AgriConnect: Farm-fresh, online ready

As one of the most significant contributors to the Caribbean economy, the agriculture sector plays a major role in the lives and livelihoods of all citizens.

The quality of what we consume affects the quality of our lives and enhancements in the agriculture industry present benefits for everyone.

Yet some may argue that the industry has been left behind in the age of digitisation.

This is the gap that AgriConnect, an e-commerce platform for the modernisation of agricultural trade, seeks to bridge.

Launched by TT Financial Centre in collaboration with the National Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation (Namdevco) and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the platform connects Namdevco-certified farmers with commercial buyers to provide fresh, high-quality, locally-produced goods.

The platform was developed by Public Good Studio (PGS), a small, independent software development practice focused on making sustainable projects that benefit the public.

Designer at PGS, Agyei Archer explained the role of the e-commerce platform in agriculture.

"It’s important to know that when we speak about Caribbean agriculture we acknowledge that all of our existing food systems are dependent on our farmers.

"All of them, even considering the large proportion of the food that we import in TT, our domestic systems are still entirely dependent on Caribbean farmers and agriculture.

"...What we’ve aimed at doing is creating a platform that’s scalable, user-friendly and that’s built to work for the needs of the primary needs of the farmers who need to sell their goods at the best prices…and we want buyers to be assured that we have high-quality produce," Archer said.

To ensure quality, every six to eight weeks Namdevco's quality assurance officers inspect the farmers’ produce.

Namdevco not only facilitates quality assurance but also market data which Archer said was a key component in developing the platform.

"We started with an immediate challenge of solving a singular problem, expanding e-commerce options in TT, Dominica and St Vincent."

Through support from the UNCDF, Archer and his team went to Dominica and St Vincent.

"We needed to understand the similarities and the differences that there were before we started making software…these farmers may be Caribbean but they all exist and operate in their own domestic industries in different ways. Each of them has a different distance from the end-user, each of them has particular challenges and advantages.

"...A lot of our first set of work was developing tools that allowed us to take Namdevco’s information and make it usable.

"...The first thing that we did was we took the market prices that get updated every day and we took all of them and fed it into a machine learning model so we can start learning about what future prices can be like, and it also allowed us to give real-time updates to farmers when they wanted to know how much something costs."

Archer explained that the benefits of incorporating e-commerce into agriculture go beyond just facilitating sales.

"When we think of e-commerce we think of selling things online. But there are additional components e-commerce provides beyond just selling things online.

"It adds layers of convenience and scalability to most businesses.

"Especially in a cash-heavy industry like agriculture, it would allow for improved financial reporting. From the perspective of a farmer, being able to have transactions of business that they can take to the bank is a big issue. It’s important for other parts of their business viability with things like insurance and loans which you don’t get unless you’re able to report as a business."

Archer said by combining e-commerce with real-time market insights, AgriConnect allows farmers to manage their crops, receive orders, payments and automate financial reporting.

"Breaking farmers away from a daily market cycle allows them to introduce more elements of sustainability to their business."

Archer said since October 2024, around US$50,000 has been delivered to 30 farmers through AgriConnect with negotiations actively in place for US$250,000 more.

The benefits of the programme are evident from the results of its pilot phase which saw the platform being used by commercial entities such as MS Food City, Better Deal Supermarket, the School Feeding Programme and the South-West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA).

Regional manager of nutrition and dianetics at the SWRHA, Natesha Kerr-Lambert told Business Day about her experience with AgriConnect.

"The SWRHA has its sixth strategic goal to reduce wastage and improve efficiency, so we have been continuously looking for ways to improve our system in all our platforms and frameworks. And of course, purchasing of food is always a highlight in two folds.

"We have on one side, constant complaints and the stigma of hospital food not being the best and on the other hand, from the management side of it, we are just trying to find a way to improve quality and presentation. We had been in communication with Namdevco before, trying to find ways in which we can reduce the cost of the produce that we get.

"So when AgriConnect came around as a pilot project, they were able to include us. We were then able to directly connect with farmers which is something we traditionally did not have and we also had the assurance of quality and safety. As a hospital, we are feeding immune-compromised patients so our priority will of course be the quality and safety of the produce we are getting for our meals.

"The AgriConnect project and Namdevco’s good agriculture practice regime help us to be reassured that the products that we are getting from these farmers are safe, and our patients are getting safe produce.

Kerr-Lambert said Namdevco’s packing house has also reduced the burden of meal prep for SWRHA employees.

"They (Namdevco) are able to pre-prep products so our staff spend less time doing prep and more time cooking the meal and presenting it in a most healthy and appealing way to the patient.

"My cost, that we’ve been paying to the suppliers, has been reduced significantly."

She said in one purchase SWRHA was able to save around 45 per cent on produce-procurement costs.

"That is a very big bonus for us so now we can get more produce. So you’d find that you’d now find more vegetables present in all of our meals. That is one of the great things."

"We are very happy so far with the service that we are getting through AgriConnect…so moving forward we intend to keep using AgriConnect to bring in more produce."

Business Day also spoke to farmers who expressed positive views about their experience using AgriConnect.

Maria Balchan, along with her husband Christian, runs a family-owned farm, based in Longdenville, Chaguanas, producing a variety of crops like pawpaw, sweet potato, pimento, oranges, lemons and tomatoes.

"To be honest it (AgriConnect) exceeded my expectations," she said. "In terms of payments they’re actually very reliable, you can count them…our farm has passed through generations so it’s an upgrade for us to pass on to our kids, it would be easier for them to use."

She said she sees AgriConnect as a long-term e-commerce solution for her business.

Grace Bent also expressed her positive opinions about the platform.

"I would have had experiences in the past with middlemen where we negotiate a price and then after the fact they take the goods and say they didn’t get a good sale.

"Then they want to renegotiate the price and when it’s time for them to pay, you can’t get your money. So, that is not an issue with the AgriConnect platform.

She said despite her initial scepticism her experience with the platform has been positive and reliable.

"With AgriConnect, the payment part is not an issue and you don’t have to worry about delivering the goods…you don’t have to worry about going out into the market and to go and try to get a sale because one of the main things farmers have issues with is access to the market."

Bent said in the past she went to the market with around 100 pounds of produce and did not make a single sale.

"They call you in advance and say they need 100 pounds of cassava or whatever it is tomorrow. You can go ahead and dig the produce fresh and they’ll be getting quality produce."