Online platform links farmers to buyers

With the hustle and bustle of modern life, most households hardly get ample time to go shopping and get the right kind of foods.

In Nairobi for instance, consumers often complain that the vegetables and fruits they buy in markets are not as tasty as those they devour while in the rural areas.

A new online platform, Soko Plus, is seeking to link small scale farmers to markets in various urban centres where limited agriculture takes place.

The web-based platform, championed by the Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN), allows farmers to upload photos of their produce online where interested buyers pick and buy.

Currently, the farmers benefiting from Soko Plus are those from Kitui, Kajiado, Laikipia, HomaBay and Baringo counties where ALIN is implementing programmes aimed at improving the livelihoods of communities in arid and semi-arid lands.

Esther Lungahi, the ALIN knowledge management officer, says transactions may also begin from customers requesting for certain products.

“We will then get in touch with farmers through our various knowledge centres to check on the availability of the products,” she says.

Once customers have made payments, ALIN agents arrange for the products to be transported to a location convenient to the buyer.

“While doing this, they also ensure that the quality and quantity of the products is maintained just as the customers would prefer,” says Ms Lungahi.

Even in areas where ALIN doesn’t have agents, farmers can still register and upload photos of their products online.

“We will then share their email and phone contacts to all people registered in the Soko Plus database,” says Ms Lungahi.

The platform will be instrumental in tackling the issue of limited access to markets for farmers and tackling food insecurity.

In various instances, agricultural experts have lamented that as farm produce rots in some regions due to surplus production, citizens in other parts of the country may be dying of hunger from drought and food shortages.

Technological solutions such as Soko Plus are increasingly providing the missing link between these two different ‘worlds’ long before the government succeeds in expanding the transport infrastructure all over Kenya.

Peter Mwaniki, a farmer in Laikipia County, says Soko Plus has enabled him to sell his Lima beans far beyond his home area to customers in Mombasa and Nairobi.

Due to the high profits he has reaped, Mr Mwaniki says he is now motivated to increase beans and maize production on his farm as he is now assured of ready market.

Apart from the buyer-seller transactions, Soko Plus provides an avenue for Kenyan farmers to access information on prevailing market prices.

“I heard about this source of information from a friend who is a farmer. It has helped me to know when to sell at the right price to make profit,” says Mercy Njoki, a farmer in Rongai, Nakuru.

Farming communities tucked in remote areas are often at the mercy of middlemen who buy their products at extremely low prices and make exorbitant profits in urban centres. Knowledge of markets prices cushions them from this kind of extortion.

Another challenge faced by many smallholder farmers, Ms Lungahi notes, is the lack of information on latest farming technologies that can boost yields.

Through its knowledge portal, Soko Plus offers farming tips touching on various agricultural sectors such as bee keeping, dairy cattle rearing, horticultural farming and disease management.

“As a young farmer who knows little about agriculture, I believe this site will help me stand on my feet fast. They have almost everything an entrepreneur like me needs. So I don’t need to hire experts, which would have been costly for me,” states Ben Kariuki, 26, a small scale farmer in Ngong.

The platform also has a directory section, which comprises names and contacts of agricultural extension officers in a locality, who are instrumental in passing practical specialised agricultural information to farmers.

Whereas anyone can access the Soko Plus web platform (www.sokoplus.sokopepe.co.ke), only registered members can buy and sell.
“But registration is free for all those interested,” Ms Lungahi adds.

Though online platforms like Soko Plus are gaining popularity, their potential cannot be harnessed fully unless Internet penetration – currently at around 35 per cent in Kenya – increases.

Experts are also concerned that failure to address the digital divide will deny farmers in remote regions numerous opportunities for gaining knowledge through Internet sources.