In Farming
 
To lift a vulnerable tenant farmer out of poverty, it is essential to provide them with new, leading edge technologies and services that can make their businesses cost-efficient. And the poorest farmers, whom we help first, need technologies that are user-friendly and can galvanize the support they already receive through traditional agricultural assistance
 
Manobi’s experience in Senegal and South Africa over the past five years and more, prove two things: first, that with a little bit of creativity, Africa’s surge in telecomm growth can be harnessed to bring relevant market information services to rural poor populations who would otherwise be overlooked; and secondly, that the rural poor naturally know how to use online marketing tools, literate or not.

• In Senegal thousands of small vegetable growers from the Niayes region have increased their net revenues by over $2,200 per hectare/year.
   
• In Senegal dozens of very small-scale farmers bundle their produce to supply the large clients directly and have been able to triple their average revenue as a result. Today, they carry out individual transactions that guarantee a turnover of over $3,000 per week.
   
• In South Africa, hundreds of farmers from the Limpopo province who were traditionally handicapped no longer have to travel to Pretoria or Johannesburg to sell their perishables at low prices, bearing heavy losses in terms of time and transport fees. Instead, via their mobile phones, they are directly linked to purchasers from restaurants and lodges in the Kruger Park, situated within a radius of 20km.
   
• In just a few months the revenue of some of these farmers has jumped from $700 per month on average to $4,000 per month.

 
And a Big Fish Story

Hundreds of small-boat fishermen adopted the Manobi system and today are able to select which port or beach to unload their catch on by consulting their mobile phones for information on fish market stocks and prices. In the fishing sector, Manobi users have increased their sales by 30%.  
One of the main features of the Manobi fishermen’s MIS is the convergence of GPRS with the basic service. Manobi’s idea has enabled artisan fishermen to broadcast and efficiently respond to S.O.S. messages. . The Senegalese artisan fishing fleet casts its nets in the Atlantic during the night, sometimes as far as 40 kms out to sea in long open canoe-type boats. Manobi’s S.O.S. system has saved many lives and family livelihoods. It can pinpoint the exact location of a vessel in distress as well as alert the nearest boats for the rescue. An innovative application of new technologies—aimed to serve the poorest and most vulnerable fishermen—has earned Manobi the respect of the entire food-producing industry.
 
In South Africa, hundreds of below subsistence farmers from the Limpopo province, traditionally handicapped by distance from market and higher costs of transportation, no longer have to travel to Pretoria or Johannesburg to sell their products at standard prices, bearing heavy losses in terms of time and transport fees. Today, via their mobile phones, Limpopo farmers are directly linked to restaurants and lodges of the Kruger National Park, located within a radius of 20 km. In a matter of months, the revenue of some of these farmers has jumped from $700 per month on average to $4,000 per month.

All these experiences have proven that, ceteris paribus, giving access to market information service significantly increases the farmers’ revenue over the $2 per day that defines the poverty threshold.

Our experiences also prove that a poor developing country farmer who is marginally literate (60% of users in Senegal, 70% in South Africa) or who has never had a mobile phone (80% in Senegal and 90% in South Africa), can easily and quickly jump the technology divide if the content and services truly meet his or her economic and social development needs.

The moral of these stories, and so many others, can be summed up by saying that poverty is caused by a lack of opportunity, and not by an absence of talent or entrepreneurism in the human spirit.