e-GRANARY: Digital platform for East African Smallholders

Explore how Agricultural Technology in East Africa is transforming farming in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, enhancing productivity and sustainability

e–GRANARY is a mobile platform that supports (smallholder) farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda to increase their yields, grow land under cultivation and improve their income. It brings together agricultural stakeholders and facilitates access to finance, inputs, agronomic trainings and market. It was developed by the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF).

e-GRANARY guarantees farmers access to organised and predictable markets for their production. It also benefits buyers by securing supply in terms of quantity and quality while reducing buyer financing costs. To do so, the platform aggregates production from farmers, producer cooperatives, and community-based organisations and sets them at a price based on the market prices at time of harvest. Buyers can enter into forward contracts to buy these set volumes.

The platform also tackles the difficulties faced by farmers in accessing financing and agronomical support through extension services, while enabling farmers to collect and manage data about their production. To this end, E-GRANARY uses a set of technologies that includes:

• An application for farmers to register, report production data and request a loan
• A web dashboard to manage reports and users
• A web app that helps field assistants and group champions collect data on inputs required
• An outbound voice app that sends audio messages in local language to farmers
• A call centre application to manage support to the farmers
• A payment gateway that enables farmers to receive payments via mobile money.

e-GRANARY currently operates in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda with over 263,000 registered smallholder farmers. To date, the platform has facilitated sales of maize, beans and soya for a total value of USD 2,600 000. About USD 1,195,000 have been disbursed to farmers as bundled input loans (with insurance). 50,000 farmers have received digital training and 20,000 physical training.

This innovative digital solution was presented by Stephen Muchiri, CEO of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF), in the Innovations Session n°15. The recording and the slides of the presentation are available in both English and French. More information is available on the e-GRANARY website.