Supporting Farmers Through a Market-oriented Agriculture-specific Marketing Platform
Selected Company： Syno Japan Inc.
Project Summary
A new system will be built to streamline the processes of data collection for market research by farmers, linkage with existing market information services, centralized data management, and data sharing and utilization. It will enable effective autonomous data collection and sharing by farmers, creating a marketplace that connects farmers and buyers.
Challenges Many Tanzanian farmers are unfamiliar with market information, how to choose which market to sell, and how to judge the information provided by buyers. There is a need for a system to collect and accumulate market research results by farmers who practice the SHEP approach and share them with other farmers.
Solution The project will develop a marketplace platform that connects farmers and buyers by streamlining the self-motivated collection and sharing of data by farmers. Actual users of the platform (farmers, agricultural extension officers, buyers, etc.) will participate from the prototype development stage to the test run, with the aim of building a system that will increase the motivation of farmers.
Challenges Many Tanzanian farmers are unfamiliar with market information, how to choose which market to sell, and how to judge the information provided by buyers. There is a need for a system to collect and accumulate market research results by farmers who practice the SHEP approach and share them with other farmers.
Solution The project will develop a marketplace platform that connects farmers and buyers by streamlining the self-motivated collection and sharing of data by farmers. Actual users of the platform (farmers, agricultural extension officers, buyers, etc.) will participate from the prototype development stage to the test run, with the aim of building a system that will increase the motivation of farmers.
The Status of PoC
Initial Phase
In April 2021, the team started field activities and conducted interviews with potential users to build marketing data for agricultural products. The team also carried out surveys with farmers, extension officers, and buyers about the necessary information and the communication tools. Useful feedbacks on the platform's design, functions, and intention to use were also collected through the survey.
The interview with the participants
A prototype of the platform was developed based on the interview results and is currently being customized with the input from JICA experts. As soon as the system is completed, the team will start a PoC with agricultural extension officers and farmers in three regions of Tanzania.
Sample image of the system being developed
Implementation Result
After conducting the above interviews, we conducted a PoC for Tanzanian farmers, agricultural extension officers and buyers, with a total of 49 participants, to verify the purpose of using the system, its operability, recommendations, and areas for improvement.
Result of one of questionnaires
The participants generally gave high marks for operability and recommendations, and a lot of valuable advice. For example, we were able to improve the platform based on their suggestions such as making it available on feature phones, which still is a popular mobile device, and increasing the number of crop types and target market options. Additional training was also conducted as several participants expressed a desire for more training. Through this PoC, the importance of localization and improvement of functions and user interface based on communication with actual users was recognized. As for the platform developed in this PoC, we are exploring several options for its continuation, including the possibility of using it in the SHEP approach promoted by JICA. Based on the results of the PoC, Syno Japan is considering the possibility of using the platform with farmers and extension officers in countries where SHEP is operated, as an educational tool for SHEP implementation, and as a tool to gather knowledge and insights to understand the markets in each country.
See announcement of PoC selection for Tanzania