Brief note on e-Granary Project services: Using Mobile Phone Technology to enhance Agricultural Services

By The Inspirer writer.

e-Granary mobile platform was born from a seminar that gathered various officials in agricultural services and is represented by Imbaraga Farmers Organization in partnership with National Confederation of Co-operatives of Rwanda (NCCR) to boost access to markets for local farmers.

This mobile platform e-Granary was launched on November 28, 2018 in Kigali, with the main goal to improve the income and living standards of smallholder farmers in selected countries of East Africa, namely Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.

Its objective is to increase the access to and use of critical economic services such as marketing, financial services and extension and advisory services by smallholder farmers.

Jean Paul Munyakazi, the Legal Representative of IMBARAGA explains that over 6,000 farmers have registered in e-Granary mobile platform so far while there is an expectation that this number will grow to 20,000 farmers by the end of 2020.

“We started from six districts and NCCR has other six districts it covers by now. We expect to have 20,000 farmers who will be accessing agricultural information and services through e-Granary mobile platform. We expect that a farmer will have access to good profitable market, access to loans from banks and Microfinance Institutions and he/she will be linked to buyers,” Munyakazi said, adding that the platform will help famers’ families to boost self-reliance.

Theory of change

The theory of change of the programme is based on a fundamental premise that a market-driven approach coupled with bulking of produce and inputs requests are needed to help smallholder farmers to sustainably increase their income and improve their livelihood.

This is operationalized through the central role that EAFF and its membership at regional level plays in aggregating farmers into membership based organizations and through the innovative use of digital platforms that will enable smallholders benefiting to access to stable markets, accessing credit and productivity enhancement.  

Project outcomes in target countries

• e-Granary platform set up and working with 90,000 new smallholder farmers registered onto the e-Granary.
• Increased market access -72,600 Metric Tons of product worth around 24 million USD sold on the market by smallholder farmers;
• Increased access to financial services where 26,900 smallholde4r farmers are receiving credit on their mobile phones,
• Increased access to extension services where 8,300 smallholder farmers access agriculture extension services via mobile phones,
• Enhanced capacity of farmers on structured trade and financial literacy where 12,800 smallholder farmers were directly trained;
• Increased public awareness and knowledge on the success of e-Granary where 30 knowledge products were developed and disseminated.

Grant Target Countries, Groups and number of beneficiaries

The target groups are smallholder farmers who are members of national organizations led by IMBARAGA and NCCR belonging to EAFF in Rwanda.

Targeted numbers of farmers for e-Granary are:

50,000 in Uganda (50% women), of which 50% are from 10 district Farmer Associations (DFAs) affiliated to Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFFE) and 50% from 60 Area Cooperative Enterprises (ACEs).

20,000 in Rwanda (50% women) distributed among rice, maize and beans value chains of which 10,000 are fron National Confederation of Co-operatives of Rwanda (NCCR) affiliated farmer organizations and 10,000 from IMBARAGA members.

20,000 in Tanzania (50% women), of which 15,000 are from farmer organizations affiliated to Tanzania Federation of Co-operatives (TFC) and 5,000 from Farmer organizations affiliated to MVIWATA (Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima Tanzania).

Project Duration

E-Granary project will run for 36 months, since it was launched on November 28, 2018.

Project main activities

The component that highlights the main activities of e-Granary projects points out that within the e-Granary platform set up – 105,000 smallholder farmers registered, it is expected that market access will be increased where smallholder farmers will sell – 108,500 MT of product worth >80M USD on the market.

On the side of IMBARAGA, e-Granary Project operates in 6 Districts namely: Nyanza, Ruhango, Burera, Rubavu, Kayonza and Nyagatare.

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