Mobile app for farmers connecting markets to make better deals

While technology is booming and new inventions are coming into place, the agricultural sector is also flourishing with new methods of harvesting and farmer friendly apps to make their lives much easier.

The ‘Technical Assistance to the Modernisation of Agriculture Programme in Sri Lanka’ ( TAMAP) funded by the EU and implemented by the consulting company, Ecorys Nederland B.V., is driven by its purpose of assisting the government of Sri Lanka to move towards sustainable and productive agriculture.

TAMAP has supported the development of an electronic market place in agriculture in line with the government's e- agriculture strategy. As a result of this work ‘Govipola’, an agricultural trading platform and improved market information system was launched recently at the Mövenpick Hotel in Colombo.

“Worldwide there is interest in developing agricultural marketplaces online with the aim of helping farmers to connect more directly to markets in real time and help them make better deals,” stated Frank Hess, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Sri Lanka. “The ‘ Govipola’ app helps farmers to market their goods to potential buyers while providing market information. This in turn helps to strengthen our goal of developing a vibrant agricultural sector in Sri Lanka," he added.

The app is developed by Croptronix, a Sri Lankan company, ‘ Govipola’ began as an online wantboard, which is a place where people post their text- based buy and sell offers in a way similar to the way newspaper advertisements work. Today the app, with over 15,000 generic downloads across the country, helps farmers in marketing their goods on a digital platform with easy access to real time market data. The app also offers convenience to buyers by providing options such as search filtering and notifications and thereby shortening the lengthy process of finding goods.

As part of its continuous development process, the app is now ready to offer a match- making engine allowing suppliers to easily connect with interested buyers. The interaction with a potential trading partner may happen via the app or a direct call using the call- to- action button embedded in the system. With this simple approach the app links the farmer directly to an exporter, trader or a consumer.

The app's user-friendly interface, three- language support and dynamic alert system also prove to be of immense value to users. The order-matching feature allows the user to get his or her listing directly matched with a corresponding order without the need to perform a lengthy search and read through all the posts placed on the marketplace. Every matched order allows opening of a direct confirmation channel for trade in line with conditions agreed upon by the parties.

(RM)

The app is developed by Croptronix, a Sri Lankan company, ‘Govipola’ began as an online wantboard, which is a place where people post their textbased buy and sell offers in a way similar to the way newspaper advertisements work.