June 12, 2024

LOCAGRI-Farmerline collaboration: A win-win partnership at the dawn of a new era for local rice

Staple Crops

Ivory Coast

For the 2024/25 marketing year, Côte d'Ivoire's milled rice production is projected to reach 1.2 million metric tons (MMT), which represents a 5% increase compared to the 1.14 MMT projected for 2023/24. Additionally, the area under rice cultivation is expected to increase by 2.7% to 750,000 hectares (USDA Foreign Agricultural Service) (IPAD USDA).The business champion for the rice partnership-LOCAGRI, is expected to be a major contributor to this growth, given its strong impact in the sector.

Founded in 2017, LOCAGRI is a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) that operates in sustainable development and agronomy, with cocoa and rice as its main products. Its team, made up mainly of ambitious young people, aims to meet consumers' needs by offering quality products at reasonable prices, accessible to all social classes.

The partnership initiated by 2SCALE with LOCAGRI and other companies in the rice value chain aims to address critical challenges in the rice sector, such as low productivity, under-utilisation of rice by-products, reducing the importation of rice to Cote D’ivoire. Among other objectives, the partnership focuses on integrating smallholder farmers into strong and competitive value chains and increasing the uptake of local rice in Ivorian diets.

The partnership aims to involve at least 15,000 smallholder farmers, 50% of whom are women and 40% young people, to produce 18,000 tonnes of paddy rice processed into 11,700 tonnes of white rice and by-products that would reach at least 35,000 low-income consumers. Pursuing its implementation through the facilitation of public-private partnerships (PPP), 2SCALE has facilitated the partnership between LOCAGRI and the company Farmerline.

Farmerline is an agri-technology company that provides over 200,000 small-scale farmers across Africa with access to market information, local weather forecasts, farming advice and organisations.

This partnership ensures the supply of inputs on credit to producers in LOCAGRI's Agribusiness Clusters (ABC) and supports production by offering access to mechanisation and training in the use of these inputs. LOCAGRI in turn undertakes to buy the products from the producers, enabling them to make a profit that will enable them to meet their basic needs.

Creating impact through innovative and digital techniques in rice production

Agriculture has long been regarded as the pillar on which Cote d'Ivoire's success is based, thanks to the reliability and profitability of its land. By integrating innovative and digital techniques, the partnership between LOCAGRI and Farmerline demonstrates the positive impact of technology in agriculture.

During the expansion of its activities in the field, LOCAGRI encountered difficulties in its operations, such as collecting farmer data such as their plot sizes, crop coverage etc, which made it difficult to assess investments and profits. As a result, this had an impact on how they positioned themselves from a logistical and financial point of view. The difficulty of financing rice purchases also posed problems, leading to debts owed to producers.

To address this hurdle, the LOCAGRI and Farmerline partnership has brought significant improvements that have made it possible to meet these challenges. This is through the digital tool introduced by Farmerline, called Mergdata.

Mergdata is a software application that collects information on growers to create digital profiles and record their input requests. The technology is also used to disseminate weather forecasts, market prices and climate-smart farming practices tailored to the specific crops they grow. All this information is made available via voice messages accessible from a mobile phone in the farmers' local language. This digital tool has streamlined LOCAGRI's operations, making activities more efficient and less risky for producers. The software makes it possible to access all producer information within the value chain at the click of a button.

In addition, LOCAGRI has received financial support from Farmerline, which now makes it easier to buy and sell rice.

Before the partnership with Farmerline, we had difficulty identifying producers and plots because the information was entered manually on paper. We also didn't have enough funds to buy rice from producers. Today, thanks to the partnership, we can find all our data in one place using digital tools, and we benefit from financial support that enables us to buy rice and sell it on,

says Audrey DJAGO, LOCAGRI team member in charge of the Rice project.

Before, all the companies that contacted us to help us collect data from farmers charged us for the formalisation process. But with LOCAGRI and Farmerline, we're now happy to be formalised without having to spend any money,

says Djakaridja KAMAGATE, President of the Agboville Rice Growers Group (GRPA).

A partnership that drives financial development and creates jobs

As the rice value chain is a fast-growing one, it is sometimes difficult for players such as processing companies to say exactly how much income producers can earn from their partnerships. However, during this win-win partnership, producers have seen their yields increase from 2.5 tonnes to 3.7 tonnes per hectare. This improvement in their productivity justifies an increase in their income.

However, it is important to note that it can be difficult for growers to declare all their income. To assess the economic impact of its interventions more accurately, LOCAGRI plans to set up training courses on financial education.

About job creation in the rice value chain, groups of young people (men and women) have been set up to transplant rice in line in the various LOCAGRI intervention zones, specifically in the centre of Cote d'Ivoire (Tiébissou, N'gattadolikro, Takissalekro, etc.). A team of women has also been set up to sort the milled rice. The Business Champion is currently developing a project aimed at rekindling young people's interest in agriculture, particularly rice growing, a project that will see the light of day elsewhere.

Farmers have embraced these changes, which ensure the safety of themselves, their families, and their land. In addition, they now receive personalised messages containing advice such as the use of inputs according to the location of their farm, which helps to improve production practices and yields.

In addition, LOCAGRI, having received financial support, is able to buy rice directly. This is bound to benefit the farmers who supply to LOCAGRI.

This partnership demonstrates the transformative potential of collaboration between the private and development sectors. With the introduction of digital tools for accurate agricultural monitoring, LOCAGRI and Farmerline are optimising the identification and management of farmers' land, formalising affiliated producer organisations, and improving access to agricultural inputs, which are essential for improving the productivity and sustainability of rice farms. LOCAGRI has thus been able to expand its activities and strengthen its relationships with farmers, which is a significant step forward.

This collaboration goes far beyond a simple commercial transaction; it embodies hope, solidarity, and shared prosperity, by supplying high-quality rice to consumers throughout the region.

Share this update: