Infobip Case Studies One Acre Fund: Enhancing Farmer Interactions through USSD Portal

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	One Acre Fund: Enhancing Farmer Interactions through USSD Portal Infobip

One Acre Fund: Enhancing Farmer Interactions through USSD Portal

Infobip

Technology Category	Networks & Connectivity - 5G
Applicable Industries	Agriculture Education
Use Cases	Agriculture Disease & Pest Management Farm Monitoring & Precision Farming
Services	Training
Challenge	One Acre Fund, a non-profit organization that provides asset-based financing and agricultural training to approximately 1.5 million farmers in East Africa, faced a significant challenge in its communication with farmers. In 2016, the organization introduced an interactive mobile channel using two-way SMS to communicate with farmers for non-seasonal orders. However, the service provider only offered a prepaid model and the level of service was found to be subpar. The limited functionality of the SMS channel also created a disconnect between the farmers and the organization, hindering effective communication and service delivery. Read More
About Customer	One Acre Fund is a prominent non-profit organization that supplies approximately 1.5 million farmers in East Africa with asset-based financing and agriculture training services. The organization aims to reduce hunger and increase farmer incomes by offering crop storage solutions and teaching farmers about market fluctuations to time crop sales for maximum profit. Headquartered in Kakamega, Kenya, One Acre Fund works with farmers in rural villages throughout Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia. Read More
Solution	To address these challenges, One Acre Fund decided to switch to a USSD solution that would offer a self-service interface for farmers to interact with. Infobip, a global cloud communications company, was chosen to roll out the USSD portal. The choice for USSD was made based on its user-friendly functionality. It is an interactive, menu-based technology communication protocol available on every GSM-enabled mobile device, making it practical for interactive communication. The USSD portal was launched in Rwanda in December 2018 and Kenya in August 2019. Infobip added roughly nine extra services to the USSD code and typically ran a daily volume of 40,000 to 80,000 interactions. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Networks & Connectivity - 5G

Applicable Industries

Agriculture

Education

Use Cases

Agriculture Disease & Pest Management

Farm Monitoring & Precision Farming

Services

Training

Challenge

One Acre Fund, a non-profit organization that provides asset-based financing and agricultural training to approximately 1.5 million farmers in East Africa, faced a significant challenge in its communication with farmers. In 2016, the organization introduced an interactive mobile channel using two-way SMS to communicate with farmers for non-seasonal orders. However, the service provider only offered a prepaid model and the level of service was found to be subpar. The limited functionality of the SMS channel also created a disconnect between the farmers and the organization, hindering effective communication and service delivery.

About Customer

One Acre Fund is a prominent non-profit organization that supplies approximately 1.5 million farmers in East Africa with asset-based financing and agriculture training services. The organization aims to reduce hunger and increase farmer incomes by offering crop storage solutions and teaching farmers about market fluctuations to time crop sales for maximum profit. Headquartered in Kakamega, Kenya, One Acre Fund works with farmers in rural villages throughout Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia.

Solution

To address these challenges, One Acre Fund decided to switch to a USSD solution that would offer a self-service interface for farmers to interact with. Infobip, a global cloud communications company, was chosen to roll out the USSD portal. The choice for USSD was made based on its user-friendly functionality. It is an interactive, menu-based technology communication protocol available on every GSM-enabled mobile device, making it practical for interactive communication. The USSD portal was launched in Rwanda in December 2018 and Kenya in August 2019. Infobip added roughly nine extra services to the USSD code and typically ran a daily volume of 40,000 to 80,000 interactions.

Impact #1	The implementation of the USSD portal has significantly improved One Acre Fund's engagement with farmers. The user-friendly functionality of the solution means that clients can request anything they want or need at the touch of a button, improving the customer journey. The USSD portal has also reduced the organization's reliance on field staff to disseminate information. Furthermore, the solution has helped One Acre Fund reduce its deficit, enabling it to expand to more regions faster, with limited donor funding growth per year. The organization has also been able to move away from manual data manipulation, resulting in faster processing times, fewer overhead costs, and an improved customer experience.

Impact #1

The implementation of the USSD portal has significantly improved One Acre Fund's engagement with farmers. The user-friendly functionality of the solution means that clients can request anything they want or need at the touch of a button, improving the customer journey. The USSD portal has also reduced the organization's reliance on field staff to disseminate information. Furthermore, the solution has helped One Acre Fund reduce its deficit, enabling it to expand to more regions faster, with limited donor funding growth per year. The organization has also been able to move away from manual data manipulation, resulting in faster processing times, fewer overhead costs, and an improved customer experience.

Benefit #1	Increase in daily interactions from 500-1000 to 40,000-80,000
Benefit #2	Recorded 1.3 million user sessions via the USSD portal in October 2019
Benefit #3	Predicted 2 million user sessions for December 2019

Benefit #1

Increase in daily interactions from 500-1000 to 40,000-80,000

Benefit #2

Recorded 1.3 million user sessions via the USSD portal in October 2019

Benefit #3

Predicted 2 million user sessions for December 2019

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Overview

One Acre Fund: Enhancing Farmer Interactions through USSD Portal

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit