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Fertiliser distribution: World Bank’s digital oversight process undermined by sluggish officers
View(s):By Namini Wijedasa
A digital tool introduced by the World Bank (WB) to strengthen accountability in fertiliser distribution after it allocated US$ 110mn to buy emergency stocks last year has got off to a patchy start with Agrarian Service (Govijan Seva) Centres being sluggish to adopt the technology.
By December 2022, the WB had disbursed US$ 64.6mn on fertiliser for Sri Lanka. The money was part of a “crisis response” whereby the multilateral agency diverted funds from its existing projects to more urgent needs, including cash transfers, cooking gas and fertiliser.
At the time, WB statement said it was working closely with implementing agencies “to establish robust controls and fiduciary oversight to ensure these resources reach the poorest and most vulnerable”. The process would be monitored closely as well as follow WB’s “fiduciary and safeguards requirements under emergency situations,” it added.
As an extension of the fertiliser programme, the WB trained agrarian development officers (ADOs) across 16 districts to use the ‘Geo-Enabling Initiative for Monitoring and Supervision’ (GEMS). The application requires them to upload photographs of fertiliser payment receipts and farmer details through their smartphones. The information is then relayed to a central database.
The system enables “evidence-based monitoring” and has been implemented in Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen and other countries with weaker digital infrastructure than Sri Lanka. It has helped to track the real-time delivery of equipment and goods (especially during the pandemic) and to monitor public works and cash transfers. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Agriculture signed on to GEMS with the objective of ensuring that fertiliser reached the right people in the right quantity, at the right time and price. It not only strengthened accountability and monitoring, official sources said, but it would allow data to be centrally analysed to streamline distribution and plug holes during subsequent cultivation cycles.
Fertiliser procurement and distribution have long been blighted by allegations of mismanagement, poor administration and opaqueness. There has been concern about whether stocks were reaching deserving recipients in desired quantities. During fluctuations, there have also been reports of hoarding and price manipulation. Digitalisation helps solve several of these shortcomings but has met with resistance in many sectors, not just agriculture.
But Agriculture Ministry officials confirmed that implementation of GEMS (which is under the Department of Agrarian Development) during the last season was problematic, though it would increase transparency. Among the constraints mentioned were the non-availability of smartphones, funds and a reluctance of ADOs to use the application at times when large numbers of farmers were queuing up for fertiliser. The economic crisis also meant the project could not be prioritised.
While officers of 16 districts had been trained, actual data-gathering has been slow. Now, a series of “pilot projects” in select areas–where the necessary infrastructure was readily available–are being considered to ensure wider use of the application during the next cultivation cycle, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said.
It takes around four minutes to enter the data of each farmer at the time of fertiliser issuance, official sources said. It can be done without the internet with the possibility of data being uploaded when a connection is available.
While written instructions were given to ADOs to use the system, they are not widely followed. “Some don’t want to use it,” the senior official said. “We did not achieve the level of progress we want in the Maha season. But we have told them they must do it in the upcoming Yala season.”
This will require a more systematic approach, experts warned, including necessary directions being issued and resources released to make it work.
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