Posted on July, 3, 2019 at 10:05 am
FOR Mariam Mwamfupe, a maize and paddy rice farmer from Igulusi in Mbeya, owning a mobile phone was simply meant to communicate with her 21 year old daughter who teaches at Makambako in Njombe region.
Until last April, Mwamfupe never imagined that her 35,000/- feature phone may also be a learning tool. “One day, some people came here and taught us how to use our handsets to get vital information relating agriculture,” said the 48 year old mother of six.
“Through this mobile phone, I have received advice on crop spacing, suitable hybrid seeds for planting and also helped to me to identify pests attacking my maize field early for intervention,” said Mwamfupe who acknowledged that the new platform has given her and other farmers big relief in the absence of regular visits by extension officers.
Mwamfupe is one of the over 60,000 local smallholder farmers who have registered on Wefarm’s peer to peer digital platform which debuted in the country in April this year thanks to London based startup which has since 2016 networked farmers in Kenya and Uganda.
Wefarm, which is touted to be the world’s largest farmer-to-farmer digital network, officially launched in Dar es Salaam last week and thus allowed farmers like Mwamfupe to join an East African network of over 1.5 million farmers across Kenya and Uganda.
Currently, one out of every five farms in Kenya and Uganda uses Wefarm platform and share over 400,000 questions and answers each day involving themselves, extension officers and sometimes agro-experts in various fields.
“The government supports this kind of innovation which seeks to improve farming methods being practised by our smallholder farmers hence contributes to higher productivity,” said Beautus Malema who is Director of Crop Production, Agricultural Inputs and Cooperatives at Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.
Malema said as the government champions the improve productivity of smallholder farmers, the issue of innovation and better extension services is of paramount importance hence thanking private companies such as Wefarm which invest in technologies targeting farmers.
With Wefarm, Tanzania’s smallholder farmers can increase their yields, simply by connecting with other farmers from their mobile phones – all for free. Knowledge shared on Wefarm can help farmers produce higher yields, gain insight into pricing, tackle pests and diseases, diversify agricultural interests, and source the most reliable seeds, fertilisers, and quality inputs.
Wefarm’s CEO Kenny Ewan said, “We are thrilled to bring the power of our peer-to-peer network to Tanzania’s world-class smallholder farming community. Tanzania’s strong commitment to agricultural growth coupled with the country’s high mobile adoption rates make it an ideal place for Wefarm to launch,“ said Wefarm founder and CEO, Kenny Ewan.
“Wefarm is committed to bringing the very latest advents in global technology to smallholder farmers around the world, in order to help them prosper. We are honoured to be able to offer our service to Tanzania’s hardworking, industrious farmers and look forward to contributing toward the country’s strong economic growth,” Ewan added.
Ewan’s arguments were backed by Wefarm’s General Manager in Tanzania, Nicholous John who pointed out that apart from accessing vital information on agriculture best practices, farmers also get advice from experts while buying brand inputs from companies.
“Wefarm lets Tanzanian farmers - who might have previously struggled with finding quality timely information - to solve problems, share ideas, and spread innovation -- for free and without needing an internet connection,” John said.
“For instance, with the current challenge with the rains that have spoilt the growth of maize, farmers can text their questions related to maize to peers and receive valuable advice and ideas back – within minutes,” John noted saying by next January farmers will also be able to
buy inputs from Wefar marketplace.
Cyrila Mlay, Wefarm Operations Manager, Cyrila Mlay said since debuting operations in the country with Mbeya and Songwe regions as pilot areas, the response from farmers has been overwhelming.
“We are proud to say that we have been able to register over 50,000 farmers in the Southern Highlands, Northern highlands and the Lake zone. We believe that more farmers will register to the service to gain more information to uplift their agricultural business,” Mlay said.
She pointed out that after the official launch, Wefarm will now seek more members from all regions of the country by using its field ambassadors. Mlay further noted that Wefarm’s marketplace, which is scheduled to roll out later this year, will also enable farmers on the network to suggest, source and receive competitive discounts on a wide variety of high-quality agricultural inputs.
“Reputable agricultural input and services providers seeking to provide reliable inputs to smallholder farmers will now be able to increase their reach through Wefarm’s trusted network,” the Wefarm Operations Manager added.
Since its founding in 2015, Wefarm has been named one of Africa’s Most Innovative Companies by FastCompany and has won Massachussets Institute of Technology’s Impact Google’s Impact Challenge Award, TechCrunch’s Europas Tech for Good Award, and the European Union Commission’s Ideas From Europe prize, among others.
Source: IPP Media