{"id":17879,"date":"2022-07-24T10:55:20","date_gmt":"2022-07-24T10:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-agtech-must-embrace-farmer-centred-design"},"modified":"2022-07-24T11:26:33","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T11:26:33","slug":"why-agtech-must-embrace-farmer-centred-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-agtech-must-embrace-farmer-centred-design","title":{"rendered":"Why agtech must embrace farmer-centred design"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span><a name=\"start-reading\"><\/a>When you think about digital growth in Africa, innovations in finance \u2013 not farming \u2013 probably spring to mind.<br \/>\nYet agricultural technology, or agtech, development is rife across the continent \u2013 as is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;telegraph.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;co.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;uk\/global-health\/climate-and-people\/farming-africa-digital-revolution-set-transform-agriculture\/\">the hype surrounding its transformative potential<\/a> for smallholder farmers.<br \/>\nSmallholders make up <a href=\"https:\/\/agra.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;org\/africas-growth-lies-with-smallholder-farmers\/\">70% of the population<\/a> of sub-Saharan Africa.<br \/>\nHowever, despite optimistic promises \u2013 including higher incomes, better resilience and improved access to markets and farming inputs \u2013 many of these farmers are yet to reap the benefits of the so-called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;weforum.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;org\/agenda\/2019\/02\/why-the-agtech-boom-isn-t-your-typical-tech-disruption\/\">agtech revolution<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>But while the challenges facing smallholders in this region are complex and manifold, the answer to the agtech problem is relatively simple: farmers must be positioned at the centre of the solution.<\/p>\n<p>Sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s digital sector <a href=\"https:\/\/interactive.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;aljazeera.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;com\/aje\/2016\/connecting-africa-mobile-internet-solar\/internet-connecting-africa.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;html\">has boomed in recent years<\/a>, yet significant barriers still exist for smallholders when it comes to accessing new technologies.<\/p>\n<p>Adequate internet infrastructure has yet to reach those in the most rural areas, while many farmers do not have compatible technology to run new software applications.<\/p>\n<p>And although <a href=\"https:\/\/a4ai.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;org\/mobile-data-prices-fall-across-low-and-middle-income-countries\/\">mobile data costs<\/a> have fallen across this region, they still remain prohibitively high for many.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;forbes.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;com\/sites\/sap\/2016\/01\/17\/empathy-design-thinking-and-an-obsession-with-customer-centric-innovation\/#661128b9e5e2\">Human-centred design<\/a> is a problem-solving concept, which prioritises user experience by involving the human perspective throughout every step of developing a solution.<\/p>\n<p>But although this principle abounds in the tech circles of Silicon Valley and beyond, it has yet to fully permeate the agricultural sector. It is precisely here that the current issues with agtech in Africa lie.<\/p>\n<p>If digital innovation is to be accessible, affordable and user-friendly for smallholder farmers, then partners and developers cannot simply apply pre-made solutions to circumstances they do not wholly understand.<\/p>\n<p>Just because something works in the Western world, does not guarantee its success within developing-world contexts. Instead, they must engage smallholders in the development process, to ensure they have vital input into the entire procedure \u2013 from planning and design to deployment, training and upgrades.<\/p>\n<p>After all, it is these farmers who will be using these tools, so why neglect their vital expertise from the problem-solving process? Producers Direct is a non-profit that has extended its farmer-led approach into agtech development too.<\/p>\n<p>By working directly with farmers and collaborating with specialist partners, the organisation has been able to develop farmer-centric digital tools that revolve around smallholders\u2019 needs and are actually adopted.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the peer-to-peer platform <a href=\"https:\/\/www.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;telegraph.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;co.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;uk\/global-health\/climate-and-people\/farming-africa-digital-revolution-set-transform-agriculture\/\">WeFarm<\/a> \u2013 started by Producers Direct in 2010 \u2013 is now <a href=\"http:\/\/producersdirect.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;org\/partner\/we-farm\/\">an award-winning independent entity<\/a> with two million users.<\/p>\n<p>Designed with the input of farmers \u2013 and importantly taking accessibility issues and cost limitations into account \u2013 the platform can be used on basic feature phones and operates via SMS. This means that neither a smartphone nor an internet connection is needed, enabling access for everyday smallholders across East Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Critically, as a farmer-to-farmer network, WeFarm enables knowledge to be shared between smallholders rather than through top-down dissemination, which means that relevant solutions for common problems can be pooled.<\/p>\n<p>Through the platform, farmers are able to exchange agronomic practices, market opportunities, weather information, pest warnings and other important, practical updates.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, as WeFarm\u2019s success shows, other factors are imperative to the success of agtech too \u2013 such as sensible pricing and clear, context-appropriate communication. But placing farmers at the centre of all these considerations is essential.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, recognising the obstacles smallholder farmers face when getting their products to market \u2013 and identifying context-specific solutions \u2013 was central to the creation of multi-pronged service tool <a href=\"http:\/\/producersdirect.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;org\/producers-direct-utilizes-human-centered-design\/\">FarmDirect<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Taking account of the habits, working practices and capacities of smallholders throughout the design process, the service tool enables smallholders to build relationships with distributors, gain improved access to markets and analyse productivity, profit and loss across multiple crops.<\/p>\n<p>By collating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;youtube.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;com\/watch?v=2xwWh1wKhv8\">on-farm productivity information<\/a> with <a href=\"http:\/\/producersdirect.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;org\/partners\/ciat\/\">historical<\/a> and real-time weather data from Climate Edge\u2019s NEXO weather stations \u2013 and sharing this via 2G networks \u2013 FarmDirect enables smallholders to make better business decisions, build resilience and improve crop quality.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, alongside granting farmers access to mobile marketplaces where they can sell their products, the tool produces digital records that they can use for financing applications in order to grow their enterprises.<\/p>\n<p>Vitally, the service is not solely digital; it is also backed by ongoing in-person support from Producers Direct\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/producersdirect.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;org\/centres-of-excellence\/\">farmer-led network<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This enables smallholders to reach training, workshops, financing and markets, as well as play a part in monitoring and improvements. Indeed, farmer involvement throughout the agtech development process is essential \u2013 not just at the design or deployment stage, but long after that too.<br \/>\nOnce a new technology is rolled out, it is only through ongoing monitoring and user feedback that any issues can be identified and necessary upgrades implemented.<br \/>\nThis human-centred, farmer-led approach undoubtedly requires more time and investment than other \u201cone-size-fits-all\u201d methods. But when it comes to achieving sustained impact and long-term benefits for farmers, it works.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\">Lesotho<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. When you think about digital growth in Africa, innovations in finance \u2013 not farming \u2013 probably spring to mind. Yet agricultural technology, or agtech, development is rife across the continent \u2013 as is the hype surrounding its transformative potential for smallholder farmers. Smallholders make up 70% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":17878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[242,233,246,245],"class_list":["post-17879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why agtech must embrace farmer-centred design - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When you think about digital growth in Africa, innovations in finance \u2013 not farming \u2013 probab ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-agtech-must-embrace-farmer-centred-design\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why agtech must embrace farmer-centred design\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When you think about digital growth in Africa, innovations in finance \u2013 not farming \u2013 probab ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-agtech-must-embrace-farmer-centred-design\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-24T10:55:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-24T11:26:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_11-62dd2c49ac9de.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"732\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"418\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-agtech-must-embrace-farmer-centred-design#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-agtech-must-embrace-farmer-centred-design\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Why agtech must embrace farmer-centred design\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-24T10:55:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-24T11:26:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-agtech-must-embrace-farmer-centred-design\"},\"wordCount\":807,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-agtech-must-embrace-farmer-centred-design#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_11-62dd2c49ac9de.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-agtech-must-embrace-farmer-centred-design#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-agtech-must-embrace-farmer-centred-design\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-agtech-must-embrace-farmer-centred-design\",\"name\":\"Why agtech must embrace farmer-centred design - 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