Business models
Digital payments are also facilitating the rise and adoption of insurance products, digital procurement as well as e-commerce models. Digital procurement tools are bringing visibility and efficiencies to agribusinesses, cooperatives and smallholder farmers in the last mile of agricultural value chains. The digitisation of paper records is the foundation of all procurement tools, but holistic solutions that integrate both payments and product tracing are emerging to support more sustainable farming. We are hoping to see more food companies actively using digital tools to increase both transparency and equity in their supply chains in the next five years.
One of the star children of digital agriculture sector in the last years is food e-commerce. Those platforms have generated new markets and buyers for farmers and were essential during the lock-down realities of 2020. Across LMICs today, there are now over 120 agri e-commerce platforms!
See our latest Digital Agriculture Maps for more details and inforgraphics on all those use-cases.
We are hoping that by improving transparency in this sector, we can anticipate more mature business models, more investor interest and ultimately - more impactful solutions for smallholders.