By Patricia Kapulula

Lilongwe, August 8, Mana: Stakeholders in the agriculture sector have been called upon to improve on coordination and maximise on the benefit of sharing data in order to address repetition of same activities at the expense of others.

Digital Innovations Lead for Solidaridad Southern Africa, Candice Kroutz-Kabongo told journalists in Lilongwe on Wednesday along the side lines of the FANRPAN Annual Multistakeholder Policy Dialogue that although requirements for farmers to provide data has increased over the years, coordination among organisations in as far data sharing is concerned has not yet been maximised.

She proposed an open farm data ecosystem where stakeholders within the agriculture sector can share the data they collect.

“The level of duplication of efforts and consequent lack of impact for those efforts is the problem that we need to address through data sharing.

“We are spending our resources repeating same activities across organisations when there are others that need to be done such as climate shocks and early warning systems,” she said.

Kvuno Country Operation Lead for Malawi and Mozambique, Igo Manuel, appealed to stakeholders to have a holistic view of farmers they support and make decisions that benefit those farmers.

He said it is for this reason that coordination in the sector is important as it can bring the cost of operation down for everyone hence benefitting the people they serve.

“We want to showcase how we can share data across various organisations so that we can maximise efforts. So, we believe that Kvuno is practical and real case of what can be done with open data sharing platform,” he said.

Solidaridad and Kvuno developed digital farmer identity with each farmer that works with them. The farmer ID captures all the information about the farmer such as their name, what crops they cultivate and how much they are making selling those crops.

Given Phiri, Programs Manager for Kvuno Malawi, said farmers can benefit a lot through digital.

“Kvuno is here to showcase to farmers that, through digital, they can find markets and messages on how to improve farming.

“Malawi has started paying cotton farmers through the bank which has proved safe and successful as it has no risks both to the buyer and farmer,” Phiri said.

According to Phiri, Malawi has reached out to 816 farmers involved in cotton seed multiplication in Salima, Nkhotakota and some parts of Balaka with digital services.

Kvuno, is a social inclusive business that utilises digital tools and technology to empower smallholder farmers for wealth creation through farming.

Solidaridad introduced Kvuno, incorporating its interventions, shaping the relationship with farmer-facing organisations.