Business Model “Grain for phone” initiative in AICCRA Communities Emmanuel Marfo Kyeremeh| Gordon Nii Koi| SEPTEMBER • 2023 Info Note [xxx] Report AICCRA GHANA INFO NOTE | BUILDING WOMEN’S CLIMATE RESILIENCE THROUGH CIS-CSA 1 1 Value Proposition Esoko's "Grain for Phone" initiative aims to empower women and youth in agriculture by providing them with access to feature mobile phones through the exchange of harvested grain. This initiative will facilitate improved access to Climate Information Services (CIS) and Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices, directly benefiting participants and aligning with the objectives of the AICCRA project. Beneficiaries Primary beneficiaries include female and youth farmers in AICCRA communities. These participants will exchange harvested grain for mobile phones, enabling them to access CIS and CSA information. The initiative aims to target 3000 farmers, with 70% being women and 30% youth from all AICCRA demonstrating communities. Revenue Streams AICCRA Project Funding: Explore collaboration with AICCRA for financial support and alignment of goals. Key Resources Mobile Phones: Acquire a supply of feature mobile phones through partnerships with distributors/retailers. Grains: Harvested grains from beneficiaries. Technology Infrastructure: Use Esoko’s Insyt platform and application for CIS/CSA content delivery. Training Resources: Use Esoko’s existing training materials to conduct training sessions for participants on phone usage, interpretation of Esoko’s messages, CIS, and CSA practices. Aggregators: Offtakers who will buy the grains and pay the phone dealers. Channels Grain Exchange Platform: Create a dedicated platform for facilitating the exchange of grains for mobile phones. Insyt Platform: Utilize Esoko’s Insyt App technology to deliver CIS and CSA information directly to users. Local Partnerships: Collaborate with Farmer-Based Organisations in the AICCRA demonstrating communities for distribution and outreach. Customer Relationships Training and Onboarding: Provide comprehensive training sessions to empower participants with the necessary skills for using mobile phones and accessing CIS and CSA information such as navigation of the phone, interpretation of Esoko alerts and access to the farmer helpline. AICCRA GHANA INFO NOTE | BUILDING WOMEN’S CLIMATE RESILIENCE THROUGH CIS-CSA 2 2 Community Engagement: Establish continuous communication channels to gather feedback, understand evolving needs, and foster community involvement in the AICCRA project. Key Activities Grain Exchange Facilitation: Ensure the smooth operation of the exchange platform, maintaining transparency and efficiency. We have identified FBOs, Aggregators/Offtakers, and mobile phone distributors who are ready for this initiative. MOU has been signed with the Offtakers and mobile phone distributor. Actual implementation will be done in December and January when most farmers harvest their grains. Content Creation and Curation: Regularly update and create localized, relevant CIS and CSA content to meet the specific needs of AICCRA communities. Distribution and Outreach: Implement effective strategies for distributing mobile phones, raising awareness, and promoting community engagement. Cost Structure Mobile Phones: The budget for purchasing 3,000 mobile phones for AICCRA participants is about GHC240,000 at a negotiated cost of GHC80 per phone. Grains: It costs GHC15 for a bowl of grain presently. To be able to exchange for a phone, each farmer will need 6 bowls of grains. However, 6 bowls of grains only make up a fraction of a bag of maize which usually contains 40 bowls of grain. Training and Outreach: Budget for onboarding, training sessions, and community engagement activities. Partnerships AICCRA Project: Close collaboration to align initiatives, share resources, and enhance the impact of both projects. AICCRA Field Agents: Partner with Esoko’s field agents to facilitate outreach, training, and community engagement. Farmer-Based Organisations: Collaborate with FBOs to ensure efficient distribution of mobile phones. Aggregators/Offtakers: Partnership to ensure a ready market for the grains. Mobile Phone Supplier: Collaboration with distributors/retailers to ensure a consistent supply of mobile phones. Esoko's "Grain for Phone" initiative in AICCRA communities is a unique business model that combines technology, agriculture, and community engagement to provide women and youth with access to AICCRA GHANA INFO NOTE | BUILDING WOMEN’S CLIMATE RESILIENCE THROUGH CIS-CSA 3 3 critical information on CIS and CSA. The initiative's success and sustainability will depend on continuous adaptation based on feedback from the community and close collaboration with AICCRA. Through this approach, the initiative aims to empower women and youth by providing them with the necessary tools and knowledge to succeed in the agricultural sector. 4 About AICCRA Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) is a project that helps deliver a climate-smart African future driven by science and innovation in agriculture. It is led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank. Explore our work at aiccra.cgiar.org aiccra.cgiar.org aiccra@cgiar.org CGIARAfrica To cite this Info Note Kyeremenh, E.M. 2023. Business Model: “Grains for Phones” Initative in AICCRA Communities. Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA)] Acknowledgements Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) is a project that helps deliver a climate-smart African future driven by science and innovation in agriculture. It is led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank. The authors would like to thank the farmers in AICCRA Communities across Ghana About AICCRA Info Notes Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim research on the scaling of climate services and climate-smart agriculture in Africa, in order to stimulate feedback from the scientific community. Photos Cover © AICCRA/Godfred Aboagye Disclaimer This Info Note has not been peer reviewed. Any opinions stated herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of AICCRA, donors, or partners. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non-commercial 4.0 International License. © 2023 Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA)