Pilot mobile application program Esoko that has enabled smallholder farmers to access real time information on the prices of farm produce is being scaled from Ghana to other parts of Africa.
The SMS service dubbed Esoko (from the Swahili word soko which means market) gives farmers a way to share information ranging from prices of selected crops , current demands for crops, as well as the location of seeds and fertilizers. The platform has thus enabled the farmers to negotiate better prices, locate new markets, and judge when to sell their harvests to make the most money. According to Esoko Chief Executive, Mark Davies, farmers have reported revenue increases as high as 40%.
Esoko initially developed as a pilot project in the Eastern Corridor of the Northern Region of Ghana in the towns Chamba, Kpandai and Salaga. Today it is available in nine countries in Africa namely Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Malawi, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria and Northern Sudan. Plans are underway to avail the service in other African countries.
The platform seeks to eliminate major challenges facing smallholder farmers in Africa, such as the inability to negotiate better prices and exploitation from middlemen. Prices of crops such as cassava tuber, cowpeas, groundnuts, millet, rice, soya beans, tomatoes, wheat, white maize and yams can be found on Esokos non-tradable commodity index.
To finance the expansion of the service across the continent, Esoko recently received an investment worth US dollars 2.5 million from the International Finance Corporation and Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF).
