Mazao App for Farmers in Developing Countries
Mazao (Swahili for Harvest) is an application that enables farmers to be able to check current prices of their produce while at the same time coordinating with other farmers to get affordable transportation for their produce in a manner that allows them to cut costs and acquire information on weather and fertilizers. The application is able to provide daily updates on pricing based on crowd sourced information from other farmers through the Short Message Service(SMS) platform or the mobile application thus providing a platform for tracking the pricing trends in different areas within the country. Similar platforms only provide this information on the SMS platform only thus limiting the reach, flexibility and use of information collected for users with affordable smart devices (WTO, 2014).
Transport services are also accessible through the application by using location services for smart devices and SMS service centre locations IDs as detailed by Namiot & Sneps-Sneppe (2015) to help connect transport companies to farmers to enable easy and efficient transport of produce. This is coordinated by a number of independent regionalized transport entities that provide cost effective transport rates for the farmers. Farmers who have identified a common market send a transport request on the platform indicating the product and its weight. The platform then collects all requests based on location data as demonstrated by Shekhan, et al (2011) and creates a pick-up route for the transport company that is optimized for the type of produce and target market with the rule that perishables are handled differently from nonperishable. Payments are made at pick up as per prices for the selected destination center with other transport and handling costs factored in to create a total.
Awareness and interest in the application is created by using local produce market gatherings, forums and community meets where we seek to highlight the benefits of using the platform verses the current available options (Nierenberg, 2012). The use of approved and subscribed SMS notifications will be employed to reach remote farmers that would otherwise not be able to reach the gatherings. Nieuwenhuis (2002) showed that initial incentives including but not limited to fertilizer discounts may be used to enhance uptake of the platform with SMS informatics being used at the onset to enable farmers familiarise with the main use of the platform before adopting the more advanced services.
The desire to use the platform will be rooted on the ability to maximize profit, save time while minimizing transportation costs by farmers during the sale process. The fact that farmers no longer have to deliver produce themselves also adds to the attractiveness of the solution as this saves a lot of time (Kleemann, 2013). The cost of data in developing countries is high which may hinder adoption of the mobile application as noted by Sequeira (2016), however, this is mitigated by having the app use very limited bandwidth in managing its data transfers as proposed by Bolton Palumbo (2014), this is done by using time and connect-only implementations within the application. Lack of adequate infrastructure and internet penetration are key challenges to the success of the application (Mangeni, et al, 2013) as it seeks to connect farmers, transporters and share agricultural logistics to create a digital information ecosystem that can be used to decide best trade centers, best transport routes and planting times by combining requests from many farmers with a consideration for scalability.
Revenue and retention are achieved through the subscription and use of the application and SMS platforms. Since the applications first and main objective is to provide farmers with a much more efficient means of locating and transporting their produce, it aims to charge a monthly subscription that can be used on either platform. Transport providers and middle-men down the value-chain get value as detailed by Holweg & Helo (2014) through having pre-determined transport routes that help optimize transport costs by diversifying and maximizing on their collections leading to consistent cost projections and management.
The video below gives an overview of functionality and benefits. Enjoy!
References
Kleemann, L. (2013). An Overview and Discussion of Solution Proposals for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Sub-Sahara Africa. Sustainable Agriculture Research, 06/13/2013, Vol.2 (4), p.48
Mangeni, S., Hamdounm, H., Ennser, K., Dwivedi, Y. K. & Mubiru, J. (2013). Sustainable green broadband solutions for bridging the digital divide in Africa: A technical survey of feasible and affordable broadband solutions for rural Africa. Africon, pp.1-5
Namiot, D. & Sneps-Sneppe, M. (2015). On Geo Location Services for Telecom Operators. Cornell University Library
Nieuwenhuis, L.F.M. (2002). Innovation and learning in agriculture, Journal of European Industrial Training, 26(6), pp. 283–291.
Nierenberg, D. (2012). Growing Solutions: Agriculture's Changing Reputation. Harvard International Review. Spring 2012, Vol.33 (4), pp.72-75
Sequeira, S. (2016). Corruption, Trade Costs, and Gains from Tariff Liberalization: Evidence from Southern Africa. The American Economic Review, Vol.106 (10), pp.3029-3063
Shekhan, A., Siddique, I., & Ickin, S. (2011). Testing Network Performance and Location Based Services throughout Calling and SMS Applications in Android. Blekinge Institute of Technology
Thorp, E., Mundal, S., Michelsen, A., Sørheim, R., & Buen, J. (2012). Minority Entrepreneurs in East Africa: An effectual approach for Norwegian start-ups in Kenya.
World Trade Organization, WTO. (2014). e-commerce in developing countries Opportunities and challenges for small and medium-sized enterprises.
