Prototype
The Cooperative University of Kenya (CUK) in partnership with other stakeholders has been working on a one stop digital platform that will link dairy, maize and Irish potatoes cooperative societies to markets and service providers.
The open source and cost friendly digital system is meant to store information on production, membership, financial strength, business processes, markets and service providers targeting 152 cooperatives on pilot basis in four counties Narok, Nakuru, Baringo and Nyandarua.
Prof. Wycliffe Oboka, a Senior Lecturer at the Cooperative University of Kenya (CUK) and who are the implementers of the Kenya Rural Transformational Centers Digital Platform (KRTCDF) project, said they want to bring farmers and various actors along the value chain on one digital platform,
“There are many cases, where farmers produce and they are unable to reach the markets. There are also cases whereby cooperatives are not doing as well as we have expected,” he noted.
Speaking during a week-long County based platform prototype testing workshop in the targeted counties, Prof. Oboka said that lack of information, knowledge and data about the market, where farmers are able to sell their produce has always been a challenge.
He added that in a situation where the farmers are also not aware of the suppliers, extension service providers, equipment and financial institutions that can support their production, has seen them struggle. “Through this digital platform, they will be able to know who is in their space, whom they can quickly reach and access information,” Prof. Oboka noted.
He gave an example of a person who notices a symptom in an animal, or even in a crop, who will now be able to take a picture of the same, and put it onto this digital platform to get information, and also be attended to by the extension service provider, who will be in the platform.
Rispah Chepkonga, the Baringo County Executive for Agriculture speaking on how the platform will help farmers in the potatoes, dairy and maize value chain.
The system will also share details of all service providers, veterinary, equipment, extension officers, financial institutions, agro vet dealers and trade associations, so that the farmers are well aware of them and their locations in that space from whom they can be able to seek quick information,” he said.
Any willing person does not need to walk to a cooperative to register rather can comfortably register using their technology gadgets, thus this approach favours young people, who for long have declined to join the cooperative societies, he added. Prof. Oboka explained that another unique value of the system is that it will help in tracking food produce already in the market, hence the same will help in reducing post-harvest losses.
The system will also embrace traders, giving them the opportunity to track surplus food production in the market, know prevailing prices, thus easing the burden of farmers and cooperatives holding onto the produce, which can increase the post-harvest losses.
“We are hopeful that once the system is in place and operational it will help in taming the post-harvest losses by about 30 per cent,” said Prof. Oboka. The Director of Research and Innovation at CUK Prof. Ken Waweru said the project has attracted potential financial providers interested in bankrolling the project, once it is extended in other countries after the pilot basis in March 2025.
“Ensuring farmers, markets and service providers are linked into a single digital platform will not only minimize farmers against exploitation by middlemen among other secondary players, but it will also enable stakeholders too to pursue a common approach in terms of confronting challenges facing the identified sub sectors,” Prof. Waweru said
The Baringo county Executive for Agriculture Livestock and Blue Economy Rispah Chepkonga said they were really excited and ready to test the prototype on a digital platform, covering three value chains of maize, potatoes and dairy, which are key value chain handled in the area.
“Baringo does seed maize for Perkerra irrigation scheme, it also grows a lot of potatoes in the highland areas and produces a lot of milk. Interacting with the cooperative university and having this digital platform will help in coming up with nice tools in terms of looking at our progress productions levels, financing, insurance and also monitoring of the crops when in the field,” she explained.
The digital platform, Chepkonga said will also be easy for them as a County in terms of planning and allocating resources and looking at the extension officers per the number of farmers engaging in the value chains.
“We have cooperative officers and also enough extension officers. Last year, the County employed 148 extension officers and with them having a smartphone they will be able to train the farmers on one to one basis, when visiting farmers, while the Societies will train the farmers in groups,” she said.
On her part, the Nyandarua county Executive for Tourism, Trade and Industrialization, Cooperative Development Agnes Junji said that as a county that grows a lot of potatoes and having a challenge of marketing, the platform will assist in reaching out to farmers in other to reach buyers and other farmers from other regions such as Kisumu, Mombasa who do not produce the product
“This App will make a huge difference in the farmers farming through the cooperatives. One cannot be able to sell to their fellow farmers and so this platform will create market linkages and open up markets to for the farmers to get market from other areas,” she said.
Njuji explained that strengthening the over 50 cooperatives in the area through the aspect of aggregation and marketing through the digital platforms, will not only make them stronger, but revive the cooperatives that had become dormant. Cooperatives mapped for the pilot basis expressed confidence and opportunities to enhance productivity and reduce challenges along the value chains.
Helen Siminta Surum, Narok North Sub-County Cooperative Officer said that they will be able to monitor the performance of cooperatives societies and farmers will be able to market their products and access agricultural services including extension services.
“The new technology platform will help in reducing the cost of doing business among the more than 100 cooperative societies, thus motivate farmers to double their efforts to produce more. The technology will contribute to farmers benefiting with more information on agriculture production,” said Surum.
Sylvester Odera, Lead Developer for the Rural Transformation Centers Digital Platform Project (RTCDPP), said unlike other platforms that are out there, this one empowers farmers through their cooperatives giving them more of a bargaining power.
He pointed out the other unique feature of this platform is that unlike others, which have stand-alone modules for each value chain, this one incorporates all the modules that are important to the farmer into one single platform.
“You will find a very advanced ticketing system that helps farmers solve their issues. At the same time, it also helps the farmers with their bookkeeping, also journal entry, thus solving the problem of the fragmented technologies,” he said.
Odera termed the platform as one big ecosystem that empowers farmers through their cooperatives and it is therefore a must for any farmer, who wants to use it to have a smart control resource system, wich currently has 3 main access channels namely Laptop, Mobile App and USSD.