Farmers across West Africa will advance their livelihoods by accessing information that will help them improve harvests, following an announcement by Ghana-based Farmerline, to provide a specialized mobile communication service for agribusinesses across the region.
Farmerline, a mobile messaging platform, assists small farmers across Ghana to improve yields and enhance productivity by providing mobile messaging services that give the farmers real-time information through their mobile phones.
The company said it has plans to reach 500,000 small-scale farmers in West Africa by the year 2019 and will also launch the specialized mobile communication and data-collection platform to 5,000 development organizations and agribusinesses in the next five years.
With the platform, Farmerline seeks to bridge the information gap that many farmers face in accessing expert agricultural information and real-time data support as part of efforts to build supply-chain and value-chain solutions targeting smallholder farmers and their stakeholders.
The Farmerline technology already in existence in the country, provides a link for farmers to better access markets, financing, weather forecasts and agricultural services, with its mobile messaging platform allowing governments and businesses to provide updates fast and at low costs.
Farmerline has also announced plans to join the Business Call to Action, a global corporate leadership platform that allows member companies to incorporate inclusive business approaches in their operations to advance the millennium development goals (MDGs).
“Our commitment to the Business Call to Action underscores our interest in promoting greater information for the agricultural sector and providing more reliable services and technology to meet needs of rural farmers,” said Alloysius Attah the CEO Farmerline.
Farmerline’s voice messaging and mobile technology informs farmers of best practices in areas of product storage, pest infestations and marketing the products.
The company has further aspirations to expand its operations and services across Africa with a wide target reach of an estimated 2 million farmers by the year 2024.
With the Ebola virus still causing unrest and deaths in the West Africa region, Farmerline is also targeting low-income illiterate communities with information about the dangers associated with contracting the virus.
The company is also creating new ICT tools that will help support health workers across Africa.
