How Mobile Apps Help Farmers of Ghana to Get Fair Price

Beyond the hard hours, uncertainty, and physical strain, farmers sometimes feel like the weakest link in the chain that connects seeds to tables. The lack of dependable means of transporting crops to market or the financial resources to grow beyond relatively tiny plots of land is a major issue in Ghana.

Problems faced by farmers due to lack of access

Ghanaian farms remain exceedingly tiny due to a lack of access to agricultural machinery and the grain market. The typical farm in Ghana is smaller than an acre in size, measuring 0.4 hectares (ha) according to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Because it discourages the formation and maintenance of economic layout, the small farm size represents a significant obstacle to agriculture and makes efficient output difficult. Most farms in Ghana are small, subsistence operations whose primary purpose is to provide for their owners’ basic food needs; any surplus is sold. To whom, though?

Because they cannot get their products directly to consumers, smallholder farmers have to rely on intermediaries who pay extortionate rates. Farmers in Ghana are unable to sell their products to customers in major cities, and there is a lack of truck drivers to bring their commodities to a centralized market. The service provided by the intermediaries is useful, but it offers little in the way of direct returns to the farmers. The farmers are mostly uneducated, giving the intermediaries all the power and influence.

Mobile App to help Ghanaian farmers

Two ex-employees of Esoko, a financial aid app, have created AgroCenta as a Swiss Army knife of sorts to cope with these problems. Although it does not completely eliminate intermediaries at this time, it does give farmers greater control over their own economic destinies. Those blades are home to four distinct apps: AgroTrade, AgroPay, Trucker, and AgroInfo. AgroTrade is an app that connects farmers who produce commodities with purchasers in urban areas. Small farmers may find customers right away. A trucker was created to address the issue of shipping products. AgroInfo is a news and information service with educational purposes, reporting on things like agricultural prices and weather warnings. For the first time ever, thanks to AgroPay, farmers will have a digitized paper record of their financial dealings. In essence, it transforms these transactions into a bank statement, a confirmed history of sales that can be shown to financial institutions as evidence of a farm’s viability.

The app’s owners argue that Ghanaian farmers require help setting up the system as a whole. Agents from AgroCenta go out to farms to set up accounts and facilitate trading. Sales commission is now used, which is advantageous for farmers since it encourages the agent to maximize the farmer’s profit. However, AgroCenta is also seeking to teach the farmers about the process in the hopes of transitioning to a more automated system where the farmers take care of all this on their own using a mix of technologies, voice technology playing a particularly important role.

Role of Tractors Ghana While the aforementioned mobile app expands farmers’ exposure to ICT, Tractors Ghana provides farmers with access to low-priced agricultural machinery. When it comes to their livelihoods, Ghana’s humble farmers may now rest easy thanks to Tractors Ghana. We are confident in the project’s long-term success because of the availability of various kinds of agricultural machinery, including Massey Ferguson tractors, New Holland tractors, farm implements for sale, combine harvesters for sale and other similar machines.