Fintech empowers rural farmers through technology
Intuitively, large-scale agriculture may seem like the easiest solution to feed the world’s rapidly growing population, but this will be somewhat short-term. Indeed, smallholder farmers, who produce around a third of the world’s food, play an important role in supporting rural economies.
Unfortunately, however, small farmers struggle, not least with access to markets, a lack of information about what is produced and a lack of monitoring of the quality of their products.
A fintech startup, E-source Farm application (eSus), is on a mission to bridge the information gap by providing farmers with information on climate change, among other vagaries farmers face.
In a statement to the media during the launch in Kampala, International University of East Africa (IUEA) Vice Chancellor Prof Akaezuwa Emeka says since the country is embracing technology and innovation, farming must be one of the sectors that needs more emphasis.
“Smallholder farmers are key to tackling the food security issues facing the world, but they also increasingly face barriers to profitability. We have realized that agriculture contributes the largest percentage to the country’s economy, but farmers still face challenges with climate change due to lack of effective information. That is why we have introduced an online platform for farmers to access information, says Emeka.
Currently, it is possible to predict food production in commercial farms. This is partly because there is enough data about what commercial farmers do on their farms.
However, it is impossible to do this for the smallholder sector precisely because there is no data. eSus Farm brings precision agriculture to the smallholder sector.
Prof Emeka adds that they have engaged more students in technology and innovation to save the country from air pollution resulting in climate change.
– The program for technology and innovation is very effective and needs the support of people who are interested in saving farmers. People need to see what we do and how farmers will benefit from our various innovations, he adds.
Prof Emeka explains that the E-source Farm application will enable farmers to showcase their product and get updated information on farming using mobile phones, because smallholder farmers do not have access to the available markets and middlemen buy their produce at a very low price.
“It is not easy for farmers to access regional markets from their respective areas without support, that is why we have come up with the platform that will help them reach more people faster and cheaper because they do not have to pay to be on the platform,” he says.
The application is initially available on the Airtel network by dialing *222# and as it is still in pilot mode very soon it will be on other platforms starting next year.
One of the students from IUEA Mohammed Hassan Ahmed says that through the university they have introduced technological measures to save small farmers who are financially unstable.
He says the youth must embrace technology and innovation because it has helped the young generation to plan for their future instead of graduating and start looking for jobs.
“Since we do not have funds to support farmers, we have created an electric tractor technology that will enable smallholders to benefit from the technology because that is one of the challenges they face. Smallholders do not have the financial resources to buy and use advanced technology, but they can manage to hire these advanced machines so that they increase production, he says.
Hassan adds that electric tractors will help reduce the greenhouse gases that litter the environment.
eSus Farm is an agri-fintech that specializes in tracking and delivering advanced agricultural statistical data to smallholder farmers and the entire agri value chain with the aim of increasing agricultural productivity, smallholder market and credit access, and the overall efficiency of agricultural value. chain.
