Nairobi,KENYA: Wefarm , farmer-to-farmer digital network,on Wednesday announced that it has reached over 300,000 farmers across East Africa, especially Kenya and Uganda.
During the launch ,CEO of Wefarm Kenny Ewan , said that an enhanced SMS network enables farmers to access crucial agricultural information from within the global farming.
Wefarm is a free mobile and online service that enables farmers to connect with one another around the world to solve problems, share ideas and spread innovation.
He said that approximately 500 million small-scale farmers provide over 70% of the world’s food. However, up to 90% have no access to the
internet and are often isolated from basic agricultural information and new ideas.
“We have launched an SMS network enabling farmers to access crucial agricultural information from within the global farming community itself. The popularity of our peer-to- peer model proves that farmers are hungry to connect with each other and to share their insights, innovations and challenges. “ Ewan said
Saul Klein, Founder of Local Globe and seed investor in Wefarm said that such initiative will build a community for the 18.5 million developers globally to share programming knowledge.
Klein said the intent is to grow the community to 300,0000 farmers, made up of dense localised clusters in key counties in Kenya and Uganda.
“ We are excited to see the team now implementing lessons from Kenya in Uganda, which is showing dramatically faster user growth. 300,000
farmer is an important milestone and we look forward to seeing continued growth in the months ahead.” Klein said.
Currently over 180,000 farmers in Kenya have been reached through the initiative.