SourceTrace is pleased to announce they are helping farmers in Kenya fight against Covid. With a reduction in person-to-person contact and field visits, farmers can often have difficulty interacting with the programs they use on a regular basis, such as the Accelerated Value Chain Development Kenyan farmers use to help with drought issues. This problem has been made easier with the help of SourceTrace SaaS app solutions.
The SourceTrace team worked with the Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) program that seeks to sustainably reduce poverty and hunger in Kenya. The program is implemented by ILRI, ICRISAT and CIP as a consortium and works closely with county governments, NGOs’, CBO, the private sector and other USAID funded projects/programs. The staff and management are working with extension officers and lead farmers to monitor the progress of the drought-tolerant crops component’s work.
SourceTrace’s solution was used as the main digital platform as the main channel for providing extension advisories to farmers. This included the timing of such messages, what type of messages they should be, quality control measures and any approvals that may be needed before sending the messages. The app was put into practice starting on May 4 and has been widely accepted by the Kenyan farmers.
In an article AVCD mentioned that “in collaboration with county extension officers, the project team has formulated and submitted several SMS alerts to approximately 11,000 farmers with information on GAPs including on weeding, thinning, pest and disease control, post-harvest handling, storage and aflatoxin management. The messages were customized for each county and specific crop. The first round of SMS messaging started on 4 May and regular messages on good agricultural practices have been sent to farmers.”
Farmers in Kenya rely on information from other farmers and the organizations that support them to alert them of any issues that may exist, as well as how to handle issues that do arise. The use of the app system created by SourceTrace has made it possible to reach these farmers without requiring face-to-face contact to help protect against the spread of Covid in the country.
Anyone interested in learning about this app and how it has helped Kenyan farmers can find out more by visiting the SourceTrace website or by mailing marketing@sourcetrace.com.
About SourceTrace : SourceTrace is a company based in India that specializes in helping farmers through SaaS products, including mobile applications. Their goal is to focus on sustainable agriculture and empowering farmers with the information they need to do their job well in a modern society. Their data-drive digital solutions are aimed at helping farmers produce the amount of food needed to support a growing global population.