There are a number of constraints to agricultural and rural development in South Sudan. Agriculture still remains a subsistence activity by smallholder farmers using simple implements. Taming existing challenges implies enhancing the agricultural value chain. The Commercial Farmers of South Sudan (CFS) intends to bring modernization of the value chain to the owner-farmers.
Advantech Consulting together with other partners in supporting the Commercial Farmers of South Sudan (CFS) with software application upon which all functions of SSFSP will run. Information Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important tool in promoting agricultural value chain efficiency. Most notably, there has been a rapid expansion in the use of mobile technologies. Additionally, ICT is being used to strengthen the capacity extension of officers and NGO field staff to reach farmers with timely and accurate information and at the same time help capture data from the field.
Advantech Consulting’s applications for CFS have three pillars; Farm Easy & Trade Mobile, Farmers Management System, and Monitoring & Evaluation. These applications target smallholder farmers enabling them to manage their sales, track their expenses, and manage their harvest. The applications will also register farmers (including biometrics), gather data on what is produced by each registered farmer and record cash and credit transactions. This will allow CFS management to assess how farmers are doing and where interventions may need to be focused locally. Lastly, the monitoring and evaluation pillar is an individual web-based system for project planning, management, and monitoring. It can be accessed from anywhere, at any time and across platforms from any device.
The first Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is to end poverty in all its forms everywhere, with the second being to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote a sustainable future through agriculture. This project, run as a proper business, achieves these important goals by creating an environment where local farmers achieve maximum yield and benefits from their daily toil.
