Stock plug

Stock plug is a live animal multivendor, e-Commerce platform that connects livestock farmers, buyers and sellers to the livestock market.

Access to formal markets by small-scale livestock farmers is still a major challenge in Kenya if not in Africa. Currently, in Kenya, most of the livestock trade takes place in open-air markets on certain days of the week. For example in my community in Machakos county, the livestock market is usually on Wednesdays and Fridays.

 If a farmer wants to sell livestock he must wait for a market day, wake up as early as 4 am in the morning and walk for kilometres with the livestock so that he can make it in time for the market opening at 8 am. On reaching the market place the farmer will most likely deal with the middlemen who thrive on farmer exploitation by buying livestock at a fraction of the price only to resell them at hiked prices. This is especially true when our community has been hit by famine after failed rains and poor harvests causing farmers to be desperate to earn a livelihood.

In Kenya, this problem is mostly felt by pastoralists living in Arid and Semi-arid lands in Kenya where livestock rearing is the main economic activity. According to the Kenya Markets Trust, about 10 million pastoralists live and graze their animals in these areas.

Some of the factors that have contributed to the inaccessibility of formal markets are the lack of market linkages to external counties where the livestock is in high demand, the presence of exploitative brokers who ensure farmers don't sell directly to the final consumer and poor sensitization of farmers on the prevailing livestock market trends.

The greatest consequence of this problem is poverty. Counties that practice livestock rearing as their main economic activity are the poorest in Kenya. According to the Kenya Market Trust18 of the 20 poorest counties in Kenya practice livestock rearing as their main economic activity and host the highest number of people living below the poverty line (below USD 1.25 per day).

Our solution is creating an online multivendor eCommerce platform where livestock farmers and sellers can list their livestock after which they can interact, sell, buy and even compare livestock prices. 

In simple terms, it is an online store where small-scale farmers can list and advertise their livestock by uploading photos of the livestock they want to sell. If a farmer has a cow that needs to be sold, the farmer can take its photo and upload it to the platform with all the relevant details that affect the choice of the buyer. Think of it as Amazon or Alibaba but purely for live animals.

The farmer can state the price, the weight of the cow, milk production, age, locality of the farm/cow and any other information the farmer/seller may deem important. Once uploaded the cow is automatically listed on the platform and if anyone searches for cows on the platform it will be among the cows listed. A buyer can filter and compare the results according to preferences and if the cow is selected by a buyer the platform can then provide contact details of the farmer after which the buyer can reach out to the seller/farmer via call or text.

Stock plug utilizes mobile development tools, web development tools and a cloud-based database. Programming languages such as Javascript, react, native and Kotlin are used. Its prototype is already available on the Android Play store by the name Stock Plug and we are working to release the web and iOS versions.

Our target population are small-scale livestock farmers in Kenya however the solution is scalable across Africa. With Stock Plug farmers will be able to market and sell their livestock without going to the market physically. Stock plug will significantly cut down on farmer exploitation and provide market linkages to farmers helping them earn meaningful income from livestock sold. 

Due to poor sensitization most livestock reared by pastoralists in arid and semi-arid lands don't meet the criteria and quality standards hence fetch low prices. However, with stock plug farmers will be exposed to other experienced farmers who adhere to the recommended criteria and as a consequence get sensitized on the expected quality standards of livestock helping them improve their breed quality.

A big population of livestock-rearing farmers are pastoralists who are quite underserved because they mostly occupy arid and semi-arid lands where rains usually fail leading to a nomadic culture to sustain the fairly viable economic activity they know. Since they are nomads basic infrastructure in their home counties/areas is not as advanced as the neighbouring counties which practice crop farming. 

 Raised up rearing livestock and now a goat breeder, I'm uniquely positioned to understand the problems my fellow livestock farmers go through.My motivation for this solution came early last year when I was trying to source Alpine dairy goats for my farm as I did not know anyone in my area who reared them. After a long search in Facebook farmer groups, I came across a farmer in another county where I sourced them but with a lot of logistical difficulties. After my experience and after hearing testimonials of other farmers with the same experience I spotted the niche and I started trying to figure out a solution that would help my fellow farmers sell their livestock whilst helping me market my goats and farm.

Other than having a background in livestock rearing I am also proficient in programming although self-taught, especially in android development which helped me develop and launch Stock Plug to Google Play Store last year December.

Alex Sheunda my teammate in solving this challenge is also quite good in web development and we are currently working on the web version of the platform making it accessible across all browsers. Alex is a student at the Technical University of Kenya taking a diploma course in computer science and his web development skills are critical to delivering the solution to a wider audience.

Yes I have done research with potential users, I never miss a chance to talk to farmers about my solution and ask them for pointers on how I could improve the platform or features they'd like to see when the platform is launched. Most of the features and design are an amalgamation of feedback and insights from my fellow farmers.

Our solution will bridge the gap between the buyer and the seller of livestock through an eCommerce platform hence safeguarding livelihoods. Solving a problem that has been accentuated by the recent bouts of failed rains that have gripped the horn of Africa for the last 5 years. Stock farmers who have had a hard time selling their animals will have an easier time as a potential buyer will be a stone's throw away. 

It is catalytic in the sense that, it eliminates the need for farmers to take their stocks to the market without the certainty of getting a potential buyer. Instead, it allows breeders to focus on delivery as the livestock marketplace is centralized. 

Once the market has been created and value is seen infrastructure such as road networks will obviously follow to enable easy access to these areas.

The platform will also provide indirect employment opportunities for live animal delivery agencies and businesses. It will also help lower the prices of red meat and white meat for consumers as an efficient livestock distribution channel will be created.

Our first impact goal is to help stock farmers scale down their livestock numbers on the onset of drought seasons by selling them quickly for cash to reduce losses acting as a mitigation strategy for the effects of climate change.

Secondly, we aim at making livestock rearing for small-scale farmers a viable and worthwhile venture by providing a platform where farmers can sell their livestock at the current competitive market prices.

Finally and most importantly it is our goal to improve income generation in rural households by sensitizing them on acceptable quality standards for livestock production enabling them to fetch higher prices for livestock sold.

The stock plug platform relies on a cloud-based database to store all the livestock listings. Once a farmer takes a photo with their phone and uploads it is stored in Firebase Cloud storage which is a Google cloud-based database. All the relevant details and attributes concerning the livestock such as price, farm location and weight are also stored in the database.

The platform also utilizes Google maps and geo-location to precisely save where a farm is located. This location can be used to direct interested buyers who want to visit the farm.

For the android application Kotlin programming language was used and the Firebase database together with firebase cloud functions/computing were utilized to help farmers receive notifications immediately they receive a price negotiation request from a buyer or receive an order after which they can call the buyer and agree on logistics.

Mobile money Apis such as Mpesa and payment services such as Google pay was also utilized on the platform to help farmers pay for adverts, extra features and a small fee for listing their livestock on the platform.

Currently, only the prototype is available on the Google Play store and the number of people we currently serve is 0. However, after launch, we plan to serve at least 100,000 people next year.

Currently, our biggest barrier towards meeting our goals is the financial barrier. With proper funding marketing and farmer, sensitization can be done to increase our impact and reach farmers and people who might not know this solution exists. 

Funding would also help us employ advanced technologies in our solution such as artificial intelligence and big data to map user preferences and recommend livestock breeds according to their tastes and preferences.

We are yet to partner with any organization.

The Stock plug platform provides value to small-scale livestock farmers by bringing the livestock markets closer to them. On the platform, they can own an online farm where they can meet interested buyers and sell their livestock online.

By cutting the middle man and enabling farmers to sell their livestock directly to consumers they are most likely to fetch better prices for their livestock increasing their revenue.

Our service is simple; bringing the market closer to the farmer. We do this by automatically opening an online store for every farmer that signs up for our platform. Online stores come with a lot of conveniences for the seller and buyer as evidenced by the boom in online commerce platforms.

 The farmers will no longer be restricted to selling their livestock on market days since the online store/farm is open 24/7. Farmers will also reach a wider market where they can sell their livestock at fair market prices without the influence of exploitative middlemen. 

As for the buyers, they will finally have a wide array of comparison data to make an informed decision on how to spend their money. They will be able to do so in the comfort of their homes. Afterwards, they can simply call or text the farmer and have the livestock delivered to the doorstep.

On the platform, the major revenue feature will be selling advert spaces for livestock listing. Farmers who want to sell their livestock faster can convert their listings to adverts at a small fee after which their livestock listings will be given priority in the platform and displayed more frequently on the home page/ cover page of the platform.

There are also additional in-platform features that farmers can subscribe to and give us additional revenue such as a feature to receive price negotiation requests from customers.

Revenue generated from listings and adverts alone will be able to cover all of our cloud database expenses as the cloud services are very affordable.