Esoko's 4th Annual Partner Conference

Esoko being deployed in multiple countries across Africa presents unique and interesting challenges -  all specific to each country's agricultural, cultural, mobile and economic environments. In light of this,  Esoko hosts as annual conference that brings together international partners to share ideas and learn from each other in person.

This year's conference - the 4th of its kind - was held from April 23rd to 25th and included partners from Mozambique, Cote D'Ivoire, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, and Ghana.

Day 1 Highlight: Emerging themes in MIS
Esoko CEO Mark Davies reminded partners of the need to keep up to speed with current trends to improve the market information system/service industry. From Esoko's point of view, there are three main themes springing up to drive the industry - global agriculture, mobile agriculture and market information. Under these, they key issues raised included:

• Global agriculture: food security, insurance products, contract farming, climate adaptation, women & youth, and private public partnerships (PPPs)
• Mobile agriculture: call centers and e-extension
• Market information: value chain management and profiling & field force

"The MIS landscape is still in its early days", Davies said. "There are diverse models and technologies and this presents a massive opportunity for all of us."

Stories from the field
Esoko partners shared interesting stories on how Esoko is helping them transform their business, and link farmers to markets. The Market Oriented Agricultural Program (MOAP), who has used Esoko to supply market prices to citrus farmers in the Central region of Ghana, indicated that knowledge in market prices led to better bargaining power resulting in higher revenues.

NOVUS (Uganda/Kenya) representative, Mr Bayella Thiam, said their objective for using Esoko is to keep customers engaged and build a trust relationship with price and technical advice. "We use Esoko as a cost effective way of reaching farmers and other actors in the livestock value chain".

Day 2 Highlight: Product and Tech Showcase
The 'Orange Day' of the conference brought over 30 software developers donning the bright orange Esoko T-shirt to spice up their presentations to the partners. To help partners understand and give feedback on the applications they use, Esoko decided to let the developers themselves interact with the partners who took them through the structure and the entire software development process. Some new applications were demonstrated to the the partners in small groups.

But the technical team didn't do all the talking....partners were grouped together and asked to lead the design process for some applications. It was an interesting experiment in appreciating what goes into the development process, as well as a new way to get partner input and feedback.

Day 3 Highlight: Strategy discussions
How best do you deploy Esoko solutions in your environment? How do you finance, monetise and sustain your project? These are just few of the strategic questions that partners were seeking answers to. The day saw discussions on four key areas - execution, financing, revenues and positioning with partners -  one key question was how to get farmers, who have been receiving subventions all these years, to now pay for services. It was interesting to find new partners asking deployment questions and having their fellow partners, who have been on the ground longer, provide valuable insights.

CEO Mark Davies chipped in with a presentation on the actual strategy of the company, where it is headed and what our immediate objectives are.

He recounted how unsustainable and cost-ineffective it is for individual projects to develop and maintain their own systems,  hence Esoko's belief in integrating these smaller bits of MIS and data services to create greater value for partners, while enabling these partners to concentrate on their core operations. He added that the company's goal is to change the way markets work, especially for the poor.

Hands-on-workshops
To provide partners with some more specific operational challenges, hands-on-workshops were organised across the three days. Dealing with mobile networks operators, project planning, M&E, field training, enumeration and marketing were some of the key areas addressed.

Esoko is thankful to all its partners and attendees who made it, and we hope that it has been as insightful for them as it was for us. We hope to see everyone again next year, and to welcome some new faces too.

Reaching the rural farmer with modern technology

Over the years innovation has driven the development of new tools and services to tackle different areas of the agricultural value chain…now including, of course, exciting new technologies using mobile phones. All of these innovations aim to improve food production and security, the livelihoods of individual farmers, and the business of farming in general. 

But the majority of food production remains in the hands of rural farmers who have little or no access to these quickly moving we-can’t-wait-for-anyone technologies. So one big question remains unanswered: Why are the best technologies not reaching smallholder farmers? And how do we ensure that the technologies are relevant to the farming community and actually improving the livelihoods of farmers? Isaac Boateng (IB) and Philip Asihene (PA) of the Esoko monitoring and evaluation team share some insights.

Esoko: What are some of the challenges you face out there in the field?

Philip interacting with some farmers

PA: Lack of education and high rates of illiteracy are major problems. Though almost all farmers Esoko has dealt with have mobile phones and have access to phones, only a few know how to use the phones apart from making and receiving calls. Many cannot read and write and so understanding the messages we send them is difficult - some have to rely on the educated friends, children or others to interpret for them. 

Esoko: Do you face any challenges from the mobile network operators? 

PA: I think our major problem is the fact that some of the farming areas are still out the coverage areas of these networks, and some areas just have poor network coverage. Sometimes we see farmers standing at specific points in their community to get connected. Imagine the sight of about 20 people stationed at a point and making calls, checking or sending messages. This limits the effectiveness of any technology solution deployed on the mobile phone. 

Esoko: Isaac, do farmers have any concerns about the technology solutions themselves? 

IB: Oh yeah, we have one big challenge with standardization. Most new technologies adopt current world standards of measurement. But the farmers in the rural areas are still using local standards - what we call “local measures”. We started delivering information in the standard measure of kilos years back, and we've have learned the hard way that a current technology may be irrelevant if what it delivers does not conform to local standards. We now deliver information based on bags, tins, etc. – not kilos. 

Esoko: But can’t the technology providers be the game changers? 

IB: We cannot do this alone. This must start at the policy level. Government policies also affect how technology benefits smallholder farmers. What is the government’s policy on marketing of local agricultural produce? If it has been done for fish and meat, why can’t measurements also be standardized for agricultural crop produce? Right technologies must go with right policies. Even infrastructure affects effectiveness of any technology. Some of our farmers say they now know of better buying prices in other markets, but they cannot transport their farm produce to such markets because the roads are not usable during certain seasons. However, the technology world cannot wait for government and so solution providers like us have to find alternative means of ensuring farmers reap the maximum benefits from their solutions. 

Esoko: Do you think current solutions are necessarily complex?

Isaac explaining things to a farmer

IB: You see, a typical farmer would not read tutorials before using a phone. So when you are thinking of any technology for the farmer, it must be as simple and basic as possible; it should attract less effort to understand and use. If you develop a complex solution on a simple mobile phone, it will still be irrelevant to the farmer. For example, Esoko’s price alerts are simple and straight-forward messages that just tell the farmer the wholesale or retail price of a commodity in a particular market. Any ambiguity in the message is likely to confuse the farmer and render the service meaningless. 

Esoko: So Philip, how can we address the issue of technological illiteracy? 

PA: First of all I think there must be extensive training and education on the tools used to deliver the product or service. We train farmers on how to open their inbox, send SMSs as well as how to delete them when their inboxes are full. We always have to deal with the challenge of mobile navigation first, even before training on the service itself, otherwise the service is of no use. Farmers need training on their own devices through which mobile solutions are delivered. Sometimes the provider needs to go beyond their solution and train or inform the farmer on the other issues. A good example of this is when farmers lose their SIM cards, purchase a new phone number,and expect to receive SMS alerts from Esoko once they put the new number in the old phones.We have to tell them to go for the same number or inform us of their new numbers, because of course we identify them by the number, not the phone itself. 

Esoko: And after training how do you ensure the information delivered is helpful? 

PA: For us timeliness is key as far as any solution is concerned. Farmers require services that are time sensitive, so we do our best to ensure that the most recent market information is delivered to users right when they need it. 

The role of technology should be to transform business and improve farmer livelihoods. With agriculture in Africa projected to remain smallholder for some time, it is imperative that the new tools provide farmers with timely, relevant and local knowledge.

Jamo Macanze, Learning from the Source

MIS for Government

A team from Mozambique’s Ministry of Science and Technology paid a visit to Ghana to learn from the source in terms of how a system based on mobile was developed and how such a system is being implemented for the benefit of the rural farmers and international traders alike. The experience, knowledge and philosophy are inputs for the conceptualization of the Mozambican system on agricultural price and market information. I was part of the team who went on this mission and I wanted to share my thoughts on the visit.

Working for a government institution I need a Market Information Systems for the same basic reason any project or business does—to collect and share information. But when you get down to the details our needs and deployment methods will be particular to us. We’ve learned that Esoko is agnostic, as any type of organization can use it.

For us, an additional advantage of Esoko is the price and market information database which is being stored and can be made available to the client any time they require and in the format that they determine. This database is a powerful source for research on market trends, forecast and policy decision-making. Doing such a project at National level would better equip research institutions and the government. For our particular deployment, I believe it will be important to have Government participating in the process as a sponsor and the owner of the data, then have that Government share data with research institutions or individuals. 

A Visit to the Field

We had an opportunity to do a site visit at a farmers' association who were using Esoko. It was visible from the stories they have shared with us their happiness in using the system. Key issues mentioned were:

• they were saving time and money as they did not require more travel in order to get access to price information;  
• currently, they were able to sell their products at the gate point, in their farms, by publishing and receiving offers or from the already built network established among farmers and traders. There was also a trust built between the farmers and traders as they have been producing based on their recommendations and from various crop certification courses attended;
• they have improved their quality of life as they were able to sell their products in a fair price and then could invest the incomes in health, education, etc.

Complexity of Deployment 

The implementation of this project is even more complex than what I had previously thought. There is need of a functional machine in the background responsible for data collection, approval and publishing of the prices, networks creation, training, etc., which are not directly related to the technology but with the institutional organization.

I would point to a few main challenges, not in any particular order, to the use of the Esoko or any MIS system:

   Finance. The implementation costs may be too high for ordinary farmers or farmers associations to cover the deployment costs. The approach of working with existing NGOs who are supporting the farmers is a strategy to get sponsors to cover the initial costs until farmers gain the confidence in using the system and understand the value of it. 

     Brokers that add value. Existing traders that are close to the farmers can build value in the commercialization value chain. Traders need to play a role of educating the farmers on production standards and quantities for each season. They better the market and they can be the exporting bridge for the farmers. For example, one trader informed us that they sometimes advance their money to the farmers to be able to farm certain crops with the required standards and quantity. These activities can strengthen the market. 

    Technology literacy and availability. Most of the rural farmers have low literacy when it comes to technology use as well as reading and writing. Also farmers are using different mobile handsets brands so each has its own particularity which requires training and monitoring.

    Institutional organization. The implementation of Esoko requires a well-structured backup organization; people who will do the back office work and make the system available to organizations. This a project that requires partnership building so it must be a well known and reputed institution leading the process to be able to attract partners and mobilize resources. Also, the beginning stage requires some investment and it important that it be an institution who can have such funds available.

   Problem identification and description. Each country and organization has its own particularities so the concept of the agricultural market information system will differ. It is important to define your problems and needs well so that you know where are going to put your efforts and what concept you will develop. The identification of these problems can actually be done through a deep study of the existing Esoko system to see how the platform is fit to address problems in agriculture. It is important to remember that the technology is the minor component here, and that the real challenge is the organization you will be putting in place to implement and manage the system.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank all the team for their hospitality and willingness to support and share with us their experience, knowledge and philosophy behind the mobile-based agricultural price and market information system.

Jamo Macanze

Maputo, Mozambique

Kwesi Acquah, Building Technology in Ghana

Esoko,  2011,  Accra, Ghana 

The mere mention of technology brings to mind names like Berlin, Singapore, Basel, Bangalore and the famous Silicon Valley, to name but a few. Most of the world’s best technologies were conceived and brought forth in one of these hubs, and quite obviously the consumption of these technologies has also not been limited to only these areas or the countries in which they were developed.

Developing countries like Ghana have benefited immensely from technology transfer from these tech hubs. We use technology to help organize our lives, have fun, be inspired, communicate, and it has become a definitive part of life in our cities.  In rural communities, mobile rates are rising so quickly that no one can keep track. Without even needing statistics, the fact that most of our grandmothers have called us on a mobile phone tells the story of change.

But there is nothing better than identifying local problems, using modern means to carve out a solution and using local resources to develop technologies to solve that problem. To me that is just the story of Esoko, and we’re living it every day.

Esoko identified the needs in the agricultural industry in Ghana and is growing based on those observations and feedback from the market. What we’re finding is that projects and businesses all over Africa - and even beyond Africa in Asia and South America - need the same tools we’re building here.  If our team of 65 can outsource Ghanaian technology around the globe, we’ll know we’ve made it.

Like other technology based companies in Ghana and Africa, Esoko vividly demonstrates what the new generation in Africa is capable of – a great resource pool that can pull off anything.  We’re very proud to be at the center of it all.

I asked a few colleagues what the one word they think of is when they think about what we’re doing at Esoko. Here’s what they came up with:

Transformation. Helping. Creation. Disrupt. Diversify. Proving. Leading. Exciting. Innovation. Solving. Ingenius. Information. Ideas. Experience. Challenging. Fun. Dynamism.