This project is about delivering educative and informative SMS messages to farmers and consumers that would enable them connect directly and do business.It is intended to seek funds  and expertise that will enable us fulfill  the wishes of the rural populations within some isolated English speaking communities in Cameroon.

The rural community here in question are the farmers and consumers within the localities of Limbe and Buea. They need information and education on pesticides necessary for the health of their crops and the soil, and information about available markets and consumers demanding their products.

 This approach would  enable them improve their economic situation, fight poverty and promote responsible farming practices in areas not readily accessible by agricultural field workers.

We have chosen to exploit this idea because since this very approach has been  used in the banking and transport sectors with  success,  we believe it shall be productive to replicate this simple idea. Basing it on existing infrastructures of mobile communication, these simple tools of Information and Communication Technologies would positively affect farmers and consumers as well.

This proposal is hinged on the premise that the lack of access to immediate information is the reason why farmers and consumers alike fall short of satisfying their quests. African farmers on the one hand strive to increase the continent’s food production and make economic gains for themselves through farming in the expectation that consumers would just “stumble” upon their products “with pockets full of money”. Unfortunately this has not been the case, as farmers work hard and end up either destroying their ecosystem through uninformed farming practices thereby unwittingly destroying their dreams to prosperity on the one hand, and on the other hand depriving consumers “with pockets full of money” the opportunity to avail themselves of these products, stay clear of famine and contribute towards fulfilling the farmers’ quest to economic posterity.

 The advent of the internet, websites and satellite technologies though very effective as tools of modern communications  fall out of the range of these actors for two reasons: either farmers and consumers don’t know how to exploit them, or that they cannot afford the cost of getting connected and finding the information they need. The proliferation of websites that document information about farm products and consumers therefore does little or nothing to remedy this situation. Therefore, this proposal reposes entirely on SMS messaging to all actors involved because it is more instantaneous than other applications in use.

In addition:

We have already done an intensive field research work . The results point to the need for a Market Information Service for these  rural populations.Also we have met with authorities of the delegation of Agriculture and Leaders of other NGOs who are all willing to provide us data to send to farmers and consumers.

Wehave interviewed middle men who are willing to collaborate with us once the service is functional. These middle men are mostly those who look for market outlets that we shall inform the farmers about.

Since training is also embedded in the project, we have been in talks with experts in mushroom and snail farming who are willing to share their knowledge with these farmers. All we need to do is send out information to them once the stage is set for training activities.

The data gathering exercise proved the extent to which this project would serve as a potential employer of many school leavers who shall serve as agents in different communities , hence discouraging massive rural-Urban migration.

Locations