Because of OpenMarket’s close ties to Esoko, the foundation is in the unique position to connect commercial companies to rural farmers. Companies who want to ‘give back’ in a new and innovative way can tailor a program with OpenMarkets to deliver market information via text message for groups of farmers.
Programs include profiling of users, trainings, and extensive monitoring and reporting to see how your contribution has helped the farmers and their families.
One example of such a program is with Prestat Chocalates, a UK chocolatier, who designed a program with OpenMarkets to touch 1,000 farmers. Farmers in the Northern and Volta region of Ghana have been brought onto the program and have already reported that using the SMS service has helped them time better when to sell, negotiate better with traders, and take products to other markets when they can get a better deal there.
See more on Presat and Esoko here:
‘Committed to Trading Fairly’
“Before Esoko, we didn’t know the prices; we just sent the products when they are ready. But now we know the prices and also when to sell our products. Before, I sent my 100 tubers of yam to Accra and could get GHc 20 for it, now I check prices and go to Accra when prices are good. I get up to GHc 200 for 100 tubers.” Prosper Biche, Kpandai, Ghana
Big thanks to support provided from Atlassian software over the last few years to help OpenMarkets manage some of the software deployments and technical integration with partners.
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