Challenges

IFAD funds this product through the project: “Access-To-Markets (ATMP)” in Kyrgyzstan

The proposed online platform seeks to respond to following challenges:

- Access to information. The platform will provide most relevant and reliable information about the agribusiness sector to users. This include supply and demand, prices as well as market trends, which are usually not accessible to smallholder farmers;

- Support in decision-making. The market analysis provided by the platform prepares and increases users’ ability to make decision for themselves;

- Networking. Finding the right network for promoting one’s products is a challenge for smallholder farmers. The platform will provide guidance to users for entering selected information networks. That will give them the possibility to connect and interact with more than 30 thousand other farmers and traders.

- Security. The platform provides protection for transactions with an escrow account system, which verifies and authorizes or blocks transaction when there are irregularities detected.

Primary target

Which group does your product/service primarily target?

Description of Innovation

This online platform will allow to advertise the products and services of farmers, conduct wholesale trade operations, transactions without intermediaries, while ensuring the security of ongoing transactions, establish business relationships, organize logistics, and also find sources of financing.

As the experiment progresses, the bank’s plan is to make the platform work offline in the medium term.

Online-platform will be activated nationally, with possibilities to be launched in the neighboring countries. The scope of the online platform will include integration with public and private partner platforms. Users can use the website or mobile application to access the website’s services in real time. Users need to create an account with personal information to use the app. After verification and approval of the data by the bank, the user is set to start using the service. The bank will perform the functions of platform operator, financial institution, ensure transaction security and data privacy. To exchange information among participants, the forum format will be introduced into the platform.

On the platform, logistics will include tracking systems. The system can integrate a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Global Positioning System (GPS) tag control module and track any cargo movement at any point in the path. The goal is to create a single online platform capable of making swift purchases with minimal cost

Results

The platform will potentially give farmers access to markets to sell their products and purchase their needs without any hassle. The availability of market information will strengthen business ties among partners and facilitate decision-making, as production will be guided ultimately by demand.
Farmers and users will be able to rely on the platform for the security of their transactions.
It is expected that market development and reliability of transactions will create jobs, increase incomes and securing livelihoods.

Lessons Learnt

Given the project currently being at its inception phase, is too premature to extrapolate lessons learnt