WeFarm
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Wefarm is a peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing social network for smallholder farmers in the developing world. The network enables users to ask and answer questions and share tips about agriculture and business, via SMS or online, enabling farmers in rural areas without internet access to share information. WeFarm claims to be the world's largest farmer-to-farmer network.[1]
History
WeFarm was developed as a project in 2010 by the Cafédirect Producers Foundation (CPF), a British charity that works to support smallholder tea, coffee and cocoa farmers and their producer organisations to build innovative, community-driven projects.[2]
Wefarm was piloted, tested and developed over 2011 and 2012 as a CPF project with funding from the Nominet Trust.[3] This initial prototype of the system was tested in partnership with smallholder farming organisations in Peru, Kenya and Tanzania.[4]
In 2012 Wefarm was won the Knight News Challenge, run by the Knight Foundation, providing support to build a more robust, scalable version of the proof of concept system.[5] In 2014 Wefarm was an overall winner of the Google Impact Challenge, providing funding to launch Wefarm in several different countries around the world and take it to scale.[6]
In October 2018 Wefarm announced it has reached over 1.1 million users across Kenya and Uganda, with plans to expand into the rest of Africa in 2019, beginning with Tanzania.[7]
Social Goals
Social goals - users
Wefarm users can access vital information that will improve their livelihoods through increasing crop yield, diversifying farming practices, creating micro businesses, and increasing household incomes.
By sharing information users will also build up a bank of agricultural knowledge that can benefit isolated farmers around the developing world.
Social goals - commercial partners
Food and drink companies, supermarkets, and other businesses with suppliers in Africa and Latin America can improve supply chain transparency and increase supply chain sustainability through partnering with Wefarm.
Technology
The service is free to use and only requires a mobile phone to send and receive SMS messages - technology which is tried-and-tested and widely used by farmers in the developing world.[8] Farmers text questions to a local number, and WeFarm transmits the message to users with similar interests in the area, who reply. Although the platform also exists online, over 95 percent of users choose to use it offline.[9] Farmers using the service typically receive three to five local answers to their enquiries within a couple of hours, and often farmers from other countries begin to send advice within 24 hours.[10]
Business model
In January 2015 Wefarm was launched as a social enterprise subsidiary of CPF, with a for-profit business model in order to achieve long-term financial sustainability and scalability. Wefarm plans to partner with local, national, and international companies who want to increase sustainability and transparency in their supply chains and access isolated farming markets.
See also
References
- ^ "World's Largest Farmer-to-Farmer Network, Wefarm, Reaches over One Million Users". Business Wire. 8 October 2018. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
- ^ Cafédirect Producers Foundation - About Us
- ^ Wefarm - Supporting smallholders overseas
- ^ A Nominet Trust Case Study - Wefarm
- ^ Knight Foundation Grants
- ^ Google Impact Challenge
- ^ World’s Largest Farmer-to-Farmer Network, Wefarm, Reaches over One Million Users
- ^ Jackson, Tom (30 July 2015). "'Telephone famers' reaping the benefit of agri-tech". BBC News. London. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
- ^ Wambui, Caroline (14 September 2017). "Text message network connects offline farmers in Kenya". Reuters. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
- ^ Mulligan, Gabriella (22 September 2016). "How farmers can end land disputes and produce more food". BBC News. London. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
