1. Youth in agribusiness: shaping the future of agriculture
Brussels Briefing 49:
Youth in agribusiness: shaping the future of agriculture
Presentation
Patrick Sakyi, Farmerline, Ghana
“Improved agricultural information access through ICTs”

2. MAY18, 2017
IMPROVED AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION ACCESS THROUGH ICTs
FARMERLINE
PATRICK SAKYI, MANAGER, MOBILE COMMERCE BUSINESS, FARMERLINE
3/27/17

3. Filling market gaps - Mobile penetration in Ghana reaches 120%
- 56% of the people in rural areas are illiterate
- Extension to farmer ratio is 1:1500
- Smallholder farmers lack access to timely information

4. Companies and customers alike are placing increasing value on quality and traceability.
Yet a lack of transparency along the supply chain remains a major challenge.

5. Our mission is to transform millions of smallholder farmers into successful entrepreneurs by connecting them to markets, information, and services.

6. WHAT FARMERLINE OFFERS simple, user-friendly voice and SMS messaging
for farmers
our tech digitizes:
farmer profiling
farm mapping + mgmt
certification
traceability
we provide farmer and client training, and support distribution
of livelihood
products + services
COMMUNICATION
DATA COLLECTION
TRAINING + NETWORK

7. GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES
MERGDATA: THE FARMER COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM
Farmerline’s MERGDATA platform provides customizable
content messaging
WEATHER
FORECASTS
MARKET PRICES
GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES
01 Available on simple feature phones
02 In SMS, Voice, USSD, and smartphone tech
03 In any language

8. TRACEABLE SUPPLY CHAIN
COLLECT CRITICAL DATA ALONG THE CHAIN
FARMER PROFILING
FARM MAPPING
CERTIFICATION AUDIT
Yield Data
Crop Type
Family Size
Farm Size
Farm Area
Soil Type
UTZ
Fairtrade
Rainforest Alliance
FIELD MONITORING
FARM MANAGEMENT
TRACEABLE SUPPLY CHAIN
Agent Activity
Farmer Activity
Field Interactions
Farm Inputs
Data Coordination
Upstream Traceability
Unique Farmer IDs
Supply Chain Insights

9. DATA ANALYTICS & VISUALIZATION
FARMERLINE : BIG DATA
GENERATE
DATA ANALYTICS & VISUALIZATION
Monitoring and evaluation easy and accessible.
Track survey and campaign results.
Receive instant feedback to address inefficiencies immediately.
Package data in simple, user-friendly reports.
Use analytics to get actionable insights

10. WHO BENEFITS FROM FARMERLINE
Increase productivity, access to information
+ financial services, linkages to supply chain
data-driven farm management; improved distribution of inputs, products + services; linkages to smallholders
distribution of products + services that enhance livelihoods and increase global food supply
SMALLHOLDERS
AGRIBUSINESSES
BUSINESSES, DEV ORS + GOVTS

11. Challenges include: Poor in-country infrastructure
Competition for local talent
Poor perception on farming & lack of role models
Lack of mentorship
Mobile penetration is high but rural connectivity remains a challenge. This affects information delivery. Gradually, we are becoming the role models we did not have when it comes to ICT for Ag

12. TEAM
From the idea of two people, we are now a team of 22 people, all below 32yrs. For us, this is how success looks like.

13. OUR HAPPY PARTNERS

14. IMPACT
Farmerline has reached 200,000 farmers in 9 African countries including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Benin, and Cote d’Ivoire.
Farmerline aims to reach 1 million farmers by 2020.

15. Opportunities
1. There is enormous potential to use ICTs in Agriculture
2. Value addition of agricultural products
3. Packaging and/or labeling of farm produce
4. Organic production
5. Market coordination
Very few value-added agricultural products exist
Appropriate packaging and or labeling could attract competitive market prices
Inadequate packaging or labeling of farm produce
Considering that people are becoming more health conscious, increasingly and progressively, organic production is attractive
“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”
– Herbert Spencer ( )

16. Thank you Please contact us with any questions