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In
2013, 27 year old Alloysius invented a Ghanaian software company and social
enterprise called Farmerline.
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Agyei Douglas is a farmer who grows vegetables
near Kumasi in Ghana's central Ashanti region. He used to struggle to access
markets and capital.
The information he needed was broadcast on the
radio but often it wasn't specific enough to improve his yield of lettuce,
spring onions, cabbage and chilli pepper.
Two years ago, the 43-year-old began using
Farmerline, which delivers weather updates, the latest market prices and other
details to his second generation mobile phone.
"It has helped us improve on our productions
through the information we get from them, it has made things easier for us as
compared to our previous system," he told AFP.
The Ghanaian tech company behind Farmerline is
one of a number of start-ups in the West African country working to bolster
food security through better access to information.
The initiative was established in 2012 and has so
far helped connect some 200,000 farmers in 10 countries using the mobile
technology.
According to 2014 Ghana government figures,
almost half of the working population are involved in agriculture, and just
over half of Ghana's land is used for farming.
World Bank figures indicate some 80 per cent of
agricultural output came from smallholders on family-operated farms with
average landholdings of less than two hectares (4.9 acres).
A lack of more in-depth and accurate data have
been seen as a stumbling block for Ghana's farmers, preventing them from better
production or accessing financial loans.
Farmerline offers a range of services for both
farmers and those who want to connect to them, including non-government
organisations, global food companies and local businesses.
Businesses can access data and farm auditing
services as well as farmer profiling, and farm mapping.
For farmers, there are also weather forecasts,
market prices and agricultural tips all offered as voice messages in local
languages such as the Akan dialect Twi.
- Award winner -
A point of pride for Farmerline's chief executive
and co-founder Alloysius Attah is its business model.
It puts people in direct touch with farmers,
breaking the cycle of poverty and dependency on aid.
"The business of agriculture has always been
about aid, a feel-good project," said Attah.
"But we are working really hard to show you
can create a business around it that provides value to farmers and... you can
get paid for those values you create."
Farmerline this week won the King Baudouin
African Development Prize, which rewards "exceptional contributions to
development work in Africa".
All three received €75,000 (US$83,750) each.
The prize, announced on June 20 in Brussels, aims
to highlight work in driving social change across the continent -- and with
funds attached, to help them advance.
Organizers say the prize is based on the idea
that "entrepreneurship and local leadership, rather than traditional aid,
is the key to sustainable change".
Attah isn't alone in his quest to use technology
to make agriculture more sustainable and productive in Ghana.
The country's government says it wants to modernize
agriculture, including mapping cocoa farms and collecting data on them.
In the private sector, agri-tech firm Ghalani,
set up in late 2016, also has data-collection as a key focus, digitizing any
manual records farmers may have.
It also gives farmers access to software to keep
better records, and make reports that could put them in a better position to
get financing.
CowTribe uses mobile technology to connect
livestock farmers in northern Ghana with vets, while the start-up Hovver uses
drones to help farmers map out their land.
Attah says the prize has been
"life-changing" for him but also the farmers he wants to help with
the harvest and especially the farmers he wants to help with the funds.
His next project is an app that helps connect
banks to farmers in need of loans, and is able to use data to predict how much
can be borrowed and when it will be paid back, without having to put up
collateral.
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| According to 2014 Ghana government figures, almost half of the working population are involved in agriculture, and just over half of Ghana's land is used for farming. Image: Farmerline |
The Mobile
Phone-Powered Lifeline For Farmers In Ghana
The earth is projected to be home to more than
nine billion people by mid-century, and up to 12 billion by 2100… that’s a lot
of mouths to feed. Farmers, as a result, are facing a reality that may be tough
to swallow.
"They must produce 70% more food by 2050 to
feed a growing, more urbanized population. And they must do so, facing the
likelihood that arable land in developing countries will increase by no more
than 12%,” according to a report by the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
The obvious question is: How?
Alloysius Attah is turning his attention to
smallholder farmers, half a billion strong worldwide, who currently feed
one-third of humanity. In his home country of Ghana, smallholder farmers
account for 80% of domestic food production.
Having grown up on a two-acre farm run by his
aunt, Attah sees great potential in these small-scale food producers.
It’s no ordinary nostalgia: with existing
technology, the gap between achievable yields and actual yields in Ghana can be
over 50%, taking into account post-harvest losses.
At Farmerline, we help smallholder farmers
produce and sell more food so that they can make more money for themselves to
invest into their farms and also to support their families. That’s our basic
and core mission," said Attah.
"Currently how we’re doing that is by using
mobile technology to create a communication platform for small-scale farmers
and the organisations and stakeholders that work with them."
Farmerline,
which launched in 2013, works with more than 5,000 farmers across seven regions
in Ghana. Every week, farmers in the network receive technical advice on topics
such as how much fertilizer to apply to their fields or how much feed to drop
into their fish ponds, as well as location-specific weather forecasts, directly
to their mobile phones.
According to World Bank data, Ghana has higher rates of
mobile cellular telephone subscriptions than Spain, Australia, France, and many
other countries – 108 for every 100 people.
Coverage is available across most of the country:
as many as two-thirds of Ghana’s rural residents have access to
mobile phones.
But what sets Farmerline apart from competitors
is that its tips and instructions are delivered not by SMS, but by voice.
"SMS has done a lot of work on the continent
– look at Ushahidi and M-Psea – but when it comes to rural Africa, to rural farming
communities, its abilities are really limited," said Attah,
explaining that the majority of farmers he works with can neither read nor
write.
The latest figures from the government’s statistical service show that more than 75% of adults in Ghana’s food
production centre, the rural savannah, are illiterate. Illiteracy rates are
nearly 50% in areas like the rural forest and rural coast, where three-quarters
of households participate in agricultural activities.
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| Image: Farmerline |
In Ghana, government agricultural extension
agents are tasked with training smallholders and helping them sell their
harvest, but the challenge is that each agent is responsible for 2,000 farmers.
"They are not able to reach farmers on a continuous basis, but farmers
need them every single day to exchange ideas, to ask them
questions," said Attah.
Farmerline, available in 12 local languages,
essentially digitizes the work of extension agents.
The programme is effective because, while powered
by mobile phones, the information is always relevant to a farmer’s specific
situation.
The Farmerline team, with direct support from
agriculture extension agents, hosts in-person workshops in farming communities
each season to establish trust; answer questions about the technology, market
conditions and distribution channels; and offer financial training.
"We train them to keep records, encourage
them separate farm and household expenses, and put a value on their time on the
farm so they can pay themselves a salary and know whether they’re making a
profit," Attah said.
Follow-up visits are scheduled every six to eight
weeks.
Smallholders in the Farmerline network, most of
whom are women, increase their income by an average of 55.6%, according to the
most recent impact assessment.
Attah and his co-founder, Emmanuel Owusu Addai,
hope to reach more than two million farmers in the next 10 years by scaling up
across Africa and Asia.
"We were trying to build the next Facebook,
or the next big technology, and make money for ourselves. But it’s actually
more honorable – and possible – to build services and solutions for people who
live on less than US$2 per day and help them take the next steps in their
lives," Attah said.
