East Sepik, Papua New Guinea
Funder: PNG Agriculture Company (the project sponsored by UNCDF)
Funder: USAID
Funding Mechanism: LASER (Long-term Assistance and Services for Research) PULSE (Partners for University-Led Solutions Engine)
Funder: Australia Direct Aid Program (Ghana)
Cocoa
12 months (March 2022 – ongoing)
100 cocoa farmers and it can expand to 1,500 farmers in PNGAC ecosystem
AgUnity V3 Application
Cocoa was first introduced to Papua New Guinea in the 1800s and today become one of the highly important crops for export. Around 90% of the production comes from smallholder farmers whose livelihood depends on cocoa.
Farmers and co-operatives in the last mile face constant challenges, like unreliable record keeping.
Currently, in East Sepik, the transaction between farmers and buyers is by cash and uses a paper system which is time-consuming and costly. These inefficiencies are often accompanied by a lack of transparency. Using the AgUnity solution means every transaction throughout the supply chain is securely documented on the blockchain.
Moreover, the farmers will have digital identities to enable them to become financially banked. Using digital payments also enables security and reduces the risk of farmers being targeted for their cash. It is also a start for their financial literacy journey.
AgUnity technology helps accelerating the growth of small family farming business in Sepik, Papua New Guinea. Building trust, transparency, welfare, financial independence, and documentation of transactional farming data
Scoping with PNGAC is conducted at the end of March. The purpose is to understand PNGAC business flow and current circumstances; for example, the number of farmers, the value chain system, method of transaction.
Awareness campaign by PNGAC to the farmers about AgUnity app is started since the beginning of April.
The configuration of the AgUnity app is started at the end of May. The purpose is to manage the application feature and functions.
AgUnity started by conducting meetings with country partners to establish process maps, key stakeholders, product users and other supply chain information. Site visits were undertaken to identify any context specific issues.
During development phase AgUnity set up a cloud-platform secured in Blockchain, loaded relevant updates to the AgUnity App and assigned a device to each actor in the supply chain. Training manuals for the products were developed and distributed during this phase.
Where required, assistance was provided to farmers and processors in the process of finding buyers, communicating supply chain and quality assurance improvements, which in turn returned higher prices for the commodity.
