Listo: Marketplace for rural agriculture

A lack of transparency in rural supply chains locks smallholder farmers out of inclusive economic growth in many developing nations. Disruptions to supply chains due to COVID-19 have further exacerbated food wastage and generated losses for farmers. To solve this, we developed Listo, a digital marketplace, that streamlines buying and selling between small-scale farmers and local regional buyers with the goal of increasing farmer income and simplifying aggregation for buyers. With user-centric design, Listo is accessible via brick phones (SMS/voice) or smartphones. Our platform creates new opportunities for buyers and sellers through features such as real-time, location-specific notifications of farmer posts and buyer demand. Moreover, we incorporate tools to simplify transportation and promote farmer coordination with cooperative management features.

In Latin America, agriculture employs 14.1% of the labour force (OECD) and smallholder agriculture supplies between 27-67% of each nation’s food (FAO). In Colombia, 2.7 million smallholder households rely on agriculture for income (DANE Colombia). However, various factors create structural barriers to inclusive economic growth, such as disorganised supply chains, exploitative intermediaries, poor infrastructure, and a lack of price transparency.

The disorganisation and complexity of rural supply chains means supply is poorly matched with demand, resulting in two main impacts. Firstly, it increases the volatility of prices. Smallholders are heavily reliant on crop sales for household income and have few savings, making them vulnerable to systemic shocks. Secondly, the lack of connectivity in the market leads to high rates of on-farm food waste. This reduces the income that farmers’ could potentially earn and contributes to climate change. In Colombia, 34% of food produced in the country goes to waste due primarily to inefficiencies in supply chains (FAO). The pandemic has further disrupted already fragile and inflexible supply chains, causing even higher levels of food waste despite widely conserved consumer demand. 

Listo is a digital marketplace designed to drive inclusive, sustainable development in rural agro-economies. Beginning in Colombia, Listo helps to reduce market barriers by providing 5 key features:

1. Facilitating end-to-end transactions. The platform manages the full transaction: discovery (connecting seller to buyer), negotiation, exchange of goods, payment, and reviewing. To sell on the platform, farmers can use ‘brick’ phones via a voice menu or SMS to avoid excluding users with only 2G access. Both buying and selling features are accessible via an Android/iOS app.

2. Finding and managing transport. Listo provides tools to easily find transporters in your area (along with trucking routes) and integrate them into a transaction.

3. Management of cooperatives. Cooperatives are a powerful tool in the supply chain to increase the negotiation power of farmers, but can be harder to manage. Our platform provides tools to create cooperatives and manage organisations, from tracking purchases from members to group messaging features.

4. Creating new opportunities. Listo gives users the tools to be proactive and make new connections with other farmers, buyers, transporters, and cooperatives.

5. Data analytics. Transactions on the platform can be aggregated and analysed to provide users, businesses and policy-makers with an unprecedented spatio-temporal understanding of rural markets.

Listo is a digital platform designed to improve the efficiency and fairness of food supply chains in developing countries at a systems level, where a lack of transparency and connectivity disproportionately impact smallholder incomes. Our team chose to trial our technological solution first in Colombia because 40.3% of the rural population still live below the national poverty line (World Bank Data) and many areas have been hit hard by the country’s conflict.

We began our work in 2019, first by conducting surveys with local farmers in 3 regions of Colombia to understand their needs: coffee region Risaralda, the Amazonian and Caribbean region. The types of crops they grow cover a wide range, such as coffee, cacao, plantain, cassava, avocados, etc. 

We deployed a user-centric approach when developing our platform. This included multiple iterations of prototyping and feedback in the first stage to then piloting with a more stable version of Listo. We continuously took in feedback from our users, making improvements and developing new features that are necessary to meet their needs. For instance, one of the newest features is the integration of transporters, so that sellers can easily add a transporter to their order to deliver to the buyer.

Before COVID-19, 34% of food in Colombia goes to waste at different stages (FAO). This is partly due to farmers not being connected to buyers in a timely manner. Through Listo, we target the reduction of food loss and help to ensure sustainable food production. Using automated alerts on Listo, regional buyers are notified instantaneously about available products. 

 Listo helps increase farmers’ by forging new producer-market connections. With specific market information, farmers are in a stronger position to decide when to sell and negotiate better prices. Our platform translates to increases in efficiency and fairness in rural supply chains.

Our solution uniquely combines a digital marketplace with real-time location specific market information generated from platform usage, to enable smallholders to make better informed decisions. Whilst e-commerce platforms exist, only few are applied to agriculture and these are exclusively web based.

 Other agricultural e-commerce platforms in Colombia require the seller to use their website (eg AgroMun, ComproAgro), which excludes the majority of rural farmers who do not own computers or have access to the internet. Others who provide an Android application do not have a solution that is accessible to the 55% of the rural Colombian population without mobile internet (GSMA statistics).

 Uniquely, we have integrated SMS and voice-based menus into our platform so that farmers with only 2G access are not excluded from new opportunities. Moreover, cooperative associations have a huge potential to increase the negotiating power of farmers and stabilise their incomes. However, they can be hard to manage. Therefore, unlike other platforms, we provide dedicated tools (also accessible via SMS) to make it easier to create and manage cooperatives.

 Given lower levels of tech and numeral literacy, only highly user-centric services will be scalable. As such, we prioritised user-centric design in every stage of platform development, from the user interface and experience to accessibility and delivery channels, which significantly impact how smallholder farmers perceive, adopt, and retain the use of digital technologies.

Listo is a broadly accessible multi-platform digital marketplace. The platform can be accessed via Android and iOS applications, and the selling functionality is also accessible via SMS and/or voice menus. These features are offered free, without the standard SMS or call fees, ensuring that lower income users using older phones and without credit can still access the platform.

 To buy produce the user will still require a smartphone, but our surveys have found that almost all buyers have access to these phones. The smartphone restriction is crucial for buyer-specific functionality as important key features (e.g. spatial search) require the use of more flexible UI elements. 

 The backend is developed using Firebase. Specifically, we use the Firestore NoSQL database in conjunction with cloud functions (node/typescript) to develop the REST API. We use Flutter for developing the frontend, which has the advantage of compiling both iOS and Android, eliminating the need for parallel development. We are beginning development on a React-based web frontend, which is focussed on the needs of cooperative associations and larger buyers.

 In terms of the SMS/voice menu, we collaborate with a Colombian telecoms provider who has pre-existing relationships with network operators in Colombia. This means the platform is accessible across all networks via the same number. Users with brick phones are required to register via the app as a location record for their farms is essential for future sales. Once registered, all subsequent selling can be managed via SMS/voice menus. 

In Colombia, mobile phones is a widely used technology with more than 79% of the population having a mobile phone and 67% of those using smartphones (GSMA). However, there remains a gap between urban and rural mobile internet usage rates: 67% versus 45% of connections (Colombia, GSMA). 

 We began platform development in April 2019 and have been piloting a stable version with partner organisations and small-scale farmers in Colombia (departments of Risaralda, Caqueta, Bolivar) since October 2019. We have a fully functional version of the platform, integrated for Android/iOS and the SMS/voice-based system. To date, there are more than 400 people on our platform Listo.

 A introductory video of the platform Listo is here (in Spanish): https://youtu.be/5m_m_m7yV5w

 A playlist of step-by-step tutorial is here (in Spanish): 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkIpW7YoNIH3Onwl9k3V6cNhiW0p8jV6-

Our overall Theory of Change is to lead to long-term outcomes of (1) better income for farmers from selling agricultural products and (2) reduced food loss from unsold produce not entering into supply chains. Prior to COVID-19, 34% of food produced in Colombia went to waste due to disorganised and inefficient supply chains. The pandemic has led to further disruption, with farmers reporting even higher losses, especially amongst perishable products. 

To begin, our main activities are to connect farmers to buyers in a meaningful way through the platform Listo so that they can conduct crop trading using their mobile phones. Our sub-activities include training producers on how to use the platform, inviting trusted buyers from local business networks to participate in Listo, and providing location-specific information about markets to users.

In terms of short term outcomes, the farmers will have greater exposure and familiarity with using a digital solution. Over time in the medium-term, this translates into growing comfort in using e-commerce platforms for crop commercialisation in the typically more traditional sector of agriculture and better access to timely information about market prices for their products. In the longer term projected outcomes, by skipping the initial intermediary steps and selling more directly to end buyers, such as local factories, shops or restaurants, research has shown that rural producers can gain up to 30% higher prices. The increase in income for farmers not only helps them afford essentials such as healthcare and education for their children, but also positively impacts the broader rural economy and allows them to reinvest in their farms.

For buyers, in the short term they will be notified about available products in a timely manner. Over time, Listo can provide buyers with a more direct connection to order agricultural products. As well, this helps to ensure that either the farmers are receiving better prices (because of skipping a few inefficient steps in the supply chain) or more sales in frequency (which can also increase smallholder income).

We currently have 400 people on the platform. These are heads of households who support on average 3-4 family members, such as their children, grandchildren, and the elderly. By earning their incomes from selling through our platform Listo, these heads of households can provide financially for essential household goods and services, such as electricity, pay for health services, and potentially reinvest in their farms with sustainable agricultural tools and practices. 

In one year’s time, we project to increase our outreach to 2,000 people. This will be done through our growing network of partners who provide outreach and training to our end beneficiaries. 

In five years’ time, we expect to reach 17,000 users on the platform. This will be achieved through continued support from our network of partners, series of promotional and marketing events through radios, social media, and physical advertising, frequent agricultural trade shows or events for specific agricultural commodities or in general, and an expansion of our team’s talent.

Our overarching impact goals are to (1) improve prices received by farmers by up to 50%, (2) to reduce on-farm food waste by 15%, and (3) improve adoption of technology by women and members of marginalised groups, such as internally displaced peoples. 

We are planning a commercial launch in Q4 2020 to expand beyond our current coverage areas. We were recently endorsed by the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture and have been working for the past year with 2 local partner organisations for outreach. In May 2020, we began collaborations with two regional Chambers of Commerce to enhance visibility to local buyers. To realise our goals, we have a hybrid to-market strategy, consisting of small group interactions for user acquisition (<800-1000 users) and targeted promotional events for this year and more extensive digital and physical advertising for later growth in 2021 (<15k users).

Our growing network of partners help to foster trust in our platform and on-board more users on both the farmer and buyer side. This partnership network includes: farmer cooperatives and collaboration with regional institutions (such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Chambers of Commerce). 

Our model for operational replicability and scalability requires specific factors in place simultaneously: the right product matched with the seller and the buyer, at the same time, and within similar proximities of one another. We will first strategise to focus on key products per region, ensuring that our partners prioritise outreach for sellers or buyers of those core products for higher chances of impact.

Barriers or risks to market entry include: 

(1) Poor coverage of mobile signals - There is a lot of variability in the quality and coverage of mobile coverage in rural Colombia and certain areas without network masts may be out of reach in the near-term.

(2) Imbalance or mismatch between the number of available producers to buyers - As we are expanding the number of users on the platform, it is important that we correctly balance the level of demand from buyers with the supply from producers. 

(3) Concerns around privacy and theft - In less economically developed regions of Colombia or areas affected by the conflict, users have strong concerns that people may steal their produce, which is their primary source of income. Therefore, they may be worried about advertising the exact location of their farm / availability of produce.

(4) The impact of bad actors in the marketplace - On both the buying and selling side, there is the potential for users to behave disingenuously. For example, a buyer may make a fair offer in advance, but then insist on paying a lower amount on collection. Or the producer may be dishonest regarding the harvest date, pretending it is fresher than in reality. 

(5) Access to finance for scale-up activities.

Within the next year, barriers (1-3) have a higher possibility, particularly (2) in terms of a possible lower level of suitable buyers on the platform. 

Barriers (4-5) will have a greater effect in the next 2-5 years.

(1) Poor coverage of mobile signals

At this early stage, we are tactically prioritising the regions of Colombia with lower market entry barriers, specifically those meeting a minimum set of telecommunication infrastructural requirements. In the medium-term, the government also has already passed legislation to improve rural internet connectivity and we plan to partner with various telecommunications service providers in bringing bundled services.

(2) Imbalance or mismatch between the number of available producers to buyers

We focus on key products per region, involving the participation of both producers and buyers through trusted networks, such as the Chambers of Commerce and local farmer groups. Additionally, we offer organisational and communication tools for farmer groups to attract their usage during periods with lower buyer participation.

(3) Concerns around privacy and theft

Prior to accepting an offer on the platform, buyers only see an approximate location on the map (randomly offset circle) rather than an exact location.  

(4) The impact of bad actors in the marketplace

Firstly, with our initial set of users, we are establishing relationships either directly with users, or through trusted organisations. Therefore, users have undergone a degree of screening. Secondly, as with other digital services, Listo integrates an open review and reporting system, so users can accrue a reputation and know who is trustworthy.

(5) Access to finance for scale-up activities

Our current grant for technical development and initial demonstration is covered until January 2021. In the meantime, we are actively applying to various competitions for technologies in sustainable agriculture.

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Full-time: 5

We work with 4 local partner organisations in Colombia, each with a team of 3-7 people.

Dr Jacqui Poon (CEO, co-founder, full-time) leads project and business development and holds a PhD in Plant Pathology (2012-2016) from the University of Cambridge. She has >2 years of experience managing the startup, whilst leading operations and public-private partnership engagements for international collaborations. She has 1 year of prior policy-making experience in the federal agricultural department of Canada. She has also participated in Gates Foundation workshops for agricultural R&D and innovation in Kenya and gained experience on research commercialisation through her secondment at UK BIS. 

Dr David Godding (CTO, co-founder, full-time) leads the tech team and has a PhD in Epidemiology and Modelling (2014-2019) from University of Cambridge. His PhD focussed on modelling the continental spread of an emerging epidemic in Cassava in sub-Saharan Africa as part of a Gates Foundation project. This involved field work and collaborations in both East and West Africa during which he gained an understanding of the interrelated economic problems that prevented policy interventions from creating the desired impact. 

Alex Diaz (senior software developer, full-time) studied Physics at Imperial College (MSc) and has 6 years working in software development. 

Andrea Lugo (operations manager, full-time) joined the team at the start of our project in Colombia (April 2019) and manages partner relationships and implementation of outreach activities. She is a Colombian national with a Bachelor’s in Modern Languages.

Octavian Focsa (software developer, full-time) studied Physics at Imperial College (MSc). He joined in February 2020 and has a background in machine learning and data analysis.

Our platform was recently endorsed by Colombia’s Ministry of Agriculture as part of their COVID-19 action plan for digital commercialisation. The MinAg is incentivising and supporting farmers to use digital platforms to sell their agricultural products, as conventional ways of selling produce have been severely disrupted. The initiative aims to guarantee the income of farmers and to stabilise food supply chains during disruptions, through training and the provision of subsidies.

We work closely with two Colombian partner organisations: Patrimonio Natural, an NGO focused on sustainability processes in reforestation in Colombia; and a farmers’ coop of coffee growers in Risaralda. Moreover, we have the support of the Prosperity Fund, British Embassy in Colombia, who facilitate connections with new partner organisations. For example, they have been fundamental in connecting us with regional Chambers of Commerce, with whom we have been engaging to promote the participation of local businesses.

Our platform’s value proposition is to introduce more transparency into the agricultural marketplace for underserved smallholder farmers and other stakeholders in the rural supply chain. Our primary revenue stream is a small fee applied to digital payments within the platform. By efficiently connecting farmers to buyers that result in smooth transactions, Listo helps to both reduce the amount of on-farm loss and improve the earnings of small-scale farmers. Digital payments are part of streamlining this process, allowing users to take advantage of new trading opportunities, whilst avoiding the risk and inconvenience of paying in cash.  

With a motto of not leaving anyone behind, our solution is uniquely accessible to producers using basic phones, so mobile internet is not needed to sell products through Listo. Farmers simply send in their postings through our 2-way SMS or voice menus. At the same time, buyers will be instantly alerted to available products near them or products that they follow, so that they can act on it and go ahead with a transaction. This makes our platform dynamic and ensures that our users on Listo are not missing out.

Furthermore, to foster a sense of a social network for agro-economies, farmers can check the number of views on each of their postings, and buyers see how many farmers they have bought directly from and percentage in improvements to farmers’ income. This helps to bring rural communities online in a sociable way, allowing people to see immediately the positive impacts of their actions.

We believe we would greatly benefit from the diversity of experience and ideas within the MIT networks to help challenge our solution and deployment approaches. An underlying and related aspect to the barrier described above (‘an imbalance or mismatch in the number of sellers to buyers’) is the issue of logistics and rural transportation for agricultural commodities. Road infrastructure in rural parts of Colombia is lacking and some farms can be difficult for trucks to reach. We are currently investigating the best models and approaches to inclusive transportation that involves local transporters (such as common motorbikes and jeeps, which maneuver more easily on dirt roads) as a way of providing logistics support when farmers are trying to sell their products. In the MIT initiative of Sustainable Supply Chains and the Center for Transportation and Logistics, there are various experts with whom we see alignment in scope and collaboration potential.

We are also seeking either new team members and mentorship to help us overcome our other barriers, namely the issues of privacy, familiarity with e-commerce for agriculture (a more traditional sector), and the slower development of IT/telecoms in rural areas. For instance, this includes experts who understand or have experience with looking at changes to social behaviour when digital solutions are introduced, particularly in rural areas with high levels of poverty.

Due to our teams primarily tech/scientific background, we are aware that we would benefit most from mentorship from people of a business development / operations and marketing strategy background. Ideally, with experience in a developing country context. We are actively seeking mentors with these skill sets. 

We would like to partner or get in touch with those in the MIT Sustainable Supply Chains initiative. For instance, we would like to discuss potential collaborations or partnerships on sustainable integration of logistics and local transporters with the end goal of improving supply chains in Latin America. The underlying logistics and integration of agricultural products from small farms (including first-mile issues) to larger centres of aggregation is a complex process. It is important for us to assess the impact and efficacy of sustainable solutions and figure out the effects of mobile platforms on transforming supply chains on a systems level.

Secondly, we would like to partner with Fellows at the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, particularly related to the challenges of making digital or mobile finances more accessible and integrated for rural populations.

One of the core focuses of our pilot project is to incorporate a gender-based approach during our design and implementation process. In Colombia, various women have become single mothers over the course of the country’s internal conflict. Our team recognises the importance of gender and diversity inclusion when developing new technologies, particularly for rural areas. As such, throughout the process, we were careful to ensure women are represented in our design and implementation process. During our initial design phase, 42% of our pilot projects are female producers. 

We also take into account differences in mobile technology usage to see whether certain platform features or outreach strategies are disadvantaging women or leading to different usage rates. For example, we looked at the gender breakdown of people using the following different ways to access the platform: smartphone application, SMS, and voice. Our internal metrics are disaggregated by gender to track and be able to respond to gender differences in technology adoption and usage patterns. To this date, 44% of our platform users are women and 63% of crop transactions are performed by female producers.

If awarded with this Prize, we will use this prize to continue to monitor and respond to gender differences during the adoption of our platform Listo. We run specific workshops that build the capacity of women to sell agricultural products through Listo. As well, we respond to gender-disaggregated feedback from users by taking it into account and continuously improving platform features.

Our platform is designed to maximise the passive generation of reliable data on supply chain activity in rural agriculture in developing countries. Due to the informal nature of the current supply chains, it is extremely hard and expensive for policy makers to make data-driven decisions to benefit the poorest subset of their populations. David, our team’s CTO, focussed on these problems of unreliable data generation and modelling in sub-Saharan African agriculture during his PhD. As we grow the platform's user base, our tech focus will shift from software development towards spatiotemporal data analytics, which will involve the development of machine learning models. We will have two primary goals 1) Developing tools to reduce the highly complex / dynamic spatiotemporal dataset into intuitive decision making tools for smallholder farmers and local buyers (e.g. market price predictions). 2) Providing policy makers / NGOs etc. with a far more accurate understanding of rural markets, to enable data-driven policy development. 

Farming Data is a for-profit company set up with a social purpose of streamlining transactions between small-scale farmers and buyers and transforming food supply chains in a sustainable way. We deliberately designed and structured our platform so that it will be scalable in different regions of the world. The inefficiency of rural supply chains and the lack of information transparency is an underlying global challenge affecting millions of smallholder farmers. By beginning in Colombia, we plan to improve the livelihoods of more small-scale farmers in the country and also in other neighbouring Latin American countries.