April 2020 – The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and Mercy Corps’ AgriFin Program recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a data hub through which the ATA would be able to derive insights and provide farmers data-driven holistic solutions.
The partnership aims to test and implement high-impact digital solutions that will impact 2.5 million smallholder farmers and improve their livelihoods, provide access to digital services and boost their productivity and overall incomes.
The ATA and Mercy Corps’ AgriFin is leveraging CropIn’s solution, SmartFarm, to turn the idea into reality. SmartFarm will enable the organizations to obtain real-time insights on the Farmer Production Clusters (FPCs) across various geographies of implementation. This will enable the organisation to provide timely recommendations and guidance to individual smallholder farmers, as well as clusters based on these data insights. The platform will also equip Development Agents (DAs) with updated information that they can use to deliver timely advisories to farmers.
Ms. Leesa Shrader, Director, AgriFin, Mercy Corps commented on the development, “Mercy Corps is honored to work with the ATA team to help them take their work to the next level, combining data and building responsive digital systems which can inform government, private sector and smallholder farmers’ critical work in agriculture, building a solid foundation for Ethiopia’s food security and economic growth.”
Krishna Kumar, CEO, CropIn commented on the partnership and said ”The partnership between ATA and Mercy Corps is definitely good news for the Ethiopian agricultural sector. We are really excited to contribute to the ATA’s Farmer Production Cluster and work towards the betterment of the farming community. The efficiency that SmartFarm brings into the implementation will further strengthen the effectiveness of this association and contribute to a positive impact on the sector.”
