Taking advantage of the African Digital-Tech Revolution

Haller works closely with agricultural communities to spread agricultural best-practice to ensure that smallholders are able to access vital information. The approach focuses on providing vulnerable communities will the skills they need to farm sustainably and resourcefully in order to provide for themselves and their families.

However, as with any third-sector organisation, a crucial factor for consideration must be how an organisation can reach as many people as possible, and have the largest-scale possible impact in a way that is affordable for the organisation. This is why Haller first developed the Haller Farmer’s App.

In Kenya, the primary base of Haller’s operations, there is over 90% mobile penetration. According to statistics from the Kenyan Communications Authority, and mobile subscriptions reached 39.7 million in June 2016.

Additionally, smartphone usage in Kenya is now at 44% of the population, a rise of almost double since 2014. With mobile banking and mobile finance increasingly becoming more and more part of the fabric of Kenyan life, it is clear that mobile and digital tech will continue to increase in their significance across Kenya and all of Africa.

Haller’s existing version of the app has thousands of users across Kenya and Tanzania and enabled us to spread our message of sustainable, organic agriculture, even in very difficult soil conditions. We are not working on upgrading and redesigning our app to tap into the increasing digital literacy in the developing world.

By redesigning our app to make it even better suited to the individual needs of farmers, we believe that we can positively impact the lives of farmers across Africa.