Technology

App leads farmers to markets working from home

farm

After listening to farmers’ woes about finding markets for produce, Allan Oyier has developed an app that should reduce the pain.

He says Farmers Networks App helps smallholder farmers to make their businesses sustainable by leveraging digital technologies.

“Eight months of lockdown living the life of a smallholder farmer in Africa, experiencing first-hand the challenges and opportunities of agricultural entrepreneurs, understanding the food journey from farm to table, led to the development of the Farmers Networks App,” he says.

The platform provides end-to-end solutions that enable the farmer to focus on production with support in other departments like bookkeeping, sourcing, value addition, marketing and networking.

The app has two users: the primary user is the farmer and the secondary category are farmer support providers, including extension service providers, agronomists, veterinary officers, tractor services, soil testing, spraying, and agro-dealers.

“The farmer wakes up and checks news about farming from the app, checks business health, identifies his needs from the trends on the dashboards of the app and matches the needs with service providers,” says Mr Oyier, who is also a farmer.

He adds that the farmer executes his plan using the app.

“He is able to implement value addition initiatives. Certifications for local and internal markets are possible through the app. Then marketing being the final part of the journey. The app also enables farmers to take part in social media communities and share best practices”.

According to him, the app is available all over the country.

He adds that it is also available for use in other countries in the world, and can be downloaded from Google Play Store, IOS and Huawei Gallery.

Countries including Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Namibia, Zambia, Uganda, South Africa, DRC, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya have participated in building the app.

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