FARM-BASE

FARM-BASE is an Apps and online platform that solves the problem of hunger, food insecurity and food price hike and post harvest losses: by allowing buyers to easily locate farmers and their food product, compare prices before buying from nearby sellers.

FARM-BASE  is an Ag-tech platform & Apps that provides up to date information to farmers, about the agricultural activities they undertake  and help small holder farmers with end-to-end solutions in the post harvest value chain of their produce. It allows small holder farmers access to a market  to trade fairly ,eliminating exploitative middlemen from the value chain using various features of a mobile phone. The platform enables farmers upload their agricultural produce online with the help of Farm base team.  The initiative   provides market news, details of markets times and location within the country  through SMS and Voice solutions in local  preferred language and enable farmers to query current market prices.

Farm Base also give farmer groups, government agencies and NGO's working with farmers a platform where they can easily communicate with their farmers and advise them on various issues such as climate change adaptation, use of new farming technologies and production advise through a web application tool linked with SMS technology. The farmers are allowed to ask questions via SMS, short codes and receive answers from other registered users.

Improving Agricultural production is essential to achieve a sustainable development process that will contribute  to reducing poverty and enhancing food security and income growth.

Hunger, malnutrition and poverty remain stubbornly persistent in Sub-Saharan Africa despite advances made in Agriculture productivity. This is due in part to high food losses especially after harvest. Since the introduction of the scientific agriculture, farmers and consumers  in Africa have lacked awareness and necessary information  for effective production, handling and marketing of their produce.  The smallholder farmers experience numerous information gaps about the service providers around them, market access and how to adapt to climate change.  Today one of the challenge is to ensure food security for a growing population whilst ensuring long term sustainable development.

Improving Agricultural production is essential to achieve a sustainable development process that will contribute  to reducing poverty and enhancing food security and income growth. 

Also  Reduction of post harvest losses and quality deterioration are essential in increasing food availability from existing production. Minimizing this loss has a great significance for food security, economic growth and welfare of the society.

1.To maintain the good quality of the produce grown (appearance, texture, flavor, nutrition value and safety) and to reduce losses between harvest and consumption thus ensuring food security.
2.To Stimulate participatory farmers’ reflection upon their current farming and introduce a more sustainable; –diversified, low input, local and viable alternative .

3. Enabling easy access and marketing of the agriculture produces thus raising community living standards for both farmers and consumers.

Track App and online Platform users (food sellers & buyers) - 1.To maintain the good quality of the produce grown (appearance, texture, flavor, nutrition value and safety) and to reduce losses between harvest and consumption thus ensuring food security.

Track farmers Reflections/feedback from the App and online platform - 2.Stimulate participatory farmers’ reflection upon their current farming and introduce a more sustainable; –diversified, low input, local and viable alternative .

Track Users Reflections/feedback from the App and online platform with regards to their life standards - 3. Enabling easy access and marketing of the agriculture produces thus raising community living standards for both farmers and consumers.

Our focus is on both farmers from their initial farming process to marketing of their produce in the approach of “knowledge first”,  providing them with information about the agriculture activities they wish to undertake, advise them with any problem they face during  farming and help them with market for their produce using various features on their mobile phones. 

Our  project also differs in design and business model.  Farm  Base  targets subscribers from all networks whether online or offline and has a business model that makes it easy to afford the services to those at the base of the economic pyramid.

The African continent currently boasts the highest mobile phone growth rates in the world, bringing new communications possibilities to millions of people.

Every one with a mobile phone can download the FARM-BASE Apps or register to the program offline through Farm-base  Text codes.

 
When an order is placed through the  Farm Base App, the farmer takes
his or her produce to the designated collection point and sends a
message to confirm the produce has been delivered. The buyer  then
collects the produce  and verifies the quantity and quality  by sending
the message to  Farm Base team.

The African continent currently boasts the highest mobile phone growth rates in the world, bringing new communications possibilities to millions of people.

Every one with a mobile phone can download the FARM-BASE Apps or register to the program offline through Farm-base  Text codes.

  When an order is placed through the  Farm Base App, the farmer takes his or her productions to the designated collection point and sends a message to confirm the produce has been delivered. The buyer  then collects the produce  and verifies the quantity and quality  by sending the message to  Farm Base team.

 Farm-Base  is looking forward to cover the whole of lake zone regions of Tanzania targeting 100,000 users by the end of the year 2025. Currently we are having  partnership discussions with various farmer group organizations including Eastern Africa Farmers Federation that have over 3 million farmers in East Africa.

i) Lack of enough capital for financing the growth of the initiative with respect to operating , market validation and soft ware development costs.

The program will help me  with requisite Knowledge and skills to help pilot, scale and  enlarge my project to many more communities in Africa.

  The learning i will from mentors will be more useful to help me in managing my  team with more vision, rigor and  discipline  and form a strong united team  to help push the projects forward  making Africa a better place.

We are still searching for partnership

-Agri-marks

-Bwana Shamba