About
Grameen Foundation developed FarmerLink, which uses digital technology and field agents to provide farmers with complimentary resources. These include agricultural training via tablets or mobile phones, connections to high-value markets, support for organic certification, early warning alerts for extreme weather and pests, training in financial management and access to finance. The same tool is used across each stage by each partner, so people can see what the farmers need, allowing for better assistance.
Capability and features
Farmerlink geotags farmers and registers their location, allowing them to become part of the early warning system. This triangulates data from the ground to create extreme weather alerts and pest detection, allowing them to mitigate and prepare for these issues in advance. The SMS system is also used to provide advice every two weeks.
Extension workers use Farmerlink to assist with farmer profiling and monitoring their adoption of farm management plans. This transparency makes it easier to give recommendations, which in turn lead to better practices and higher incomes.
Government are able to monitor their own programs and beneficiaries, and use FarmerLink as an early warning system for pests and diseases.
Lenders have access to farmer profiles, dashboards, grouping of farmers, and can monitor their own programs. Lenders can leverage data from other extension workers (such as government and buyers), and are able to better understand their customers.
Progress to date
FarmerLink has reached over 27,500 farmers with their SMS-based agriculture extension service and early warning system, with 70% of the farmers finding the system to be very influential to their farm practices. Partners also saw favourable outcomes in operational efficiency with the introduction of digital tools in the farm inspection processes for certification. A 62% time reduction was gained in the process which meant field inspectors can double farmer visits with the mobile tools compared to current operations.
The Philippine Coconut Authority and Grameen Foundation are in talks to develop a plan to extend the use of FarmerLink more widely in the country. People’s Bank of Caraga continues to use the Farmerlink tool to support their lending operations to coconut and cacao farmers.
About
The Weather Company, an IBM Business, is the world’s largest private weather enterprise, helping people make informed decisions – and take action – in the face of weather. The company offers the most accurate, personalized and actionable weather data and insights to millions of consumers and thousands of businesses via Weather’s API, its business solutions division, and its own digital products.
The Weather Company is the world’s most accurate forecaster, and produces forecasts for 2.2 billion locations every 15 minutes. More than 160 meteorologists analyse and forecast the weather, which is available for any exact location in the world.
Capability and features
Products include a top weather app (The Weather Channel) on all major mobile platforms globally; the world’s largest network of personal weather stations; a top-20 U.S. website; the seventh most data-rich site in the world; one of the world’s largest IoT data platforms; and industry-leading business solutions.
The world’s biggest brands in aviation, energy, insurance, media, and government rely on The Weather Company for data, technology platforms and services to help improve decision-making and respond to weather’s impact on business.
As the global population grows beyond the capacity of current food production, farmers must find new ways to increase harvests with the same amount of arable land.
Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture addresses these challenges by combining Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and predictive analytics with industry expertise and decades of research to help growers and other industry stakeholders. Grower can increase their profitability by yielding more bushels or tons per hectare across common crops. They can also improve sustainability – with deeper insights into factors such as crop input optimization, energy consumption, land and water use, soil conservation, soil carbon content and greenhouse gas emissions.
Progress to date
The Weather Company has been named most accurate forecaster in the World by ForecastWatch, a premier authority in meteorological accuracy validation.
The Weather Company powers the world’s weather through Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo and more.
About
LuckNow is a SaaS solution that helps farmers improve their land management practices, through the use of IoT devices, artificial intelligence and connections to market partners. The system analyses data points such as sunlight levels, temperature, precipitation, pH, humidity, presence of pests or diseases, etc. Farmers are able to plan out their activities in line with best practices, and sensors in their fields help them make good decisions that boost their yields.
Capability and features
Farmers use LuckNow to select and track inputs, set harvest schedules and monitor results. Sensors help to detect issues and make recommendations, in order to increase their productivity. Farmers are better connected to input suppliers and market partners, improving their yields, prices received and therefore increasing their incomes.
Extension workers use LuckNow to assist farmers in monitoring farm conditions, as the sensors and cameras allow for early detection of issues. LuckNow shortens the time needed for agricultural education, automatic input information by recording the growing crop condition through IoT system.
Businesses are engaged via a subscription model. They use Lucknow to find and contact farmers spread across wide geographic areas by verifying their identity and proof of farm ownership. These businesses can benefit from better estimates of farm production, and use the data collected from each farmer.
Progress to date
LuckNow are currently establishing a presence in Java in partnership with the provincial government, and have been working with 30 farmers in Japan.
The team are currently developing a traceability system with NFC or RFID to track the produce from farm to end processor, for food safety and product certifications and supply chain management. They are also creating iPhone and Android phone interfaces to improve the system’s useability.
About
8Villages have a suite of services that benefit smallholder farmers, including Datahub, LISA, KASA and RegoPantes.
RegoPantes is a platform that connect consumers/businesses to the farmers directly. Through RegoPantes consumers/businesses can manage their purchase of their products, regarding its quality, shipping method and/or amount and shipping time of their products. RegoPantes was inspired from the unfair treatment of farmers and consumers by middlemen. With RegoPantes, farmers can sell their product and consumer can buy their product at fair prices. It is currently being used in almost every region in Indonesia.
Farmers can use RegoPantes to sell their products directly to customers without going through middlemen, increasing their net incomes.
Progress To Date
8Villages has engaged over 120,000 farmers to date, and has partnerships with Mercy Corps Indonesia, Telco (Telkomsel), Agriculture University, Ministry of Trade and BMKG.
The team are working with ministry of information to reach 1 million farmers in Indonesia.
About
8Villages have a suite of services that benefit smallholder farmers, including Datahub, LISA, KASA and RegoPantes.
Datahub is a platform that assists field officers in collecting data. It began as an internal tool for the 8Villages staff, but is now released commercially to empower a wide range of users.
Datahub collects high quality data from the field, eliminates paper based collection and increase the data’s accuracy. The app is designed to be as practical as possible, works without an internet connection, monitors field officer performance, generates reports automatically and guarantees the quality of the data. For agricultural businesses, the app can be used for field registration.
Progress To Date
8Villages has engaged over 120,000 farmers to date, and has partnerships with Mercy Corps Indonesia, Telco (Telkomsel), Agriculture University, Ministry of Trade and BMKG.
The team are working with ministry of information to reach 1 million farmers in Indonesia.
Datahub is partnering with experts to track Standard Operating Procedures that are proven to increase productivity, using trial plots to demonstrate these improvements. This tracks if the farmers actually perform these activities, which creates transparency for investors and increases yields.
About
8Villages have a suite of services that benefit smallholder farmers, including Datahub, LISA, KASA and RegoPantes.
LISA is an SMS and online based village information service that enables farmers to join in their agricultural communities. Farmers often do not benefit from transparency or know the best practices needed to use agri business products in efficient and effective ways. LISA solves these problems across multiple dimensions. It can engage directly with any farmer by android application, so they can ask questions real time. Farmers can get closer to the modernization, they can selling their products at fair price and they can live more prosperously.
LISA’s field force solutions help companies develop better surveys, leading to insightful learning from the field which can increasing farmer productivity while improving the company’s profitability.
Progress To Date
8Villages has engaged over 120,000 farmers to date, and has partnerships with Mercy Corps Indonesia, Telco (Telkomsel), Agriculture University, Ministry of Trade and BMKG.
The team are working with ministry of information to reach 1 million farmers in Indonesia.
About
Farmapp is an integrated pest and disease management platform for crops. It combines information from different technological modules such as geo-referenced scouting and spraying apps, soil sensors, and weather stations. Once the information is processed and analysed, it is delivered back to the farmers via email, SMS, and access through the business intelligence platform. This information is used to plan biological controls, analyse and program the spraying of a particular product, monitor the incidence of pests and diseases, and automating greenhouses. The platform is mostly used for protected cropping (greenhouses) and is currently implemented in over 1,500 greenhouses around the world.
Capability and features
Farmers can simplify these processes through the easy to use mobile application. Recording data is easy and more efficient than using traditional methods such as paper, and farmers benefit from satellite maps, soil sensors and weather stations. Farmers can also track the routes and speed of movement of crop sprayers, in order to optimize the quantity of the product supplied and to control the application of agrochemicals and fertilizers in the field. This module significantly reduces the use of agrochemicals and fertilizers in the crop.
Input Retailers have access to real-time user metrics, giving them a better understand of customer needs and empowering them to sell more appropriate products.
Progress to date
Farmapp operates in three continents, with over 80 farms using Farmapp as part of their daily activities. Customers are currently experiencing 20% reductions in plant losses and savings 20% on labour costs.
Farmapp is developing a virtual 24/7 agronomist to support growers with weather, pest and disease management, as well as an interactive school programs that making use of technologies that students use on a daily basis.
The team are currently working on a new “Pesticides Free/Minimal Use Certificate” that will be used by companies, government and customers to get a unique and trusted source of truth about the provenance and practices used to produce the products. The platform allows Farmapp to generate real-time and secure reports that will transform the way people buy food at supermarkets.
About
Slide is an integrated fintech platform that enables supply chain stakeholders to gain access to capital. Slide uses data collected within the ecosystem to generate a reliable AI credit score for quick loan approval.
The platform facilitates lending from financial institutions, impact investors or through crowdfunding, and mitigates risks by establishing a closed-loop supply chain.
Capability and features
Slide features an AI chatbot, secure QR for payment and traceability and an eWallet to facilitate transactions. Revenue is generated through platform fees and transaction fees.
Farmers use the platform to apply for loans, arrange payment and collection, and find up to date price information, thereby maximising the value of their harvests.
Traders use the platform for loans, crowdfunding and to improve traceability.
Lenders benefit from KYC data, AI Credit Scores, and to manage their loans more effectively.
Progress to date
Slide is currently used by banks and the Singaporean government, and has been audited and approved by the Singaporean and Indonesian governments. More than 500 farmers have used the platform.
Slide are collaborating with MUFG to use Slide to empower supply chains in ASEAN. BNI (Bank Negara Indonesia) white-labels Slide for international remittance, and AUB (Asia United Bank) are set to use Slide in the Philippines.
About
Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) under its Agricultural Insurance Solutions (AIS) division, offers weather based insurance, to helps growers protect their investment in quality inputs, repay loans even if bad weather damages their crops, and replant at once when germination fails because of irregular rains after planting. SFSA uses state-of-the-art climate and crop models, efficient processing of claims by insurers, and a record of timely pay-outs to underpin a reputation for lean parametric solutions that do not require loss adjustment in the field.
Weather insurance enables farmers to invest, and for this and other reasons is also of interest to governments, donors, international organizations, NGOs working in agriculture, and the agribusiness sector, i.e., input and service companies, commodity off-takers, and financial institutions offering value chain financing and loans to farmers.
Capability and features
Agricultural input companies put a registration card with a unique code in each bag of seed or fertilizer. When a farmers opens the bag at the time of planting, they find the card and follows its instructions on sending an SMS for registration. From this SMS, SFSA knows the farmer’s location and can monitor the rainfall using satellites. The premiums are paid by the input company; while payouts to the farmers are done via mobile money transfer.
SFSA offers smallholders in Asia and Africa a viable tech-based solution using automated weather stations and satellite imagery to monitor crop losses through weather indices developed. The solution solves both the affordability and distribution challenges (through eWallet) that agricultural insurance faces in reaching smallholders. Basic Financial Literacy training are also taken up as a part of the capacity building section of the program.
Progress to date
SFSA has worked with over 2,000,000 farmers across Africa and Asia.Their insurance programs in Bangladesh are set to impact at least 230,000 smallholders by 2021.
SFSA is working to improve the livelihood of end users by creating an application called the Resilience Engine. It is an IT Platform that automates agri-insurance business operation processes and will incorporate all activities including weather database management, pricing process, data collection, mobile phone integration, monitoring and evaluation. The application will also aide in the capacity building process by hosting high quality content for training purposes.
About
Mercy Corps cultivate crops that both extend community disaster mitigation measures and augment household income. In Nepal, Mercy Corps cultivate sugarcane to reduce siltation and inundation of agricultural fields while reclaiming crop land from eroded rivers and generating income from sugarcane sales. To support communities, Mercy Corps uses a digital survey system called ODK (Open Data Kit) for data collection and to map potential sugarcane cultivation areas (sandy river banks) with geo-tagged information.
Capability and features
ODK is much cheaper than satellites and sensor based mapping, as it makes use of GPS and mobile technology. It works with any type of mobile device with GPS, and is free to use.
NGO staff use ODK for data collection and to map potential sugarcane cultivation areas (sandy river banks) with geo-tagged information, thereby providing additional income opportunities for communities, increasing household savings and protecting them from floods.
Farmers are engaged at a plot level (planting and harvesting), and benefit from increased production.
Meanwhile, the private sector started using this data collection technology for their business forecasting, expansion and operations.
Progress to date
Mercy Corps have improved flood protection, increased savings, increased household incomes for over 1,100 farmers. Partnerships with the private and public sectors, who started using this data collection technology for their business forecasting and operations, has led to the development of the sugarcane sector in Mercy Corps’ operational areas and uptake of the ODK.
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