USAID Mobile Phone Partnership to Aid Smallholders in Africa

Avatar for Posted by |19 June 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The US Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a new mobile phone partnership to increase the productivity and incomes of smallholder farmers in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania.

Along with Vodafone and TechnoServ, USAID formed the Connected Farmer Alliance to offer mobile phone-based solutions to boost supply chain efficiency and increase farmers’ ability to access secure, timely payments and other financial services.

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The partnership will reach more than 500,000 smallholder farmers by expanding the use of mobile financial services pioneered by Vodafone’s existing mobile money platform, M-Pesa—a highly successful SMS-based money transfer service in Kenya where 15 million people exchange $850 million via the system every month.

“It’s critical that smallholder farmers have access to services that allow them to manage transactions, receive payments, access credit and increase their savings,” said Bruce McNamer, President and CEO of TechnoServe. “Mobile technology offers a rapidly growing platform to give farmers access to these services. At the same time, mobile money can make it easier for other players in agricultural value chains to connect to farmers more efficiently. The Connected Farmer Alliance will help unleash the potential of mobile solutions to transform agricultural markets and create new opportunities for smallholder farmers.”

Vodafone and TechnoServe will work with farming communities and supply chains in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania to develop and scale mobile applications that enable rural households to transfer and receive payments securely, access other financial services, and facilitate linkages to local and multinational agribusinesses.

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“Smallholder farmers across the developing world face obstacles that prevent them from increasing their incomes and strengthening food security, including limited access to the credit, new technologies, local markets and the latest agricultural information,” said Raj Shah, Administrator of USAID.

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