Information services for coffee farmers in Vietnam

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GREENcoffee is one of the earliest, if not the first, ICT-based information services for coffee farmers in (the Central Highlands of ) Vietnam. During the four year project, this public-private partnership launched the GREENcoffee application. Together with local partners the social enterprise OmiHubs was established in Vietnam to continue service provision to coffee famers in the Central Highlands of Vietnam after the end of the project. Through the development of a location-specific advisory service, GREENcoffee succeeded in offering farmers the critical information and advice they need to face climate-related challenges in coffee farming.

Provided services

The GREENcoffee app provides weather, rain, and humidity forecasts, information on daily coffee prices, advice on farming techniques, including how to diagnose and manage pests and diseases, and early warning for extreme weather events. The GREENcoffee app is available in the Google Play store.

Farmers, who do not have smartphones, can still get information and advice from key farmers, or other farmer-users in their coffee cooperative. Members of the same household, who often have a preference for the different features of the app, e.g. male farmers usually access good agricultural practices (GAP), while female members of the household, use the app to get market information, can use the same account in the GREENcoffee app. Government agricultural extension staff, NGOs, field staff of input companies, and buyers who subscribe to the GREENcoffee service, can provide customised and more comprehensive advice to coffee farmers. GREENcoffee app users consider weather information the most valuable service that makes use of remote sensing data.

Business model

Services were initially provided to coffee farmers for free, to generate a significant customer base. Revenues are generated through subscription fees from business-to-consumer (B2C) users, supplemented by grants from the Vietnamese government and other donors. At the same time GREENcoffee is pursuing business-to-business (B2B) revenue streams to ensurethe fin ancial sustainability of the provided services, while maintaining affordability for smallholder farmers. To this end, the partnership is licencing the services to coffee buyers and input providers at a price based on the number of farmers they are affiliated with.

Impact

GREENcoffee overcame the huge cost, logistical challenges, and limited resources of extension offices, in providing technical services to farmers in remote rural areas. The GREENcoffee services can be expanded beyond Vietnam, to support coffee farmers in other Asian countries, and those from Africa and Latin America.

Client feedback surveys show that farmers highly value the weather information and the market information on coffee prices that the app provides. This applies to female farmers in particular. In the past few years, farmers have been discouraged by the low coffee prices being offered to them, reaching points where prices did not even cover production costs. Farmers can now use the market information that the app provides, to decide where, and to whom, to sell their coffee at a fair price.

In 2020, a collaboration by GREENcoffee lead partner ICCO (now part of Cordaid), and Dutch coffee trading company KoffieDirect (now Farmers Direct) was set up, to further improve and boost GREENcoffee service delivery to farmers and supply chain actors.

Partnership

The GREENcoffee consortium consists of the following public and private organizations, each with their own expertise:

Lead Partner:

• ICCO South East Asia (now Cordaid)

Partners:

• AKVO (Netherlands)
• MARD/IPSARD (Vietnam)
• eLEAF (Netherlands)
• MARD/NIAPP (Vietnam)
• ERIPT (Vietnam)
• Nelen and Schuurmans (Netherlands)
• Rainforest Alliance (Netherlands/Indonesia)
• WaterWatch Projects (Netherlands)

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