Local farmers show huge appetite for technology

Correspondent | Monday October 5, 2015 11:32

The agricultural mobile application which is supported by Orange Botswana is said to be registering about 260 new users on a daily basis. The  new mobile application was designed for farmers in underserved communities.

The m-Agri application is accessible through the short code *118#  and is a brain child of a young entrepreneur Martin Setimela under his start-up company Brastorne Group. It is currently only available to Orange customers.

The system was primarily developed to offer affordable connectivity for all local farmers including the most underserved in remote villages, by creating a comprehensive mobile ecosystem for the agricultural community, through which farmers can enjoy the convenience of easily marketing their products, learning farming tips from Ministry of Agriculture, and accessing financial services through the use of basic mobile phones. It a trading platform that also comes with news and announcements sections on prices, subsidies, events and weather forecasts.

The m-Agri mobile application currently has diverse groups of farmers registered with different products such as beef cattle, maize, goats, potatoes, fruits and vegetables, sheep, dairy cattle, pigs and sorghum  According to Martin Setimela, Director of Branstorne, service providers, merchants and farmers can create their own mobile stores, and allow farmers to search for and compare prices on hundreds of products and services.

“We are trying to connect the unconnected. We have developed a solution that enables farmers with any type of mobile phone to connect with the digital world without using mobile data like a typical smartphone. A simple phone such as “sedilame” is able to use several different “apps,” for farmers to acquire information and trade their products though this mobile application”, he says.

Setimela added that successful projects in agriculture do not only have an advantage in diversification, but because agriculture is labour intensive and is closer to the majority of the poor, success also means job creation, poverty eradication and prosperity for all. Boga Chilinde-Masebu, Orange spokesperson, said that Orange offers connectivity to this application by providing the short code dedicated to the service and the Orange technical platform (API gateway) to host their on-line services.

This technical connection between m-Agri and Orange technical platform also allows the system to send bulk sms messages to clients, which are a critical element of this project.

“The application is an all in one platform in that it offers a variety of possibilities all aimed at leveraging on mobile technology to facilitate knowledge and techniques for the farmers to improve their output, as well as connect with the buyers of their produce.

We are excited to work with such a motivated entrepreneur to deliver this impactful project to Batswana”, said Chilinde.