Agriculture PS Sicily Kariuki said the system would help to ease fertiliser distribution and minimise delay in procurement and delivery. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
The digital system is expected to be both mobile phone and web-based, with data bases of targeted farmers and agro traders.
Farmers will be vetted and their details fed into a database before being issued with a unique code to access the commodity.
Once details have been captured, the growers will receive a text message from the service provider confirming their registration details, the agro dealers participating in their locality and availability of fertiliser.
Safaricom has won a potentially lucrative contract to develop an electronic subsidy management system to be used for distribution of fertiliser to farmers.
The digital system is expected to be both mobile phone and web-based, with data bases of targeted farmers and agro traders.
Agriculture PS Sicily Kariuki said the system would help to ease fertiliser distribution and minimise delay in procurement and delivery.
“This will be an effective system that will create efficiency along the value chain of fertiliser distribution,” said Ms Kariuki in a statement.
The system is expected to be ready by the end of next month.
Farmers will be vetted and their details fed into a database before being issued with a unique code to access the commodity.
Once details have been captured, the growers will receive a text message from the service provider confirming their registration details, the agro dealers participating in their locality and availability of fertiliser.
The PS said the technology would help farmers who stay far from the National Cereals and Produce Board to collect fertiliser from the nearest depot.
Safaricom won the tender through a competitive process after defeating 29 other firms, making the shortlist of companies that included JamboPay and Cellulant.
Even though Safaricom is said to have charged the State only Sh60 million to develop the system, the telco stands to earn tens of millions from M-Pesa transactions and SMS charges for use of the platform.
The Nigerian programme won international recognition for helping to improve farmers’ harvest by sealing leakages that previously caused theft of subsidised fertiliser.
Cellulant group chief executive officer Ken Njoroge said Thursday Safaricom won the contract due to its wide reach across the country and the M-Pesa mobile money service.
“Certainly, this system is based on mobile money in the country and Safaricom has a well-established infrastructure to offer the required service,” he said in an interview.
The Agriculture PS noted that the pilot testing for the project would be conducted in April and May during top-dressing of food crops planted during the long rains.
Bungoma, Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia are the main target counties.
Agro dealers who will participate during the pilot stage will secure their stock from the already government-procured fertiliser at various NCPB depots.
Farmers will pay for the fertiliser upfront to a bank or pay bill number. The system will generate a claim in respect to each agro dealer for settlement from the subsidy program account.
The system will have a stock management module with a database of inputs suppliers in the country and will show information on stocks available for ease of access, helping in estimating requirements and shortfalls.
Reports on beneficiaries and quantities of fertilizer distributed will also be generated on request.
This new arrangement will see the government stop procurement of fertiliser and leave the task to the private sector.
The platform is also aimed at curbing malpractices such as re-selling of the supplement as the system can track the farmers using phones.
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