while also attaching GPS coordinates and photographs of these visits. The Smart Pen solution will enable extension officers to complete data forms while on a farm, with all information being sent directly to a central project administration system known as X-Station which is housed at the department provincial offices. The X- Station also developed by Xcallibre will be used for auditing purposes to remove duplication of information collection and reduce the administration time of Extension Officers, allowing them to focus on more direct service delivery (assisting farmers to produce quality products). Helping farmers to optimize their output was also hampered by a lack of visits and support from extension staff, lost forms, incomplete forms, delays in getting forms back to their offices, delays in capturing and processing forms etc. All these are now addressed by the Smart Pen Technology through GPS monitoring, barcodes with digital pen, from validation (on mobile), real-time submission, X-Station handwriting recognition, photos, Forms Admin System and GPS and X-Station Buffalo Mapping.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The pioneer of the Smart pen innovation for the Western Cape Provincial Department, is Mr Dudley Adolph, Chief Director: Farmer Support and Development of the WC: PDA. Together with the Project Management Team of the programme, this was an original solution developed for the Department of Agriculture, based on the specific processes and organisational requirements of the Department of Agriculture. Directors, District managers and Extension staff were also consulted to give inputs to how the Smart Pen system will make their work easier and how it will assist to service their client, the farmers, better. Together with the service provider, a project and farm monitoring system was developed for the Department of Agriculture using the digital pen technology combined with GPS and camera enabled mobile phones.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
In order to understand the process it is easier to understand what Extension Recovery Program (ERP) is responsible for within the Department. ERP was created to assist farmers throughout South Africa and to aid with funding and training where it is needed. Within this program there are Extension Officers who all specialise within Agriculture and are tasked with visiting these farms to firstly register all these farms and then to determine what assistance is needed on a monthly basis. These Officers are equipped with a booklet of forms called “The Green Book” which captures all the details of the farm and farmer that they are visiting. They are then required to manually capture all information on a form from the green book and then capture the GPS co-ordinates using a GPS device. Once the form/s are complete for that day the officers are then required to deliver these forms to their respective district/municipality offices within their province where this information is captured and then reports can be generated on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis for each province within the country. It is with these problems that the Department of Agriculture, specificly the Programme: Farmer Support and Development, initiated and designed a system that would eliminate all of the above and provide a better service to our clients, which are the farmers. Xcallibre, the service provider, developed a project and farm monitoring system for the Provincial Department of Agriculture using its digital pen technology, combined with GPS and camera enabled mobile phones, to replace “The Green Book”.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Xcallibre developed a project and farm monitoring system for the Provincial Department of Agriculture: Western Cape using its proprietary digital pen technology combined with GPS & camera enabled mobile phones. This solution allows the department’s extension officers to register projects with GPS coordinates and photographs and then do real time monitoring and provide support at regular site visits, while also attaching GPS coordinates and photographs of these visits. Farmer Support and Development Chief Director, Dudley Adolph, explained that their policy of helping farmers optimise their output was hampered by lost forms, delays in getting forms back to their offices, delays in forms processing and ultimately difficulties of assessing information due to poor systems. “We consult with all farmers on their particular needs and establish with them a project to make their enterprises as productive as possible. “Once the project is running, our staff make regular visits, to make sure that things are going to plan.” He said that with the Smart Pen system, visit reports could be filed and submitted with location data and photographs in real time. The Smart Pen solution uses a combination of a standardised report forms, digital pens and Bluetooth- GPS/Camera equipped mobile phones. The Extension Officer reviews the situation at each farm, completes the form with the digital pen and then captures photographs and GPS coordinates with the phone. The pen downloads the handwritten information to the phone via blue tooth, which then transmits the package of information (form, photo & GPS) to head office for analysis and reporting within seconds. The Smart Pen solution will enable extension officers to complete data forms while on a farm, with all information being sent directly to a central project administration system known as X-Station which is housed at the Departments provincial offices. X-station has also been developed and customized by Xcallibre. It will be used for auditing purposes, management and service delivery purposes and monitoring and evaluation purposes. It will remove the duplication of information collection and reduce the administration time of Extension Officers, allowing them to focus on more direct service delivery – assisting farmers to produce quality products. Extension Officers will also be able to tap into the central system to access information on crops, blights and other problems, and how these should be managed. In addition, they will be able to take photos with their cell phones, which will be sent to researchers for their responses. All these initiatives are aimed at providing farmers in the Western Cape with more sound and timely advice, to ensure that the resources that they invest and the natural resources that they draw on are used in the most effective manner. These initiatives provide a more thorough service while reducing the environmental impacts of travel.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Probably the biggest challenge experienced during the implementation of the project was Change Management. Extension personnel were used to doing it the “old” way and not keen to change it especially it being new technology and the fact that they were also going to be tracked. SFT consulting was brought in to document and implement the process of change management which worked. There were issues with the missing GPS. New versions of the software were written to assist with GPS attaching. Bad handwriting resulted editors and validators taking more time to edit and validate the forms. Regular follow ups with extension staff and training sessions were conducted. Compulsory information was missing. Automated system alerts and verification would kick out forms not complying.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The initial costs of the 100 Smart pens, 100 Nokia 6210 Navigator cellphones, Mobile and PC Routers, the enablement of 3 Provincial Department of Agriculture project forms with handwriting recognition, barcodes and GPS functionality, User training, project management onsite support, as well as the hosting of the server amounted to R2, 476,650

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The smart pen uses ink, writes or functions, contains like a normal pen, contains a digital camera which captures/ takes pictures of the pen strokes made when writing, has small data files which has a memory 40 A4 pages or 80 A5 pages, a 128 bit encrypted data transmission, Bluetooth transceiver or USB and secure data transfer. The digital pen communicates using end-end cryptography. A message written with the pen is encrypted within the pen before transmission. The message remains secret from the very moment it leaves the pen. It uses 128 bit symmetric key encryption. Each digital pen has a unique ID. All digital pens that are used are registered to a specific user and can only communicate with that trusted user. Every pen contains a real time clock making fraudulent form completion easily detectable. When a form is completed, the information is via Bluetooth to your mobile phone. The GPS coordinates are automatically captured and photos are attached. All this information is sent via one’s mobile phone through GPRS Network to a central server and then to one’s computer or laptop. The hand written completed form is now digitized (hand writing recognition of Smart pen). This is an innovation that enables Manager’s to monitor project progress on a daily basis and advice Extension officers of possible problems.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Real-time processing of forms: Delays in getting forms back to Head Office were solved by enabling real-time submission via the mobile handsets and GPRS/Edge. This also enhances service delivery to the clients as they can now he helped quicker and more efficiently. Collection of additional data with forms such as GPS, barcodes and photographs: Lack of visits and support from Extension Officers was solved using GPS monitoring via the mobile handsets. Lost forms were no longer lost by using barcode scanning functionality on all forms. The Extension Officer taking multiple photographs using a mobile phone and attaching it to the Site Visit form enables the viewer of the form to see what the issues were on the farm/project that the Extension Officer was describing on the form. Real time reporting and alerts: The failure rate of projects has decreased from 36 % in 2009 to 6% in 2010/11 in that Managers with their Extension staff can now analize the problems more efficiently and react to it much quicker. Service delivery to beneficiaries has increased and more farmers can now be reached and helped. Automated capture of completed forms using advanced handwriting recognition: Handwriting is digitised and after validation it is stored in the data base. Spatially located and map locations and attributes from where forms are sent: Maps are available to show the Site visits that were done and display the location. Efficient document management: There are no more missing paperwork as all the data sent by the Smart pen is securely stored on the server. There is immediate proof of delivery and therefore less audit queries. There is a clear audit trail. Regular backups ensures reporting and compliance where necessary. No time is wasted and it is impossible for fraudulent activities to take place. There is also enhanced security and auditing due to encryption of all forms and system user access. The most important achievement is that we have improved our service delivery to our clients which are the farmers who will in turn ensure that we have sustained food security for the country. Probably the biggest challenge experienced during the implementation of the project was Change Management. Extension personnel were used to doing it the “old” way and not keen to change it especially it being new technology and the fact that they were also going to be tracked. SFT consulting was brought in to document and implement the process of change management which worked. There were issues with the missing GPS. New versions of the software were written to assist with GPS attaching. Bad handwriting resulted editors and validators taking more time to edit and validate the forms. Regular follow ups with extension staff and training sessions were conducted. Compulsory information was missing. Automated system alerts and verification would kick out forms not complying.


Institution Name:		Provincial Department of Agriculture: Western Cape
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Dudley James Adolph
Title:		Chief Director
Telephone/ Fax:		021 808 5015/078 459 6508
Institution's / Project's Website:		www.elsenburg.com
E-mail:		dudleya@elsenburg.com
Address:		Muldersvlei Road, Elsenburg
Postal Code:		7607
City:		Stellenbosch
State/Province:		Western Cape
Country:		South Africa

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information