To increase production and financial inclusion for more than 70,000 farmers (in more than 2,000 groups) along the rice value chain in three rural communities (in Iringa and Morogoro in the first-year pilot phase and then in Mbeya from the second year onwards).

1. Enable farmers to save towards agricultural input purchases (e.g. fertilizers)
2. Enhance farmers’ productivity and lower input costs by aggregating demand and leveraging agri-extension and product market linkages

1. We were able to profile more than 58,000 farmers from the mentioned targeted areas
2. We were able to deliver more than 700 tons of inputs to small holder farmers in the targeted areas
3. Enabled individual farmers who currently use informal savings mechanisms (ISMs) to save on a regular basis to start to use formal financial services in ways that they have been unable to do in the past. By digitizing savings, farmers will have access to more accurate and up to date information about the funds they have available.
4. Boosted the farmers’ capacity to buy agro-inputs by using their own money instead of depending on the government and bank loans which have high interest rates (starting from 17% p.a.)

1. Lack of proper planning for smallholder farmers’ funds
2. Lack of proper agri-inputs such as fertilizers

This was done by developing a digital platform that allow farmers to have individual wallets to give their group business a digital footprint. The group savings solutions were built initially around pre-purchasing high quality agri-inputs but extended later to other goal-based saving. Starting with rice farmers covered by irrigation schemes (where there is lower risk and higher impact potential), BIZYTECH intended to gradually extend the financial services (individual bank accounts, insurance) and service offering to out-growers, animal husbandry, horticulture, and agricultural co-operative societies in different value chains. We profiled and create a database (called the Kilimo Data Hub (KDH)) of rice farmers that enabled access to verifiable information from retail farmers to support accurate planning methods and agricultural practices in Tanzania. BIZYTECH, and possibly other financial services providers (FSPs) in Tanzania, will be able to use the resulting big data to develop more customer-centric products and services.

Through this project the following were done:

1. We were able to enable individual farmers who currently use informal savings mechanisms (ISMs) to save on a regular basis to start to use formal financial services in ways that they have been unable to do in the past.
2. It gave farmers access to more affordable agricultural inputs which in turn should enhance their productivity, and enable them to aggregate demand and negotiate better prices with a wider range of market actors

Through this whole ecosystem, farmers were able to remotely plan for their seasonal inputs, access agricultural and market information as well as locate off-takers. We had also taken a modular approach in our platform roadmap to allow us to serve farmers in specific groups and value chains and later bring all the value chains in one system thus making our platform robust and sustainable.

This project linked up and digitize all key stakeholders in the entire agricultural value chain, such as farmers, agro-inputs, off-takers as well as input suppliers; all of these stakeholders will be able to aggregate farmers’ effective demand and ensure timely supply of their inputs.