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Connected Farmer
Alliance: Helping Poor
Farmers with
Commercially Sustainable
m-Agri Services
facebook.com/agrilinks
Speakers
May 13, 2015
Michael Elliott, TechnoServe
Laura Crow, Vodafone
Facilitator
Judy Payne, USAID Bureau for Food Security
Michael Elliott
Michael Elliott
Michael Elliott is the regional program director
for the Connected Farmer Alliance (CFA), a
partnership with USAID and Vodafone to
develop mobile solutions for agriculture in
Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. He came to
TechnoServe from the Boston Consulting
Group (BCG), where he led teams working on
strategy development and implementation for
Fortune 100 firms. Michael served three years
in Niger, first as a Peace Corp Volunteer
working with smallholder farmers on natural
resource management, and later with Catholic
Relief Services developing their IT strategy.
Laura Crow
Laura Crow
Laura Crow is part of Vodafone’s Commercial
and Strategy team for M-Pesa where she
focuses on new product development in the
areas of agriculture and health, and supports
the efficacy of the M-Pesa distribution network.
Laura has been at Vodafone for six years, with
other roles dedicated to their emerging market
footprint in consumer services, commercial
development and external affairs. Prior to
joining Vodafone, Laura worked on issues
related to business practices and human rights
at a consultancy based in Singapore.
Connected Farmer Alliance (2012-2015)
Partnership between Vodafone, USAID and TechnoServe
Pilot markets: Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique
Goals
•
Farmers: Increase productivity, revenue
and resilience for 500,000 smallholders
•
Agribusinesses: Improve income and
efficiencies
Products / Services
Design, pilot and scale
“Connected Farmer”, a
new mobile supply chain
management solution
for agribusinesses
Business Solutions to Poverty
Scale mobile financial
services targeted at
smallholder farmers
(Linda Jamii, M-Pawa)
Support mAgri VAS
incubation with
Safaricom
TechnoServe | 4
Connected Farmer supply-chain solution
Enable agribusinesses to more effectively engage with smallholder farmers
Farmer
Farmer data mgmt
Communications
Transactions
(via M-Pesa)
SMS Notifications
Farmer Queries
Data Collection
Agribusiness / Field Officers
Business Solutions to Poverty
TechnoServe | 5
Example use-case: Payments & Receipts (1/2)
Farmer
1
Agricultural output
brought to
agribusiness’s Buying
Center
3
Payment issued to
farmer via M-Pesa
4
2
Buying Agent enters
transaction details
(mobile #, quantity) into
android app
Business Solutions to Poverty
Agribusiness
Receipt sent to farmer
via SMS
TechnoServe | 6
Example use-case: Payments & Receipts (2/2)
Android interface
Business Solutions to Poverty
TechnoServe | 7
Progress to date on Connected Farmer and DFS training rollout
1
“Connected Farmer” supply chain solution
• Commercialization
̶ 3 commercial contracts signed: Olam (50k famers in 3 value-chains), Kenya Nut (50k farmers),
Ndumberi dairy (3k farmers)
̶ 3 commercial contracts in-process: Githunguri Dairy, Alliance Ginnery, Tanga Fresh
• Usage
̶ ~10,000 farmers registered on the system
̶ ~$150k disbursed to farmers via M-Pesa
̶ > 600k SMS’s (receipts and info) sent to farmers
2
Digital Financial Services training
• M-Pawa (mobile savings and credit, Tanzania): 19,200 farmers trained, 4,300 actively saving
• Linda Jamii (mobile health insurance, Kenya): Training rolling out in May
Business Solutions to Poverty
TechnoServe | 8
Vodafone’s
Perspective:
Connected
Farmer Alliance
Laura Crow
C2
Key lessons learned
• Finding the right contacts / decisions-makers within an OpCo can take time,
but is crucial to success – start early!
• Encourage partners to be honest about their incentives early in the process –
sustainability is only possible when everyone realizes sufficient value
• Benefits for both farmers and businesses lags behind implementation – don’t
expect to see significant benefits before the second year of use
• Capacity building may be required for businesses and farmers to get full value
from mAgri systems
• Digital payments can be transformative for the agricultural sector, driving
increased transparency, trust, and reduced fraud
Business Solutions to Poverty
TechnoServe | 10
Thank You
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