Presentation made during Workshop on Supporting ICT-based Entrepreneurship and Innovations in Agriculture organised by CTA on 19-21 November 2013

1. Experience of EAFF in ICT use by young
Agropreneurs: Initiatives, challenges
and opportunities, Arnhem,
Netherlands
Tuesday 19th November 2013

2. Profile of ICT use in
Eastern Africa
• Across the region ICT
hubs/telecentres, esoko, mfarm, mshamba,;
icow; etc
• Kenya, Uganda ,(Rwanda) taking the lead
• Initiatives largely consist of farmer-ICT-hubs/
centres, located near markets or collection
centres frequented by the farmers.
• Case of KLPA, Kenya SMS based platform to
provide extension services, market
information, etc

3. Challenges
1. Sustainability: separate entities working with
farmers
interests/incentives
2. Social norms: limited decisional capacity of
young farmers to be heard in their groups
3. Educational capacities: ability to read, write, etc
4. The overall usage of Web 2.0 and Social Media
in EAFF FOS is picking up though at a slow pace

4. Opportunities: EAFF
e-Farming solution
Farmers in Eastern Africa face a myriad of challenges:
• Finance & capital
• Input & Purchases
• Post harvest management
• Market access and information
• Product traceability and quality assurance
• Infrastructure shortcomings

5. Finance solution
• A unified platform where Agricultural Finance
Institutions can advertise targeted products by
use of a database
• • A market hub where EAFF can supply
information and cluster farmers by type of
produce in order to access finance

6. Inputs purchase
• A database with a portal that allows input
marketers, feeds, fertilizers, pesticides,
herbicides to advertise their products
• A collective bargaining farming group filtered
by type of farming allows for bulk purchasing
and eases logistic costs

7. Post-harvest management
• Bulk management by clustering farmers around
type of produce(VCs)
• Partnerships with logistics firms to manage
transport
• E-Warehousing in order to know what stocks to
expect per location
• Buyers portal in order to know what harvest is
expected by market

8. Market information
A market hub where:
1. Buyers can access geo information on farm
produce availability
2. Buyers can engage EAFF to buy in bulk
3. Farmers in groups can better negotiate price
4. A direct link to farmers cuts out brokers

9. Product traceability and
quality assurance
• Identifying key metrics for each product
requirement
• Informing farmers of what they need to
do in order to comply
• Actively monitoring to ensure that
farmers produce meets the expected
requirements

10. Work a head
Central Contact Center (10,000 farmers)
• Registration:
• a. Database
• b. Mobile Communications Interface (WAP Application)
• c. Basic Online View using CMS (Content Management System)
• d. Online Registration e. Mobile WAP Registration
Info Center & Billing (1,000,000 farmers)
• 1. Member Billing
• 2. Advertising
• 3. Mobile Selling
Bulk Sales (20,000,000 farmers)
• 1. Bulk Buying
• 2. eWarehouse
• 3. Bulk Selling
• 4. Online Info Center

11. End of Presentation
For more information, please contact:
Program Officer (Knowledge Management)
Eastern Africa Farmers’ Federation
E-mail: norbert@eaffu.org
Website: www.eaffu.org