Jemimah Ayoma

THE PRODUCT CONCEPT NOTE- PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN MOALD, PARTNER AND OUR COMPANY Concept Note Abstract The Product is a digital solution that provide localized extension and advisory services at scale to smallholder farmers through inclusive omni-channel application experiences like Short Message Service (SMS) and WhatsApp for prioritized value chains. Jemimah Ayoma- Contents 1.0 PRODUCT INFORMATION 2 2.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 3.0 BACKGROUND 3 4.0 PROJECT DETAILS 4 4.1 Overall Objective 4 4.2 Specific objectives 4 5.0 WHY THE PRODUCT IS NEEDED 5 6.0 BUDGET 8 6.1 7.0 Breakdown of Costs 8 SCOPE OF WORK 10 7.1 MOALD Role 10 7.2 PARTNER’s Role 10 7.3 Our Company role: 10 8.0 PROJECTION 10 1.0 PRODUCT INFORMATION Product Name: The Product Product Channels: SMS, WhatsApp, and Telegram Current Product Owner: PARTNER Current Product Developer: Our Company Current Product users: Farmer Leaders (FLs) and Farmers Value Chain: Various crops and Agriculture Value Chains. 2.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Rural families in Kenya depend on agriculture for their livelihood. It is their main source of food, nutrition, and income. Most of these smallholder farmers, however, struggle to generate income from their land or to grow enough nutritious food. Each year, they are faced with a myriad of challenges including limited or no access to input and output market information, poor agronomic practices, poor timing of seasons, as well as limited access to field extension services. Low agricultural productivity has led to limited participation in agricultural markets hence increased food insecurity, poor household nutrition and weak economic resilience. To break the endless cycle PARTNER and Our Company signed a Memorandum of Understanding to leverage digital innovations and technology to create a smart solution that will enhance access to information on key value chains and other production enhancing resources for smallholder farmers. Studies show that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is seeing many sectors rapidly transformed by disruptive digital technology like blockchain, internet of things, artificial intelligence and immerse reality. In the agriculture and food sector, the spread of mobile technologies, remote sensing services and distributed computing are already improving access to information, inputs, market, finance, and training where smallholder farmers have limited access to context-specific tools, knowledge, and resources to take proper action in the face of unstable market dynamics, climate change and resilience, and land degradation. The extension systems that would bridge this gap are dysfunctional exposing farmers to external shocks and vulnerabilities due to limited business case models for climate change, stressed ecosystems, socio-economic stability, and recently, the coronavirus pandemic. The Product is a digital solution that provides localized extension and advisory services at scale to smallholder farmers through inclusive omni-channel application experiences like Short Message Service (SMS) and WhatsApp for prioritized value chains. The two institutions partnered with county governments of Kiambu and Embu Counties to launch the solution. In under one year, the solution has become a significant interface for local smallholder farmers, the farmer leaders, and the market reaching an estimated 850 FLs and 50,000 smallholder farmers in the two counties. Preliminary feedback indicates that the platform has revolutionized how people access knowledge and information, do business, and use services. Social networks among farmers and agricultural officers, digital skills among the rural population and a culture that inspires agro-preneurs and innovation among others have become important enablers facilitating agricultural transformation and demand for digital solutions. PARTNER and Our Company, with partnership with MOALD intends to scale The Product countrywide to reach about 300,000 smallholder farmers. Using the current pilot as proof-of-concept, the solution will provide localized extension and advisory services and create robust market linkages. 3.0 BACKGROUND The global population is projected to grow to over 9.6 billion by 2050. Africa population is rising with a significant demand for food against low farm productivity due to weather changes, shorter fallow periods, and rural urban migrations that deprive farming communities of young people. The availability of natural resources such as fresh water and productive arable land is increasingly becoming constrained. Yet, the agriculture and food sector remain critical for livelihoods and employment. With just under 10 years to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal of a ‘world with zero hunger’ by 2030, it requires more productive, efficient, sustainable, inclusive, transparent, and resilient food systems. This requires urgent fundamental transformation of the current agri-food system and digital innovation, and technologies may be part of the solution. Digital transformation has the potential to deliver significant economic, social, and environmental benefits. Digital transformation is creating new opportunities to integrate smallholder farmers into a digitally driven agri-food systems (USAID 2018). The next growth in mobile connection is expected to come primarily from rural communities who largely constitute smallholder farmers. Globally, digitalization is changing every part of the agri-food chain. Management of agriculture and food sector-based resources throughout the system can become extremely optimized, individualized, intelligent, and anticipatory. The use of mobile applications, for example, to provide price information to farmers can reduce distortions and help farmers to plan the production process. Digital agriculture generates systems that are very productive, anticipatory, and adaptable to changes such as those caused by climate change. It functions in real time in a hyper-connected way, driven by data and value chains becoming traceable and coordinated at the most detailed level whilst different fields, crops and animals can be accurately managed to their own optimal prescriptions. This, in turn, could lead to greater food security, profitability and sustainability for an improved livelihood. Overall, African entrepreneurs are now interested in how farmers work and how they can help improve yields. The barrier of entry into farming technology has dropped, as cloud computing, computing systems, connectivity, open-source software, and other digital tools have become increasingly affordable and accessible1. Entrepreneurs can now deliver solutions to small-size African farms at cost models that farmers can afford. Aerial images from satellites or drones, weather forecasts, and soil sensors are making it possible to manage crop growth in real time. Automated systems provide early warnings if there are deviations from normal growth or other factors. The COVID-19 pandemic on the other hand has made us all dependent on digital technology than ever before. The pandemic has reshaped societies around the world in part by accelerating digital revolution proving that digital technology can end global poverty and hunger faster including in rural parts of 1 How Digital Technology is Changing Farming in Africa, (HBR) developing countries where most people early their living through agriculture2. Digital agriculture – whereby farmers use mobile phones and other digital technologies to access customized, actionable realtime agricultural information could revolutionize how communities secure and improve their livelihoods. By making the right investments today as many agricultural extension officers are restricted from visiting farmers in person, we can kick-start digital adoption and start to close the income gap that has long held rural areas back. 4.0 PROJECT DETAILS 4.1 Overall Objective The overall objective is to promote digital innovation and technology as an enabler to connect the agriculture ecosystems, sustainably integrating stakeholders in the service of strategic value chains. Our Company, PARTNER and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MOALD) can catalyze and bring together the Kenyan community taking digital solutions to the last mile where farmers realize the benefits. 4.2 Specific objectives 4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 4.2.4 To co-design and develop The Product – a digital solution that provide localized extension and advisory services at scale to smallholder farmers through inclusive omnichannel application experiences like Short Message Service (SMS) and WhatsApp for prioritized value chains To provide basic literacy and digital skills to select Farmer Leaders and smallholder farmers including finance, marketing, and legal services so that they can learn to assess and implement the best practices and technologies to their farms To scale up The Product digital solution country-wide to reach an estimated 300,000 smallholder farmers by end of 2022, and To integrate The Product platform with KIAMIS and One-million farmer platform. The Product provides localized extension and advisory services at scale to smallholder farmers services via inclusive omnichannel application experiences (SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram) for prioritized value chains. The Product is used by Farmer Leaders (FLs) and farmers to access digital agricultural information on key value chains and other production enhancing resources, such as weather forecast, through their mobile phones. The Product features include farmer and FL profiling and registration, information on good agronomic practices, pests and disease, seed varieties recommended in different ecological regions, agrodealer information, weather forecast, farmer registration, farmer messaging and crop insurance. These services are accessed through SMS on short code 12345, WhatsApp-, and Telegram Username @PartnerThe Product that provides farmers with agricultural information and advice. This solution also integrates Farmer Leaders (FLs) -farmer-extension model. The FL model entails working directly with farmers, local county government, development partners, certified input companies and trusted network of extension support volunteers who educate smallholder farmers on modern technologies and proper approaches for better yields. Through this linkage to input companies, FLs or 2 Grow Back Better? Here is How Digital Agriculture Could Revolutionize Rural Communities Affected by Covid (WEF) “Agri-preneurs” promote high yield-enhancing technologies such as seeds of improved crop varieties and fertilizers, together with good agricultural practices and ensure last mile delivery of services. Preliminary studies indicate that The Product has improved dissemination of agricultural information and extension services through onboarding of FLs, strategic partnerships with service providers (ACRE Africa) and public sector engagements with county governments. The Product promotion has improved adoption of digital platforms in Agriculture with a substantial increase in registrations and interaction between 2020 and 2021. The Product has ensured impact on vulnerable groups by reaching women and youth in Agriculture. Currently, 56 percent of The Product users are women and 30 percent are youth. Incentivized surveys have a great impact on increasing self-registration and interactions on The Product with 62 percent of registration being self-registered farmers. 5.0 WHY THE PRODUCT IS NEEDED In one year since it was officially launched, The Product service has recorded 50,000 farmer registrations, 850 FL registrations and 100,000 interactions. The Product has impacted the lives of FLs and farmers by providing quick and reliable information to farmers and improving the FL’s efficiency to deliver extension services through features such as farmer messaging and localized content (Agro dealer’s list and seed varieties). Some of the most accessed features from The Product are Good Agronomic Practices (this includes land preparation, planting, and harvesting), maize seed varieties, weather forecasting and free messaging where FLs get to message their farmers through The Product at no cost to them. The Product has capabilities to expand beyond its current uses, which creates an opportunity for other partners and platforms to plug and play and promote different products and services. The services can be modified based on demand. The Product linked to PowerBI can display dashboards for content accessed and usage, and different partners can be enabled access and visibility as per need. Hitherto, most FLs and smallholder farmers are opting for The Product owing to its easier and convenient registration process compared to other methods (logbooks and USSD). The platform provides wholesome content for various stages of the crop cycle and has incentivized surveys which attracted farmers to the platform to self-register and share information through surveys. For instance, one survey run for a month resulted in 5,200 self-registrations. The localized content such as seed varieties, agro-dealers list and FL information was most visited by farmers contributing to trust concerns that sometimes affect digital platforms. The Product now supports close to 7 value chains and leads the pack of existing digital solutions. In Kiambu for instance, other key alternative Agri-tech solutions include MOA- Info, Mazao Plus, VBA plus, Copia and Yara CheckIT and is working with various service providers on an integration plan. However, the Agri-extension technologies value of such a plan must be examined with used in Kiambu partners already involved such as with ACRE-Africa to ensure maximal benefit. Clear plan and target i.e., country-wide to reach 1 million farmers 14% 2% 37% MOA-Info Mazao Plus The VBA Plus 32% Copia FLs have been instrumental in registering farmers Yara CheckIT and popularizing the tool. The platform has 850 FLs 11% 4% with some registering over 500 farmers on The Product. In this phase, we propose integrating The Product with KIAMIS and offer the farmers advisory services from KALRO, and extension services through partnerships with start-ups (DAT cohort). In addition, The Product would be used for data collection through incentivized surveys through airtime vouchers. Improving Farmer Access to Extension & Subsidy Services with The Product Access to affordable inputs and good advisory services are two key ways to increase small holder farmer productivity in Kenya. The provision of e-Vouchers that are delivered via mobile phone messages and entitle a farmer to a discounted price at agro-input dealers is a tested and proved method through which farmers’ cost of production has been reduced. To ensure that the correct choice of inputs is made, and their utilization is optimal, expert advisory services are essential. The Product platform is an initiative that seeks to couple these two interventions into a unified platform accessible via basic to high-end mobile phones. The Product is a technology platform jointly developed by Our Company and The PARTNER. Problem that The Product addresses 1. Increased access to extension services for smallholder farmers. 2. Improve effectiveness in reaching farmers and service provision. 3. Increased access to information and knowledge for FL’s and Smallholder farmers. Integration to Kenya Integrated agriculture management information system (KIAMIS) The Product Integration with KIAMIS to enhance access to subsidy e-Vouchers The project plans to integrate with other digital use cases and systems that may need The Product to provide other value-added services to the farmers. The Kenya Integrated Agriculture Management Information System (KIAMIS) is a farmer data and digitalization platform to support the Government’s Agricultural Transformation. KIAMIS has harmonized the farmer registration tool to enable it to capture data on crops, livestock and aquaculture, making it easy to use across the main sub-sectors of agriculture in Kenya. KIAMIS, being the primary farmer database and single source of truth for the ministry’s farmer registration will be the single source of truth for all stakeholders in the sector. The farmer registry has been developed for registration of all farmers on all the 47 counties in Kenya and projected to have more than 1 million famers registered for government to better drive initiatives such as the e-subsidy programme efficiently through a credible farmer database There has been significant momentum around the use of KIAMIS farmers registration tools in collaboration with the counties, integrating KIAMIS with The Product would create great value for the ecosystem. Some of the farmer-facing use cases that may benefit the KIAMIS through the integration with The Product include: 1. Farmer query of registration status 2. Abbreviated farmer registration followed by verification in KIAMIS 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Query of e-Voucher status Application for e-Voucher Good agricultural practices Reporting any emerging issues e.g. Pests & Diseases, shortage of inputs, etc. Request for onsite or remote extension services Such use cases via the application programming interface (API) integration with KIAMIS will ensure uptake of The Product countrywide and therefore drive the design of a sustainable business model based on datadriven decision making. The Product for unified access to Extension & Subsidy Services By combining the services of farmer registration, application and access of e-Vouchers, and provision of e-Extension services, The Product allows the farmer to access two valuable services through a singular access point that does not require anything other than the most basis mobile phone. This will allow as many smallholder farmers as possible to benefit from reduced input costs supported by e-Vouchers and advisory services relayed through e-extension. This should result in increased productivity on their farms and higher incomes from their farming. 6.0 BUDGET USD SMS & WhatsApp 29,900.00 Promotions (FL engagement, adverts, PARTNER engagement) 21,040.00 Technical cost (azure, PowerBI, The Product customization and management Total 39,060.00 6.1 90,000 .00 Breakdown of Costs Azure: Monthly Active Users* Resource The Product Services Cosmos DB Virtual Machine App Service Storage Monitoring and Alerts SQL Storage** - - - - 100K- Total per month- * The figures could vary depending on the interactions per user ** 4 cores, 32 GB Power BI: Item Power BI SMS (Africa’s Talking): WhatsApp (Africa’s Talking): Users 100 Cost in USD 990 2431 3140 7.0 SCOPE OF WORK The scope of work is to add Good Agronomic Practices content for Irish potato and coffee on The Product and integrate KIAMIS with The Product. 7.1 MOALD Role a) Supply content on Good Agronomic Practices for Irish Potato and coffee that will be included in The Product, through coordination with KALRO b) Coordinate with AFA to share the database of 8,000 farmers with basic information including names, ID, phone, county, sub-county, ward, and village. The farmers are in 3 counties: (Meru, Nyandarua and Elgeyo Marakwet) c) Coordinate with AFA to share a list of the 50 agro-dealers and seed multipliers that farmers will be directed to for inputs d) Supply information and content for the coffee e-voucher e) Provide technical information and support required for the integration of KIAMIS with The Product. f) Host The Product platform on KALRO’s Azure tenant g) Commissioning and launch of The Product h) Facilitate engagements with DTC subcommittees and KALRO 7.2 PARTNER’s Role a) Facilitate partnership discussions between MOALD and Our Company b) Partnership with MOALD and Our Company in resource mobilization c) Support content localization with KALRO 7.3 Our Company role: a) b) c) d) 8.0 Provide leadership during the integration of The Product with KIAMIS Lead on migration of The Product to Ministry Customize The Product as per above scope of work Testing and refining The Product PROJECTION Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Additional Registration s Total Registrati ons - 25,000 50,000 25,000 100,000 150,000 n/a - 10,000 10,000 10,000 n/a - 25,000 75,000 75,000 - scoping PARTNER Status MoU Status Timeline PARTNER (Expansion) Scoped Signed Completed Scoped Scoped In Discussions PARTNER (KIAMIS/FAO PARTNER (AmTech) PARTNER/ Rabobank n/a 25,000 25,000