Connecting 2.5m farmers
without the internet
Small-scale farmers supply 80% of the world’s food and commodities. Social entrepreneur Kenny Ewan had an ambitious idea – to network farmers without relying on internet. Together, we designed and launched WeFarm.
Impact stats for WeFarm today
WeFarm generates $1M in weekly revenue
It has over 2.5M farmer members
And answers 15M questions per week
An inventive SMS solution
Less than 10% of the 525 million small-scale farmers in developing countries had internet access in 2013. But 90% could access SMS.
WeFarm harnessed an inventive SMS solution and responsive web application. It provided mobile trade and agricultural information from peers to maximise farmer income.
Based on a lot of the work Else did, 2.5 million farmers became WeFarm members, with $1m in sales through the marketplace every week.
Kenny Ewan, CEO & Founder, WeFarm
A powerful shift in knowledge
At the heart of the service was a unique translation system powered by a bilingual micro-volunteer group.
From a central web hub, the WeFarm team could push out tips to registered devices based on FAQs and actionable ideas.
Impact
- 100,000 farmers reached in less than 18 months
- WeFarm became the world’s largest network for small-scale farmers
- WeFarm answered the questions of more than 50 million people
Making big ideas succeed can mean engineering the simplest solution.
Current product and service innovation work
Change starts with a conversation