Improving outgrower schemes through mobile technology
Farmforce: Improving outgrower schemes through mobile technology Spencer Morley is part of the Farmforce team and brings 12 years of commercial software delivery experience from projects around the world. He is currently based in Southeast Asia and has spent six years deploying web and mobile technology solutions in the financial services and agricultural sectors for clients across the developing world. Before shifting focus to technology for development, Spencer worked as an IT consultant in Europe focusing on mobile payments, eCommerce and technology outsourcing. He is currently working with the Farmforce teams responsible for sales, partnerships, and customer service. Bringing Farmforce to Guatemala
Discuss how the partnership came about competitive process, FSMA as hook Role of each partner Discuss milestone approach 3 Farmforce in Action 15 to 3 days for audit preparation
53% reduction in pesticide detection Rejection rates down to 2% from 10% Farmers receive 20 more minutes of technical assistance 4 1 Not for profit organisation, established and funded by Syngenta International AG, an agro chemical and seeds company that works in over 90 countries and has 26,000 employees Strategic and operational independence from the company Mandate to support smallholder famers: increasing productivity through improved technology improving access to markets mitigating farming risks SFSA is engaged in developing outgrower management schemes in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Peru Development of Farmforce is co-funded by theSwiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO 2 Farmforce Today Scaling Up Globally
Began a commercial rollout in April 2013 after piloting in Kenya and with internal projects. Currently around 35 External Clients Guatemala, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil, Haiti and Honduras. Total approx 90,000 farmers managed in Farmforce Client facing offices in Nairobi, Guatemala City and Bangkok USAID Funding Guatemala, PIP/COLEACP Service Provider Partnerships in China, South Africa, Brazil 3 Farmforce Solves First Mile Problems
Agricultural Production Harvesting and Warehousing Processing Shipping & Logistics Existing ERP/traceability systems 4 Smallholder Contract Farming Schemes
Formal Business (Exporter, Coop, Buyer or Factory) Field Officers Small Holder Farmers 5 Difficulties Linking Farmers to International Markets: Contract Farming
Sourcing Ag produce Records Management and Reliability Legaland Quality Compliance Operational Transparency Harvest Traceability Institutions dealing with smallholder farmers in rural areas in developing countries are struggling with the problem of the last mile: how to organize farmer interaction in an effective, efficient and economic way? Time consuming and labor-intensive field staff interaction lots of manual paperwork and subsequent data entry prone to errors. Such processes are prone to mistakes, delays are usual, monitoring is difficult and limits the number of farmers that can be reached. This holds for extension activities, microinsurance registration, input programs, voucher-based interventions, product and quality tracking, linking farmers to markets, and so on. The last mile problem seriously limits the outreach and effectiveness of farmer interaction 6 Farmforce - Website and Mobile App
The mobile client is used by field staff who interact with the farmers The Farmforce Server is a cloud based web application. It is used by cooperatives, farmer business organizations and other aggregators to organize and monitor farming activities 7 What Does Digital Management Look Like?
Weekly Production Forecasts across an entire scheme Mobile Entry of: PesticideRecords,Yield Forecast, Crop Scouting, Harvests & More Geo-Referencing for Security GlobalG.A.P compliant record management for 1000s of outgrowers Field Staff can be monitored and managed via the web. Internal Control System for Pesticide Usage Rules and Harvest Intervals 8 Solutions to First Mile Problems Previous Clients
Yield Forecast Accuracy Doubled Real-time Management and KPIs for Field Staff Farmer Level Traceability 10x more accurate Field Staff Effort Reduced by 30% Elimination of Ghost Farmers: Previously 40% of Farmers Results Delivered for Previous Clients 9 Organization Wide Change
Increased Manageability of Outgrowers (previous slide) Time, Money & Expertise Greater Efficiency: Profitability & Scalability of Outgrower Schemes Increased Investment in Smallholders 10 Spencer Morley 10