The Impact of Digital Finance in the Agricultural Sector with Grace Njoroge

[00:00:00] Intro

[00:00:44] Sharon Idahosa: Hello, beautiful people. Welcome to the Let’s Talk Agriculture podcast show, my name is Sharon Idahosa and I am your host. Today I’m excited to bring another episode your way, still on the AgriFinance series, here on the Let’s Talk Agriculture podcast show. Joining me [00:01:00] today is one of Mexico’s finest, Grace Njoroge. Hopefully I got that correctly. She is the technical director of  Mercy Corps AgriFin.

[00:01:09] Sharon Idahosa: And she will be discussing the impact of digital finance in the agriculture sector. Now they have been actively supporting smallholder farmers, you know, to easily get access to finance and we are here to get more details about it and ensure that. Those that are looking out for finance, especially women can really benefit from this.

[00:01:28] Sharon Idahosa: So please guys, stay tuned and get the best out of this episode. Thank you for joining the show today. How are you doing Grace?

[00:01:35] Grace Njoroge: Thank you for having me Sharon. I am doing very well. Thank you. Um, thank you for having me on the show and I’m looking forward to the discussion.

[00:01:44] Sharon Idahosa: Great. Great. So tell us, how has it been so far working in, in this space?

[00:01:49] Sharon Idahosa: Great. I know many people do not like, uh, or many of us that got into this space, we didn’t really study agriculture or it wasn’t, uh, it wasn’t something we planned, [00:02:00] but then again, we found out Celsia maybe because we wanted to, we saw a problem and wanted to solve it. So I want to know what actually got you to this space.

[00:02:08] Sharon Idahosa: direction while you’re working in agriculture and agri finance as well. So please do share if you can. Thank you.

[00:02:15] Grace Njoroge: Thank you. Thanks Sharon. So, um, I always, um, say for those who know my story is I, I got into the Um, digital space, the agricultural space. Um, um, by fluke, I studied, um, I studied, I studied bachelor’s of business administration for my undergrad.

[00:02:34] Grace Njoroge: Um, and I remember I was in a public university. So, um, I remember we still have the career fairs where, you know, most of the institutions that used to come for the career fairs were, um, financial institutions, the banks, the insurance companies. Some of the consultancy companies, the audit companies, etc.

[00:02:51] Grace Njoroge: And so when I was graduating, I really was looking forward to working for, um, you know, that kind of institution and my, my dream did come true. I [00:03:00] joined one of the leading financial institutions, uh, banks here in Kenya. Um, and when I joined I was, you know, starry-eyed. I was very looking forward to it. Um, I got some money from my grandmother to, you know, buy a couple of, um, suits, um, you know, the, um, nice power suits because I, I thought I’d be walking in the banking hall in my power suit, in my high heels, um, you know, serving customers.

[00:03:23] Grace Njoroge: ’cause this is the image we had of, um, bank stuff, um, when we were young. But then, um, shocker me when I joined, um, there was this new department that had been opened in the bank, um, the microfinance department. And I was, uh, you know, one of the people, uh, one of the people who are now, um, chosen to go to that department was completely new, even the internal stuff at the bank, didn’t know about it.

[00:03:45] Grace Njoroge: Um, and so I’d never got to wear my suits because most of the time we were out, um, working with some low income, low income. People, um, and, and, you know, I, and the dream I had, the image I had in my head about, you know, what I [00:04:00] wanted to become, the kind of banker I wanted to become and the kind of career path I had thought about when I was younger, you know, it kind of went out of the door.

[00:04:07] Grace Njoroge: However, I always say, I am so glad that, uh, you know, by, by, by, by Fluke, I was one of the very few people, actually, I think it was only like, um, out of, um, Out of like, uh, maybe, um, 100 graduate trainees that had joined that year, we were only 12 that were selected for the micro finance department. And so this gives me exposure to the low income, um, um, population segments, um, that we were serving, um, Under the microfinance department.

[00:04:34] Grace Njoroge: So it included the, um, you know, the micro traders, um, because I was in a peri urban branch. It also included serving a number of small scale farmers who are most of my clients. So a typical day would involve me, you know, going to the farms, you know, Getting to understand how do they manage their cash flows?

[00:04:51] Grace Njoroge: What are their needs? Um, around their finances? Um, what’s what, what were the formal financial institutions really not able to sell? And so from a very, you [00:05:00] know, from, from, from the research of my career, um, I got to understand, um, some of the challenges, some of the barriers that, uh, uh, Um, the smallholder farmers face, um, in terms of, uh, um, access to finance, access to markets, access to information, um, that hinder, you know, the growth in terms of their productivity, in terms of their incomes.

[00:05:19] Grace Njoroge: And that’s how I sort of, you know, got into the sector. After that, I joined, um, consulting firm that was working with, uh, Financial institutions trying to, um, um, design products that then suit this, um, uh, the low income segment. So including farmers. So again, it was a perfect fit for me to then, you know, see the other end of the market.

[00:05:37] Grace Njoroge: So, so see now the supply side, you know, work with the banks, work with the microfinance institutions, get to know what are also the barriers on their side in terms of why they’re not able to, um, you know, match the. Kind of products that the farmers would be needing will be probably able to better consume.

[00:05:54] Grace Njoroge: And so I worked there in a bit. And then now I transitioned into program management and then now into [00:06:00] more of the digital side and seeing then what are some of the Opportunities that digital provides that then can be able to overcome the challenges, both on the demand side as well as the supply side when it comes to access to finance for low income, especially for small homers.

[00:06:17] Grace Njoroge: So that’s, that was my journey.

[00:06:19] Sharon Idahosa: Oh, that’s, that’s pretty amazing. That’s, that’s really one, one hell of a journey. I mean, sometimes it just feels as if agriculture has a way of putting somebody in. It’s, it’s, it’s really attractive, right? You know, I mean, we hear people say agriculture isn’t attractive, but I just feel somehow it has a way of pulling people.

[00:06:36] Sharon Idahosa: I mean, I’ve had so many conversations with different people who studied law, who did this, who did that, but at the end of the day, they are here. Something just, just them. Um, draw them in and I think it’s pretty amazing. It’s really amazing having different people coming together to see how to move this sector forward.

[00:06:54] Sharon Idahosa: And again, just like you mentioned, um, I think it’s really important that financial [00:07:00] institutions, they design products that are suitable for the farmers because sometimes you still see them going through Um, diverse challenges, even when they say, oh, we are supporting women, we are giving them access to finance, but when they want to get access to that finance, it becomes an issue.

[00:07:16] Sharon Idahosa: And then you wonder, so what exactly have you been doing? What exactly did you say you, you, you did for the smallholder farmers when they see some sort of, um, um, setback or a barrier or something? Stopping them from, you know, getting access to this finance. So knowing fully well that you have, um, worked in that direction in terms of developing a product that fits the needs of our smallholder farmers.

[00:07:42] Sharon Idahosa: What can you really say, um, is the role that digital technology can play, you know, to help them gain that financial inclusion? I mean, in the rural communities, we want to see that, um, financial inclusion and resilience among smallholder farmers in rural communities. So what can [00:08:00] you say, um, digital, um, technology can play as a role.

[00:08:04] Sharon Idahosa: Maybe if you have like a case study that you want to share, I think you can really do that maybe from the work that you’ve done so far at Nesico or personally as well.

[00:08:14] Grace Njoroge: Great. Um, thanks. Thanks for the question, Sharon. And, um, yeah, um, I, I completely agree with the, you know, the statement. I know it’s what you’ve posted as a question, but I agree with a statement that, uh, digital technology can indeed, um, come to, um, and, and, and is actually being used in terms of, um, overcoming some of the challenges, some of the barriers that, uh, um, smaller farmers are facing in, uh, terms of accessing finance, in terms of being financially included, um, Um, in terms of improving their resilience, building their resilience.

[00:08:45] Grace Njoroge: Um, and, and, and I guess, um, to answer your question, I’d probably start with, um, you know, digital the, the, the greatest challenge that digital came to address was bringing services, financial services closer. Um, and other [00:09:00] services, but in the room now we’re discussing financial services. So it came to bring financial services closer, um, to smallholder farmers.

[00:09:07] Grace Njoroge: Um, so, you know, like 10 years back, even as, as I shared my story, um, we used to travel very long distances when I was a microfinance banker, very long distances on, on, on, on, on, you know, public transport on, um, motorbikes, um, just to get access to a farmer who was probably, um, probably let’s say like maybe 40, 50 kilometers away from the bank branch.

[00:09:29] Grace Njoroge: So, um, 40, 50 kilometers means between, um, the bank I was, the branch I was at and where the farmer is at, um, was actually, that was the closest financial service to this farmer. And so the, um, digital came to address mostly the challenge of distance, the challenge of, um, um, being excluded from, from, uh, from services and from financial services by the mere fact that, you know, brick and mortar branches are expensive.

[00:09:56] Grace Njoroge: Um, you know, it’s it’s expensive, uh, brick and mortar is also, you know, quite far from, um, smallholder [00:10:00] farmers and 40, 50 kilometers is actually not too bad when you go to, you know, some remote areas like in the north in other areas of, um, the country where I’m at in Kenya, you find that even the distances could be even longer than the 40, 50 kilometers.

[00:10:12] Grace Njoroge: And so you find that for a farmer, but to be able to, you know, stop what they’re doing, um, the farmer also again is, is time constrained. So their time is a resource that they need to utilize. Utilizing the markets and so for them to stop what they’re doing, um, go to the, um, you know, to the bus stop and get a bus that is able then to transport them to the 40, 50 kilometers away from their farm.

[00:10:34] Grace Njoroge: Go and be able to do a transaction and back you find they’ve wasted or they’ve used a significant amount of the time of their day to really get access to that financial service. The second thing that digital came to address was the cost. Um, so again, Um, this farmer, there’s a cost element. Um, as I’ve mentioned, when they stop, um, working on their farm to go to the bank and to, you know, um, do the, the, the traveling and to, you know, go to a bank queue, um, [00:11:00] just try and understand what, what, what, what, what, you know, different things mean in the bank.

[00:11:04] Grace Njoroge: There’s also a cost to that, um, there’s a cost to, um, when you go to a bank branch, um, most of the services, apart from probably cash, um, cash deposits, most of the services are actually, um, these are cost attached to it. And so digital again, the challenge it came to, it’s come to address is reducing the.

[00:11:21] Grace Njoroge: The cost of transactions, reducing the cost of financial access and getting financial institutions to be able to offer these services to smallholder farmers at and other demographics at a cost that then is able to, you know, make sense vis a vis the The amount they have that they’re going to transact, but then also vis a vis, you know, looking at, um, um, other things that they could be doing with their time, for example.

[00:11:46] Grace Njoroge: So those are the main 2, but then there are also a number of other challenges, you know, that digital has come to improve financial access to. So the other one is just around, you know, for, for, for. Financial inclusion, especially for the [00:12:00] unserved and also for the underserved, um, for them to be able to utilize financial services, there needs to be a component around, um, education, uh, financial education, financial literacy.

[00:12:12] Grace Njoroge: So for example, you know, you, you, you’re going to sell a credit product. A bank is going to sell a credit product for the first time to a farmer in a rural area. They’ve never. Okay. I used the. Alone before they never taken a poor woman before. They don’t understand the, you know, the fine print the banks used to have.

[00:12:26] Grace Njoroge: Um, a lot of, you know, fine print. So sometimes when we had the applications, forms for the smaller off. to fill. So it was probably like three pages of you know, the smaller farmers providing their details and then. Two pages after that would be, you know, a lot of terms and conditions that were in very fine print that were very hard to even for us to really explain for this to the smallholder farmer what this means.

[00:12:48] Grace Njoroge: And so with a gadget in their hand, with a mobile phone in their hand, what the financial institutions are doing is they’re now breaking down the financial literacy content to be able then to educate this farmer so that by [00:13:00] the time they’re accessing a loan product, by the time they are accessing an insurance product, by the time they are opening a savings account, they really know what to expect.

[00:13:09] Grace Njoroge: They know what are the terms and conditions that, um, you know, are accompanying the relevant product that they’re coming up with, or they’re taking, and they also understand, you know, the repercussions. For example, if you don’t pay a loan within the stipulated period, you have, you run the risk of being rated or being listed in a credit reference bureau, which then impacts your ability to take on a future loan.

[00:13:29] Grace Njoroge: So there’s the access. To information, which is also, um, you know, what digital digital has really come to also address. Then there’s also the aspect of, um, supporting these farmers to then, um, take up more than one product. So there’s this aspect that we’re seeing a lot in, um, um, financial services where, um, services that are offered through the phone.

[00:13:48] Grace Njoroge: Really, it’s really one service that is offered. So, for example, um, if, if a farmer is taking up a credit product on the phone or digitally, um, it will really be the credit product alone that is offered. There’s going to [00:14:00] be another product, um, as I’ve mentioned, there’s going to be financial literacy that is offered.

[00:14:04] Grace Njoroge: There’s going probably to be a savings account that is bundled onto it. There’s probably going to be insurance as well. That’s going to be bundled into the product. And so we’re seeing also digital is coming to help. Access to, you know, more than one product, because again, remember for most of the cases, financial institutions are not the same institutions that are offering insurance products, for example.

[00:14:23] Grace Njoroge: And so sometimes then the, and a lot of times what digital is, uh, is, is, is doing is that it is reducing the cost to serve. And then it is also making it easier for these products to, you know, have a bundle so that a farmer is not only consuming one product, but they’re different. There are different, several and several products that then, um, this farmer can be able to consume that are offered digitally.

[00:14:44] Grace Njoroge: And so in the face of the farmer, they know they’re off, they’re not really, you know, dealing with maybe two or three institutions, they’re only dealing with what they’re seeing on the phone, which is, it also makes it, um, you know, easier for them to, um, to, to interact, to transact and to really, [00:15:00] um, depend financially.

[00:15:01] Grace Njoroge: Um, probably one of the cases that I can, uh, that I can share around, um, how digital technology has, uh, We’ve seen it improving, um, financial inclusion and, uh, how we’ve, uh, we’re, we’re, we’re supporting the partners. So Masikops Agrifin, we work with partners. So we do not work directly with, uh, smallholder farmers.

[00:15:19] Grace Njoroge: The way we work and our approach is to work through, um, organizations. We work with, um, finance banks. We work with, um, insurance companies. We work with, um, agricultural technology companies, and we work with these organizations to then support them to design, deliver, and scale up financial services for smallholder farmers, in addition to other services as well.

[00:15:41] Grace Njoroge: So just to give you one example, we’ve seen that, uh, one company that, um, we’ve worked with over 150 companies. So, uh, it’s, it’s, it’s also a bit difficult to just choose one to highlight, but, um, one that I’d highlight. Um, in the financial inclusion space is an insurance, um, company called Acre Africa, who we’ve [00:16:00] worked with, um, over the last six years to, to test and to roll out viable products for insurance.

[00:16:06] Grace Njoroge: Um, so insurance is one of the financial products that has very low uptake in Africa, um, generally. So generally even for. For, um, middle income populations in Africa, the insurance penetration is very low. And so for smaller farmers, it’s even lower. It’s a very, um, it’s, it’s, it’s a complex product to understand.

[00:16:25] Grace Njoroge: It’s a product where, you know, um, it also needs a lot of, um, marketing awareness for it to be taken up. So you’re working with this company called Acre Africa, and we’ve supported them, um, over the now, over, over the, um, six years that I’ve mentioned. And also over a number of markets, including Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania.

[00:16:42] Grace Njoroge: Um, and we’ve seen a lot of progress, especially with again, you know, when, when you think about smallholder farmers, it’s not one homogeneous group. So there’s also female farmers who are even again, more excluded from services than their male counterparts. So ACA Africa has had quite some good success with reaching female [00:17:00] smallholder farmers in Tanzania.

[00:17:01] Grace Njoroge: Um, they’re now scaling up the approach to Kenya and Uganda, and they’re also working in Nigeria as well. and reaching out to, to farmers through digital, um, approaches to really, um, again, capacity, build them, give them awareness, um, train them on the benefits of insurance, train them on the product, how to take it up, how to redeem, um, your, your, your, your insurance.

[00:17:22] Grace Njoroge: If you face an event. And they’re doing this digitally, including doing the premiums and the payments, um, digitally. And so we’re seeing that this approach is working quite well, especially for, you know, as, as I mentioned, a product as complex as insurance. We’ve seen quite some success when it comes to leveraging digital technology to design and sell a financial product.

[00:17:42] Sharon Idahosa: Oh, thank you so much for sharing that. I think that’s, that’s really amazing. I know you mentioned so many challenges and I wouldn’t want to even start going back to it. And maybe I should just probably. Learn more about how Mexico has addressed the challenges that you faced while [00:18:00] going through all of this process.

[00:18:02] Sharon Idahosa: Because I know that adopting digital finance solutions may come out to be challenging, especially for smallholder farmers in rural communities. So I know while you’re trying to deploy these solutions, you may have encountered some challenges. So if you can share how you addressed some of the challenges that you faced, Um, that would be great.

[00:18:24] Grace Njoroge: Great. Um, thanks. Thanks Sharon for, yeah, for that question. And I think as you’ve mentioned, yeah, in the sector, there are quite a number of challenges. And they’re all from different angles. You know, when you look at challenges from the angle of a smallholder farmer, there’s quite a list there. When you look at, you know, challenges from the provider’s perspective.

[00:18:44] Grace Njoroge: So from the institutional perspective, there are also quite a number of challenges there. Um, and so why, What what our objective is as AgriFin and what we why we exist and where we were formed as a program is to try and [00:19:00] support the institutions to overcome some of these challenges to understand them, to overcome them.

[00:19:06] Grace Njoroge: So we provide our support in terms of a number of services. So we support with research services and our research services are just not. Research for the sake of research, it’s research to understand the smallholder farmer. And so we use the human centered approach, which means that for the organizations that, you know, are designing a product or want to reach the segment or want to, you know, incorporate a new channel to reach the smallholder farmers.

[00:19:33] Grace Njoroge: We really start with, you know, not, not what the organization, yes, what the organization is thinking, but then also, So, um, taking a step back to, yes, the organization is thinking X, but have you taken a step back to, um, then understand the client? So, so the, so the potential customer or the potential smallholder farmer that you’re going to be serving, understanding their needs, understanding, um, where they are at a particular point.

[00:19:57] Grace Njoroge: Understanding what they need in terms of financial services, [00:20:00] understanding the barriers they face, understanding the alternatives they face, because again, a misconception that, uh, um, we have in the sector is that, uh, smallholder farmers and the low income segment, you know, are very green about, you know, finance.

[00:20:12] Grace Njoroge: They do nothing. But then even for us as Africans, we grew up in homes, in families, with our grandmothers, with our aunties in the villages, and as much as probably they were not able to access formal financial services, they had their own way of managing finances, um, either from the You know, the informal channels that they have the village and savings loans associations, for example, the groups that they have that support them to manage the finances.

[00:20:34] Grace Njoroge: And so understanding the alternatives that this smallholder farmers have is also very imperative, even as financial institutions and other institutions. are designing and delivering products for them for the segment because then this, this loan or the savings account that you’re designing is in a way coming to compete with the informal mechanisms that the smaller farmers already have.

[00:20:58] Grace Njoroge: So we do a lot of research and [00:21:00] then now without research we then come to market, Uh, provide our support in terms of designing the product, um, in terms of, um, um, not only designing the product in terms of its features, but then also, you know, understanding, um, things like supporting to understand things like price, what’s, what’s the best price to offer it at supporting with things like, you know, go to market strategy.

[00:21:20] Grace Njoroge: Yes. You’ve designed your product, but then what’s the effective, what are the. Pathways in which then you introduce it to the market. How do you market your product? What are the channels that you use, which ones are more effective, which ones are more, um, cost cost effective, um, compared to others, etc. We then do support with, um, you know, things like partnership building.

[00:21:41] Grace Njoroge: So again, uh, one of the main challenges in the sector is that, uh, reaching smallholder farmers is expensive, you know, they’re far agricultural is also So, um, the agricultural sector is also a sector that is faced with, um, you know, a number of inherent risks. And so that also makes it expensive. And so just looking at different ways of, you know, bringing [00:22:00] partners on board who have similar interests and who can bring different strengths and leverage different strengths to then design and offer products that could either be bundled or stand alone.

[00:22:11] Grace Njoroge: That bring the best value to the smallholder farmers, even in being cognizant of the environment. that they’re operating in, being cognizant also of, you know, in Africa, um, we are now facing, you know, climate risks, which are also then making these smaller farmers also face even higher risks than they did in the past.

[00:22:30] Grace Njoroge: So we do a lot of partnership building and then also supporting also with the institutions in terms of, you know, providing Uh, providing them with support for full on funding, and especially for the smaller architects, the smaller institutions that are still in growth phase, the sector is, there’s a lot of demand.

[00:22:47] Grace Njoroge: So, um, the total addressable market is very huge. And so if they’re able to get it right, and they’re able, you know, to make a business case, then the opportunities for growth are there. And there are also investors, funders who are [00:23:00] aligned with funding the sector. And so we also provide our support in terms of helping the organizations to then access full on funding afterwards.

[00:23:07] Grace Njoroge: Uh, our support is over.

[00:23:09] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you for sharing. I’m really glad that you are taking advantage of collaborating with other partners, because I’m very sure that if we want to go far, we have to move. I mean, with the whole lot. And it’s very important that when we are designing product for small, the farmers, we have to hear directly from them.

[00:23:26] Sharon Idahosa: I mean, so many agri tech companies come in to the, to the picture and then they really do not understand what’s going on. exactly the farmers need and then when they are not using or taking advantage of the technology that we know is supposed to, um, provide solution, then you say, oh, it’s not working.

[00:23:44] Sharon Idahosa: The farmers are not adopting technology. But the question is, did you really hear from them? Did you do your research to say this is what they need? So I’m really glad that you are taking advantage of collaboration, hearing from the farmers, carrying [00:24:00] out the research, and putting together a product that will really work for the farmers.

[00:24:04] Sharon Idahosa: So well done with the work that, um, you guys are doing. I’m really excited to have, um, getting more information about this, but yes, talking about the partnership that you have with other institutions that share similar visions and the rest. So what can you say about the reach? And, um, effectiveness of your digital finance solutions for smallholder farmers.

[00:24:25] Sharon Idahosa: I mean, in terms of, um, the collaboration so far, how has that, what, what is the rich life, what is the effectiveness of this partnership to get the, the whole, um, summary of everything that you’re doing at, um, AgriFin.

[00:24:38] Grace Njoroge: Thanks. Um, thanks Sharon. Um, that’s a, that’s, that’s a good question around, um, you know, what’s our reach and, and, you know, how effective is the, is the work that we, um, as a program, MasiCorp Agrifin has been, um, um, here for the last 10 years.

[00:24:54] Grace Njoroge: So that we’ve worked with different partners. The model that we have is, uh, We are, [00:25:00] we are largely donor funded, and so we get funding from our main donor right now is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and then the way they give the funding is also in terms of, you know, different objectives for different programs.

[00:25:12] Grace Njoroge: Cumulatively, we have been able to reach, um, 17 million smallholder farmers over the last 10 years with either of the, with at least one of the solutions that we’ve supported our organizations with. So earlier in, um, in, in, in this discussion that mentioned that we’ve worked with over 150 institutions across, um, a number of countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ethiopia.

[00:25:38] Grace Njoroge: Um, Zambia, um, Zimbabwe in Africa, as well as a number of other countries, um, both in Africa and Asia. And through the support we give the institutions that we work with, um, which also include not only private institutions, but we also work with public, um, sector organizations. So we work with, um, you know, ministries, we work with, um, institutions that are mandated by the government, [00:26:00] um, to work with in agriculture.

[00:26:02] Grace Njoroge: And so. Um, over the last, um, 10 years, we’ve been able to reach, um, at least over 17 million, um, farmers who are accessing or using, um, one of the services or products or solutions that we have helped to develop or to scale. Um, so we, we do have, um, quite, quite a reach there. Um, and then this. The services that we support with are not only, um, digital financial services.

[00:26:26] Grace Njoroge: So in terms of our thematic areas, we try and look at, um, um, the services or the, um, um, the solutions that a farmer needs end to end. So, when you look at a farmer in terms of their cycle, in terms of planting and everything that they need, we try and see what, what kind of services does a farmer need? So we classify our support in terms of three main buckets.

[00:26:48] Grace Njoroge: So one is access to, um, information. So, a farmer needs, um, you know, information, um, around, you know, how to plant, what to plant, um, weather information in terms of, you know, um,

[00:27:00] pest and disease control, ETC in terms of, you know, different value chains, and so we do have a platform called Sprout, um, that is S P R O U T, um, which is, uh, um, an agricultural, um, open content platform, which has, you know, tons of information around, um, Um, agricultural information, both in terms of value chain, good agricultural practices, as well as information like, um, weather information, um, information around financial literacy, information around pest and disease control, etc.

[00:27:30] Grace Njoroge: So this, um, everything that we do has to be digital. So this platform, we then offer it to the institutions that we work with, and the institutions that we work with then have, you know, this, um, huge database of information that they can just utilize to then, um, send information to their partners. So the, um, the first thing we do a lot is.

[00:27:46] Grace Njoroge: About is access to information of the main buckets. The second main bucket we work with is, uh, around access to markets. So again, looking at what does a smallholder farmer need? They need access to inputs,

[00:28:00] inputs in terms of seeds, in terms of fertilizer, ETC. And then also at the end of the season, once they have harvested, they need access to the physical market, which is again, one of the challenges that smallholder farmers face when they sell The, uh, at the farm gate, they get very low prices, whereas if they had, if there was a digital platform that then was able to coordinate, um, what the farmers are producing and then, um, sell it to urban areas or even, um, for export, uh, then.

[00:28:27] Grace Njoroge: It means that the farmer would get a higher price and higher income, um, from the same produce that they have. And so we support quite a number of organizations that are, um, have digitized access to markets for smallholder farmers, be it access to inputs as well as access to markets. But then in between there, there’s also quite a number of things, including, um, access to, uh, digital, um, uh, ways in terms of mechanization.

[00:28:49] Grace Njoroge: So again, looking at the way we do farming in Africa. A lot of it is quite manual, whereas, you know, there are mechanization equipment like tractors, etc, that can be [00:29:00] utilized by smallholder farmers more efficiently. And so we do support quite a number of organizations again, that are offering this service digitally.

[00:29:08] Grace Njoroge: As well as other services that then a farmer needs, um, in their actual farm. And then the third bucket that I’ve mentioned quite a bit is around the access to financial services, which is again, um, offered digitally. So when we look at, uh, you know, the, the, when we work with the partners that we work with, we always, you know, do, we always go to, you know, do our monitoring, um, do our impact studies just to see, you know, what’s the reach, but then not only the reach, but also try and see, um, what’s the, what’s the impact that, um, We are seeing at the smallholder farmer level.

[00:29:39] Grace Njoroge: So again, depending on the solutions, depending on the country, we do get, you know, different varying amounts of impact, but then what we’ve really seen overall is that our interventions and the services and solutions that we support are really having a positive impact in the lives of smallholder farmers and are going towards improving their productivities, [00:30:00] improving their incomes, as well as increasing their resilience in the face of climate change.

[00:30:03] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you so much for sharing that. I’m really excited to know how this initiative has helped so many smallholder farmers. And of course I knew about this Power Platform, which I think is really amazing. Good place for farmers to get access to adequate information. So thank you so much. Thank you again for joining the show.

[00:30:23] Sharon Idahosa: We have come to the end of today’s episode. I hope that you benefit from this episode because that’s what we do here. We bring Amazing people come share opportunities, insights, trends, technologies, latest technologies that can be of benefit to you regardless of the value chain you’re in. So, my name is Sharon Idahosa and I am your host.

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[00:30:57] Grace Njoroge: Thank you. Thank you so much, Sharon. Um, [00:31:00] it’s my pleasure and, uh, looking forward to the next episodes.

[00:31:05] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you. Thank you so much. So guys do all to subscribe follow us and um, Our social media platforms as well. So many so many so many things that you can benefit from we have over 80 80 Um plus episodes that you can benefit from so please do all to visit letstalkagriculture. com to explore Explore our episodes.

[00:31:25] Sharon Idahosa: If you’d like to be a guest, you’d like to advertise, you’d like to sponsor this, um, podcast, send us an email to podcast at letstalkagriculture. com. Once again, my name is Sharon Idahosa and see you next time.