Doing business with satellite based apps and services for smallholder farmers and pastoralists

Recently, a mid-term review of the G4AW Facility was carried out. The lessons learned from this review are valuable to share not only for the G4AW Facility itself, but also for the broader public. Sharing this information can help improve the design of future business initiatives for smallholder farmers in developing countries, or even in more developed countries.

Important findings of the review are:

• Success factors for information service delivery are: tackle a well-defined and specific problem by offering a portfolio of services that builds on an already existing delivery mechanism and is embedded in the local context.
• Partnership should have a complementary set of partners that are locally embedded, ones that also build on an existing infrastructure, which is led by a strong business partner with a stake in taking the project results further into financially sustainable service provision.
• Understanding the customer and building trust means gathering strong baseline data and applying a sound monitoring strategy to support the development and adaptation of the services and associated business model.

A summary with the essential features and a more detailed report about the lessons learned from the mid-term review can be found at the G4AW Publications page.