We are looking for an entry point where an initial group of farmers contributes their data and sees some relatively quick and tangible value from doing so. Ideally, this encourages farmers to share more data and invite peers to join the network.
More data in the network will attract other stakeholders which makes the network more valuable for its farmer contributors/owners and encourages further adoption (more users, all users sharing more data), thus putting the flywheel in motion.
This diagram is a nice conceptual frame for what we want to see happen.
So what are some potential entry points? Ideally, an entry point aligns with an active donor funded project as we will need to execute on that work in any case.
As of early Dec 2021, we have not yet validated these with farmers / farmer groups or external parties that may value the data which will be a priority activity in the coming weeks.
Deliver a tool that increases farmer group productivity / transparency by helping FPOs aggregate information about their members and coordinate with them on input purchases and offtake marketing. This is Kisan Diary Enterprise which is used by ~26 farmers and ~18,000 farmers (Nov 30, see latest stats here). This data can be shared with prospective buyers and this tool could be the rails for additional services like member payments, voting, disseminating advisories, etc.
Leverage Coco data to understand what crops farmers are growing and what practices they are following (or have exposure to). Use this as the basis for targeted advisory messages.
In FRAME, we will be working with VRPs to build basic farmer diaries (focus on agronomic practices and plot location / size). Launch an inter-group competition with a cash prize for farmers that most comprehensive populate their data (or that have the highest adoption rate of practices).
In EMircha, farmers are getting quality reports from AgNext; this report could be stored in their data wallet and advisories could be tailored based on the assessment. Video content that addresses various aspects of the quality grade (eg, your color was B grade and that can be addressed through different storage techniques) can be shared with farmers and basic profile + yield information could be shared (with farmer consent) with various e-commerce portals (private and government) to aid in market access.