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Case Study – Technology helping farmers grow

September 2016

The Challenge

Agriculture is the largest contributor to Kenya and Zambia’s gross domestic product with almost 75 percent of working farmers making their living by farming. UNISEF food and agriculture provides funding to help the farmers buy equipment and seeds for the season but due to corruption the funds would get lost. Whenever the funds were available the government could not reach farmers due to the lack of infrastructure to give each farmer an equal share of the funds.

The Solution

The Food & Agricultural project that is being run in Kenya & Zambia is about using the Smart Card with its E-Wallet to give the rural farmers access to and control of the funds that are allocated to them by the local governments for buying farming equipment, seeds and other products they need. The smart cards are a form of identification and a secure logging of what was bought and when on their central system which is installed at all the supply depots and applicable retailers that are part of the program.

Result

With each farmer having their own plastic identification card and the new system implemented, it has effectively eliminated any cash. Therefore, any possible fraud and imbalances in the stock and funds for the program have been combatted, ensuring future supplies and secure funding from world organisations such as FAOUN. Multiple countries are in the process of implementing similar or the same program due to the high success rate.