Planting seeds of a network for the world’s farmers

Attracting investment and innovating in business can succeed in poorer countries where some charities may fail. According to James Hurley, writing in The Times (London), 13th Feb 2019, who says you can’t build a global technology company from Britain? Over the past four years from his company’s base in east London, Kenny Ewan has built a platform with more than a million overseas users.

The start-up, Wefarm, brings small-scale farmers together in Kenya and Uganda. Just don’t call it a social network. Mr Ewan prefers “farmer-to-farmer digital network”. Along with the complete lack of selfies, the key difference between Wefarm and say, Facebook or Instagram, is that Wefarm isn’t even online. Instead, it uses SMS text messages to connect farmers who don’t have access to the internet. They use the service to “solve problems, share ideas and spread innovation”. Farmers can ask a question and receive a “crowdsourced” answer via text from other farmers within minutes.

Wefarm is aiming to expand into Tanzania this year and is exploring the possibility of working in India. The company’s progress has attracted the interest of farmers closer to home, too. “We get a lot of requests from farmers in the UK and Europe. We’re not a social network, but that element of being able to chat to other farmers is appealing . . . Eventually we want to go everywhere.”

Read the full article in The Times article