FARM AID SOLUTION DEMO DAY IN ADAMAWA AND GOMBE

In the 3rd week of February, Farm Innovation visited eight (8) local government areas in Adamawa and Gombe to officially showcase our flagship product – Farm Aid. Farmers and stakeholders in those regions were shown how they could access the platform and what benefits they stood to gain from using the platform.

                                                                Cross section of farmers at the event

Farm Aid is a web-based extension solution birthed by Farm Innovation Nigeria to provide an efficient way of delivering extension services and products to smallholder farmers. Farm Aid leverages mobile phones to provide digitized e-extension services to farmers in different communities across the country. Our work is rooted in the belief that technology should act as a bridge in connecting people, irrespective of location, gender or physical abilities to information that would improve their livelihoods. The pilot phase of this project is in Northern post-conflict states with a strong focus on the inclusion of  women and persons with disabilities.

The positive impact of ICT on the delivery of extension services is one that cannot be over-emphasized and countries like Kenya and India have recorded significantly encouraging outcomes. At FIN, we understand how socio-economic factors such as literacy levels, age and gender can affect the adoption of technology for agriculture especially among small holder farmers. It is to the end that our solution was designed using a multi-channel approach that combines, text messaging and call centre services to disseminate information to the farmers.

                                           FIN Team Lead – Femi Ogedengbe in the middle of a demonstration

The provision of timely and relevant information to farmers is key to optimizing productivity among small-holder farmers. This ensures they have better access to wider markets, increases the quality of their produce, better pricing for and consequently increased financial rewards.

The demo days held in Larmude, Guyuk, Mayo Belwa and Fufore in Adamawa, and in Balanga, Biliri, Kwami, and Yamaltu-Deba in Gombe. The project will have its official launch in March in the coming weeks and the event is expected to attract key players in the agriculture sector, non-profits, representatives of governments as well as private-sector participants.