Sustainability of Research and Development:

Abstract

We share our experience on how to establish sustain able research and development based on successful collaborative research between the Local Language Speech Technology Initiative of UK and Kenyan partner - Teknobyte Ltd . Starting in 2003 when we embarked on spoken language technology development, technology and expertise were successfully transferred to the Kenyan partners, culminating in the launch in April 2008 of the National Farmers Information Service (NAFIS), a voice service accessed over the phone which offers a wide range of information in Kiswahili or Kenyan English to supplement the existing agricultural extension services