I was googling the Net, interested more in the benefits of Safaricom’s M-Pesa service, when googled search item was on
DrumNet.
It is a project of the NGO Pride Africa and was launched in late 2002 with the objective of delivering a set of critical business support services directly to the African smallholder
farmers.
It is designed as marketing, financial and information services for mainstreaming resource-poorfarmers and combines information,commodity transaction services and financial linkages into a single business service model that provides access to markets, market information and credit for the rural poor to support sustainable agriculture and rural development.
What is interesting apart from the traditional approach of providing the poor farmer access to credit lines,market intelligence, buyers and farm inputs is the use of mobile phones. They have set up support centres equipped with a PC and a GSM-phone to link up with the central hub in Nairobi which is the main server/database and provides an access centre for the storage and retrieval of information. Each support centre is managed by an Agent, who collects and disseminates information, assists in forming farmer groups, and arranges buy and sell deals. By combining sophisticated information technology with an on-the-ground presence in rural communities, DrumNet hopes to fill the current void in the provision of critical business information and financial services for small-scale agricultural producers in East Africa.
For more information, check this link to the White African’s blog on how the technology works
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