OPEN DATA’S IMPACT www.odimpact.org

GHANA Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in

By Francois van Schalkwyk, Andrew Young and Stefaan Verhulst

JULY 2017 OPEN DATA’S IMPACT* www.odimpact.org

GHANA Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana

By Francois van Schalkwyk, Andrew Young and Stefaan Verhulst**

JULY 2017

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

* Project conducted in collaboration with the Web Foundation, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Mobile Solutions, Technical Assistance and Research (mSTAR) program at FHI 360. ** “Special thanks to Akash Kapur who provided crucial editorial support for this case study, and to the peer reviewers [odimpact. org/about] who provided input on a pre-published draft.” ing inGhana,soughttoaddressthisproblemby value oftheircrops.Esoko, acompanyoperat and thispreventsthemfromfullymaximizing the derlies increasinglycomplex globalfoodchains, limited accesstoimportantinformationthatun agricultural production.However, theyhaveonly Smallholder farmersgeneratemuchofGhana’s SUMMARY Open DataforDevelopingEconomiesCaseStudies FIELD FORSMALLHOLDERFARMERS INGHANA ESOKO –LEVELINGTHEINFORMATION PLAYING using multiple datasources, including opengov - - smallholder farmers. entering themarket toprovidesimilarservices developing countries, and new organizations are er farmersisbeingreplicatedbyEsoko inother buyers. Theprovisionofinformationtosmallhold field inpricenegotiationsbetweenfarmersand ter pricesfortheirproduceandleveltheplaying ernment data,topermitfarmers secure bet - -

3 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana ol Bank, World 2 1 cessing anddistributioncouldintroducevari food imports.Connectingfarmproduction,pro that spendsUS$35billion peryearon development chairedbyKofi Annan,estimates ress Panel, anNGOadvocatedforsustainable commodities. In its 2014 report, the Africa Prog to produceenoughandprocessitsagricultural Africa loses billions of dollarsdueto its inability reliant ontheagriculturesector. proportion oftheworkforceandeconomyare for manydevelopingcountries,wherealarger to grow in importance. This is especially true As global agricultural value chain continues PROBLEM FOCUS/COUNTRY CONTEXT CONTEXT ANDBACKGROUND Africa ProgressPanel, sources.worldbank.org/INTAFRICA/Resources/africa-agribusiness-report-2013.pdf http://app-cdn.acwupload.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/APP_APR2014_24june.pdf Growing Africa: UnlockingthePotential ofAgribusiness Grain FishMoney:FinancingAfrica’s green andbluerevolutions - - - percent oftheGhanaianworkforceisinag Agriculture OrganizationoftheUN,over53 process, giventhat,accordingtotheFoodand tentially beoneofthekey beneficiariesofthis in 2030(World Bank2013). agribusiness markets couldreachUS$1trillion double by2050, andAfrica’s agricultureand the World Bank,globalfooddemandissetto to increaseincomingdecades.According The importanceofagricultureisonlylikely of Africans outofpoverty. cess creatingnumerousjobsandliftingmillions ous efficiencies into the value chain, in the pro . Washington DC:World Bank, 2013, . . Africa ProgressPanel, 2014, . 1 2 Ghanacouldpo http://sitere - - - -

4 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana 7 6 5 4 3 the transferofresearchinsightsintopractice. to improvecompetitiveness,sustainabilityand working toimplementtechnology-drivenefforts In Ghana,theUSAID FeedtheFutureProgramis vice isanUber-like tractor-on-demandservice. cision-making. InNigeria,theHelloTractor ser gives farmersimportantevidencetoinformde ya, the SMS information provision app mFARM and/or global value chains. For example, in Ken cisions andmake meaningfulforaysintonational stances tohelpAfrican farmersmake betterde Technology is already being used in several in TECHNOLOGY, OPENDATA ANDAGRICULTURE need fornew, innovativeapproachesthatcan ingly complex andinformation-driven,thereisa food andagriculturechainsbecomeincreas have toundergocertainchanges.Asglobal build onthissuccess,theagriculturesectorwill Yet ifGhana—andAfrica moregenerally—isto the next 40years. velopment plantosteerthecountrythrough currently elaborating along-term national de country by 2015. The Government of Ghanais of halvingtheabsolutenumberhungryin target as well as the World Food Summit goal um Development Goal (MDG) hunger reduction African countriestohave achieveditsMillenni progress inrecentyears:Ghanaisoneofafew riculture sector. D. Kleine, A.LightandM.J. Montero, “ Feed theFuture, “FactSheet:FeedthefutureUSAID agriculturetechnologytransfer project,” IFDC,2014, International FundforAgriculturalDevelopment(IFAD), Food andAgricultureOrganization, Food andAgricultureOrganization,“Ghana: CountryFactSheetonFoodandAgriculture Policy Trends,” FAO, March fair tradefromtheperspective of thecapabilitiesapproach corg.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/att-factsheet.pdf https://www.ifad.org/documents/10180/666cac24-14b6-43c2-876d-9c2d1f01d5dd 2016, 2015, http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4490e.pdf http://www.fao.org/3/a-az484e.pdf 3 The country hadmadesome 4 Ghana andFAO: Partnering foragriculturaldevelopmentandresilientlivelihoods Signifiers oftheLife We Value? Consideringhuman development,technologiesand . . . 6 ------Smallholders, FoodSecurity, andtheEnvironment ,“ InformationTechnology forDevelopment,18,no.1, pp. 42-60. coa isdominatedbysmallholders. the productionofkey cropslike coffeeandco viability isparticularlyimportantinGhana,where here—that helpsmallholderfarmersadapt.Their grams andtools—suchastheoneunderstudy 2013). consumed inAsiaandsub-SaharanAfrica (IFAD ally thatproduceabout80percentofthefood more than 500 million smallholder farms glob for AgriculturalDevelopment(IFAD), thereare paradigm. AccordingtotheInternationalFund port astheymovetowardanewagriculture Small landholders,inparticular, willneedsup and more resilient to withstand climate change. more adaptabletonewtrendsintechnology, will needtobecomemoreinformation-driven, adapt tothecomplexity. Agriculturalmethods can playanimportantroleinbreakingdown knowing howtopriceacommodity. Open data not beingabletobidasmuchorinsellers information thantheother. transaction whenonepartyhasaccesstomore tion isthatthereanimbalanceofpowerina The economicconceptofasymmetricinforma wise limitthepotentialofAfrican agriculture. asymmetries thatmayultimatelyhurtorother creation ofdatamonopoliesandinformation create newvalue, theycouldalsoleadtothe But whilesuchapplicationsandservicescan 5 Thissuggeststhevitalimportanceofpro . 7 This results in buyers Thisresultsinbuyers , IFAD/UNEP, https://ifd - , ------

5 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana 11 10 9 Davies, T. 8 single agentfacilitatingtheflowofdatainan that “intermediationdoesnotonlyconsistofa able tolinkactorsindatasupplychainsfound deeper intohow open dataintermediaries are fective implementations.” open datavisionsfrompoliticalleadersintoef articulate demands for data, andhelptranslate of open data ... Intermediaries can create data, aries arevitaltoboththesupplyanduse search has shown that open data “intermedi new valuepropositionstochains.Re intermediaries, adding both complexity and agricultural ecosystemsofalargernumber Open dataalsomakes possibletheentryinto and toothers,includingfarmers. to attentivecitizens,civilsocietyorganizations, actors inthosevaluechainsmoreaccountable agricultural valuechains,intheprocessmaking example, byintroducinggreatertransparencyin such asymmetries of information. It can do so, for

http://www.godan.info/about Andrew Young andStefaan Verhulst, “Aclímate Colombia–OpenDatatoImprove Agricultural Resiliency,” OpenData’s F. Van Schalkwyk,etal.,“Open DataIntermediariesinDevelopingCountries,” Impact, no. 2,2016, -%20Full%20Report-print.pdf Foundation, 2014, DATE TBD Open DatainDevelopingCountries:Emerginginsights fromphase1, http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1146 http://www.opendataresearch.org/sites/default/files/publications/Phase%201%20-%20Synthesis%20

http://odimpact.org/case-aclimate-colombia.html 8 Research that delved . - - - long-standing problemsandtobenefitfarmers data generatedbynewtechnologiestosolve es seeking “toharness the growing volume of nearly 500 governments, NGOs and business trition (GODAN) initiative, which bringstogether by theGlobalOpenDataforAgriculture&Nu potential ofopendatainagricultureisevidenced A growing international consensus regarding the the provideranduser.” unlock thefullvalueoftransactionbetween to possessallthetypesofcapitalrequired pact) becausenosingleintermediaryislikely may increasetheprobabilityofuse(andim and thepresenceofmultiple intermediaries ies mayoperateinanopendatasupplychain, open datasupplychain; multiple intermediar through theAclímateColombiainitiative. data tobenefit smallholder farmersinColombia ries ofcasestudies,weexamine theuseofopen and the health of consumers.” . . Journal ofCommunityInformatics Washington DC:World WideWeb 9 10 Also, in this se 11 , 12, - - - - -

6 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana 16 15 14 13 12 the governmentopendataportalbeinginac . However, thisismainlyattributableto rican countries such as Mauritius, and data initiativesrelativetoKenya andotherAf in theimplementationofgovernmentopen Data BarometerSurveyshowsadeterioration ened insomeways.ThemostrecentOpen Unfortunately, this early success has damp and amobileversionwasreleasedthenext year. The portallaunchedwith100datasetsavailable, of civilsocietyorganizationswithinthecountry. and Technology Agency(NITA), and anumber tween theWeb Foundation, National Information November 2012,asaresultofpartnershipbe The GhanaOpenDataPortal waslaunchedin pioneers ofopendataontheAfrican continent. Ghana, alongwithKenya, wasoneoftheearly OPEN DATA INGHANA

onrSA, “Ghana,” CountrySTAT,

The portalmighthavebeendoneasaresultofextended maintenanceinpreparationforarevampednewoffering, Website ofUgandaOpenData Initiative, World WideWeb Foundation,“Ghana OpenDataInitiative,” Website oftheMinistryFood andAgriculture, Republic ofGhana, market prices,see http://opendatabarometer.org/3rdedition/regional-report/africa/ erally likely suffered. World Wide Web Foundation, even iftheoutagewasresultofultimatelybeneficialwork, trust intheplatformandGhanaian open datamoregen but whentheBarometerassessmentwasbeingconductedno explanation wasmadeavailablefortheoutage– so na-open-data-initiative-godi/ http://mofa.gov.gh/site/?page_id=13613 http://www.countrystat.org/home.aspx?c=GHA . http://data.gov.gh/ (data.gov.gh) Open DataBarometer3rdEdition:Africa Regional Report 12 - - - -

. . http://webfoundation.org/our-work/projects/gha cessible foranextended periodoftime. data). Currently, the Ghana Open Data portal agriculture (e.g., weatherdataormarket price availability ofopendatarelatedspecificallyto al OpenDataIndex haspublisheddataonthe Neither theOpenDataBarometernorGlob estimates andweeklymarket prices. erage cropyieldsformajorcrops,production of FoodandAgriculturepublishesdataonav from differentsources.Inaddition,theMinistry tical data and metadata on food and agriculture teroperability ofdatasets,alsopublishesstatis an initiative to aggregate and increase the in The GhanaStatistical Office, CountrySTAT, or economic data from the agricultural sector. ture” category. These relatemainlytofinancial makes availablesixdatasetsinthe“Agricul http://mofa.gov.gh/site/ . ; andfordataonweekly 16 - , 2016, 13 15 14 ------

7 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana 18 17 farmers thatmaybeof interest toagencies own data.Esoko activelycollects datafrom Esoko isopen,thecompany alsocollectsits Although aportionofthedatasourcedby Markets andFarmers ing degreedays. temperature, windspeed,humidityandgrow Farmers receiveinformationonprecipitation, and accessibleweatherupdatesforfarmers. as wellaneight-dayforecastintorelevant via anAPIservice. Esoko translatesdailydata ligence firm.Itaccesses aWhere’s weatherdata Esoko isaclientofaWhere, anagriculturalintel aWhere and trade. tural issueslike invasivespecies,foodsecurity extensive repository of information on agricul national not-for-profitorganization. CABI hasan An additionalsource of data isCABI, an inter International (CABI) Center forAgricultureandBioSciences languages. data, itspackaging,andtranslationintolocal ration activitiesincludethestructuringof the dataareextensively curated byEsoko. Cu cultural data are obtained from government, timates andmarket prices.Eventhoughagri publishes dataoncrop yields, production es the primarygovernmentsourceofdata.MOFA The MinistryofFoodandAgriculture(MOFA) is Government ofGhana to customers. curated andcombinedtoprovideinformation self-generated andsomefromthird-parties,are ly complex: openandproprietarydata,some Overall, data sourcing by Esoko is structural KEY DATA PROVIDERS KEY ACTORS

Website ofEsoko, These dataarevalidatedbythe CouncilforScientificandIndustrial Research (CSIR). https://esoko.com/about-us/our-story/ ------. KEY BENEFICIARIES farmers constituteasecondarymarket. principal market isagri-business,whileindividual office inthecapitalcityofAccra,Ghana,Esoko’s foreign donorsectors.Managedfromitshead company maintainsclosetiestothepublicand investors, althoughitshouldbenotedthatthe Esoko is a for-profit private company with private Esoko KEY DATA USERSANDINTERMEDIARIES to itssurvivalandsuccess. and smallcustomers) is inmany ways critical mixed businessmodel(targeting bothlarge pany togenerateadditionalrevenues,andits communication products.Thisallowsthecom mobile operators with its data collection and larger agri-business,NGOs,governmentsand farmers isexpensive, Esoko principallytargets el, and because the acquisition of individual to developamoresustainablebusinessmod tute asecondarymarket forEsoko. Inorder In fact,however, smallholderfarmersconsti Esoko’s clients man partofthiswork.” organizational costsavings,weliveforthehu any dayaboutsupplychainefficienciesand ny’s website states: “Thoughwe’ll geek out make farmingmoreprofitable. Asthecompa been toempowersmallholderfarmers The principalobjectiveofEsoko hasalways Farmers inGhana ees oftheMinistryFoodandAgriculture). na (some of these agents are in fact employ collect pricedatainabout50markets inGha Esoko deploysitsownagentsinthefieldto and businessesintheagri-sector. Inaddition, 18 17 ------

8 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana of information to farmers were inefficient and tension agents’ tasked with conveying this type other sources.However, thegovernment‘ex in factexist atagovernmentallevelandfrom ations. Ontheotherhand,informationdid low pricesandwerevulnerabletoclimatevari information, theyoftentradedtheirproduceat ticular, dataonrainfall);unableto retrievesuch concerning market pricesandweather(inpar ian farmers were actively seeking information comings in Ghana. On the one hand, Ghana Esoko hassoughttoaddresssimilarshort bile-phone technology. farmers totheavailabledatabymeansofmo originally triedtobridgethisgapbyconnecting unable to accesstotheinformation. TradeNet prices didexist inUganda,farmerswereoften ized thatwhileinformationconcerningmarket agrarian ecosystem. Esoko’s founders real identified gapormarket failureintheUgandan factors inthecreationofcompanywasan prehensive product.Oneofthekey motivating the aimofprovidingaricherandmorecom In 2009, Esoko emergedfromTradeNet, with and food-securityinformation. creation, disseminationanduseofagriculture to bettercoordinateregionaleffortsaroundthe of (MISTOWA) project, which seeks formation Systems andTraders Organizations entered intothenetworkofregionalMarket In of theUnitedNations(FAO). In2005,TradeNet port fromtheFoodandAgricultureOrganization da, inpartnershipwithFoodNetandsup a company that was created in 2004 in Ugan The originsofEsoko maybetracedtoTradeNet, INITIATION OFTHEOPENDATA ACTIVITY PROJECT DESCRIPTION ------bique andBenin. offices inMauritius,,,Mozam markets. Inaddition,thereareresellersand tinct operationsmanagingthetworespective vide similarproducts,theyconstitutetwodis functionunderthenameEsoko andpro Kenya. EventhoughtheofficesinGhanaand oko inAfrica, onelocatedinGhanaand Currently, therearetwomainbranchesofEs information theyrequired. the gap by connecting farmers to the available costly. Consequently, Esoko emergedtobridge agri-business clients. use these services, they are mostly directed at planning and field training. While farmers do ment ofthecompany’s ownagents),strategic support forsurveysinthefield(e.g., thedeploy oko’s non-mobile products include deployment Dagaari, Wali, Ewe, Ga,FanteandHausa).Es (Dagbani, Mampruli,Twi, Kusaal, Frafra,Sissali, ters operateinEnglishand12locallanguages vided information.Themessagingandcallcen prove communicationandusabilityofthepro (called Helpline)forfarmersinGhanatoim cols. Esoko alsodevelopedthefirstcallcenter crop pricebids,andproductionproto collected atmarkets daily),weatherforecasts, (58 commoditiesin42markets countrywide, offered includeinformationonmarket prices of SMSandvoicemessages.Theproducts ic information,senttocellphonesintheform mated alertscontainingagrarianandeconom Esoko’s mainofferingtofarmersincludesauto ------

9 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana ment Fund,Lundin Foundation,andAcumen. Corporation, theSorosEconomicDevelop of thecapital,wereInternationalFinance Mark Davies.Investors,whoprovidedthebulk The founder and the first CEO ofEsoko was FUNDING marketing products,monitoringandevalua at larger, payingcustomers. Theseinclude ucts, itoffersanumberofB2Bproductsaimed technology. Inadditiontoitsinformationprod Most products offered by Esoko use mobile - - - bile operators. agri-businesses, NGOs,governmentsandmo products and services it has developed for funding andself-generatedrevenuefromthe Currently, Esoko relies on a mix of donor ing andcallsurveys. messaging, SMSpolling,callcentermonitor ucts. Theseproductscantake theformofbulk tion products,aswellgoodssourcingprod - - - 10 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana 19 including Ghana,BurkinaFaso, Coted’Ivoire scriber modelinseveralsub-Saharancountries, services arebasedonatieredfranchise/sub a combinationofdatasourcesandtypes.Its Esoko’s offeringsandpricingmodels relyon OPEN DATA USE from a variety of data suppliers, including the ket-related decisions.Esoko sourcesthisdata weather tohelpinformplantingandother mar farmers’ need for data on market prices and As mentioned,Esoko wasbornfromGhanaian DEMAND ANDSUPPLY OFDATA TYPE(S)ANDSOURCES

U.S. Agencyfor InternationalDevelopment,“UsingICTtoProvide AgricultureMarket PriceInformationinAfrica,” Brief ing Paper, 2010. - - the useofopengovernmentdata. management products are all made possible by monitoring capabilitiesandinformationsystem and Malawi. Ghana anddirectlyfromfarmers. collects itsowndatafromabout50markets in companies suchasaWhere. Esoko Ghanaalso government, international NGOs and agri-data 19 The company’s SMS price alerts, -

11 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana 21 20 more distantmarkets. es moreconfidentlyandselltheirharvestsin have reported being able to negotiate pric done sometargetedsurveysoffarmerswho impact ofEsoko’s service, thecompanyhas been nowidespreadstudiesofthevalueand al actorsinthosechains.Althoughtherehave gaining powerversussomeofthelarge, glob chains, andinparticulartoimprovetheirbar ter navigatethecomplexity ofglobalvalue A key goalofEsoko istohelpfarmersbet IMPROVED BARGAINING POWER intended audience. and points to real usefulness for the company’s interest in Esoko’s offerings isclearly evident, perfect proxy forimpact,thebreadthofuseand weather data.Althoughusageisnotalwaysa in Ghana,ofwhich40percentwererelatedto agents. In2014,Esoko operated29,344 calls prices in 170 markets collected by 150 field It has sent 9.5 million messages on one million 350,000 farmers in 10 countries across Africa. According toitswebsite, Esoko hasreached USAGE STATISTICS These include: of quantitative and qualitative information. in a number of different ways, using a variety series, theimpactofEsoko canbemeasured As withtheothercasestudiesincludedinthis IMPACT

 U.S. Agencyfor InternationalDevelopment,“UsingICTtoProvide AgricultureMarket PriceInformationinAfrica,” Brief Pierre CouroisandJulieSubervie, “FarmerBargainingPower andMarket InformationServices,” Agricultural Economics, ing Paper, 2010. 97, No. 3,pp. 953-977, 2014, 20 http://ajae.oxfordjournals.org/content/97/3/953 - - - - were abletonegotiatebetterpricesfortheir Ghanaian farmers who are clients of Esoko in markets. The study also found that Northern they areunawareofwhatpricesavailable vantage whennegotiatingpricesbecause transportation costs,andarethusatadisad rather thanatdistrictmarkets becauseofhigh farmers typicallyselltotradersatthefarmgate er inthebargainingofprices.Theyfoundthat price informationaffectsthebalanceofpow Courois andSuberviesetouttoestablishhow the activitiesofotheragentsinecosys more effectively. Thistransparencyalsoaffects entirely new markets—in short, they can trade ers cannegotiatehigherpricesanddiscover the food production system. As a result, farm ture and the roles of other agents involved in gate. Theycan alsobetterrecognizethestruc those offeredtothembytradersatthefarm markets inthecountry, andcomparepricesto Famers areabletocomparepricesatvarious increase thetransparencyofvaluechain. intermediary intheagriculturalecosystemisto One importanteffectofEsoko’s activitiesasan VALUE CHAIN TRANSPARENCY receiving themarket price information. groundnuts thanthosefarmerswhowerenot cent moreformaizeand7percent price informationfromEsoko received10per produce. Specifically, farmersreceivingmarket American JournalofAgriculturalEconomics ed byPierreCouroisandJulieSubervieforthe Esoko’s market priceinformationwasconduct One empirical research study on the impact of American Journalof . . - 21 ------

12 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana 22 logical interventions. result of new and potentially disruptive techno challenges andpitfallsthatmayalsoariseasa ant tobalancethepotentialrewardswith case studiesincludedinthisseries,itisimport but alsocarriescertainrisks. Aswithallthe Open dataofferstremendousopportunities, RISKS data collectorsandprocessingpersonnel. system. Thatis,itgeneratesaneedforexperts, directly fromopensourcespresentintheeco beyond what is currently available or provided and processing.Esoko seeks datathatgoes companies dedicated to agro-data capture for additional research and thus the need for First, thepresenceofEsoko hascreatedroom are identifiedinthestudy: least four new (albeit interconnected) niches munication technology(ICT)ecosystem.At new nichesinthelocalinformationandcom Farmerline, havestimulatedtheemergenceof Esoko, alongwithsimilarintermediariessuchas According toAndrasonandvanSchalkwyk, SEEDING THEECOSYSTEM greater transparency. ers’ positionsintheecosystem,netresultis Because allactors are moreawareofeachoth their own bargaining and trading strategies. derstanding oftheecosystem,tradersmodify tem. Forinstance, beingawareoffarmers’ un  Alex Adrason andFrançoisvanSchalkwyk, ta-Intermediaries-in-Agriculture-Ghana-Update.pdf. Paper, Washington DC:World WideWeb Foundation,2016,http://webfoundation.org/docs/2016/12/WF-RP-Open-Da Open DataIntermediariesinthe AgricultureSectorinGhana 22 ------

ecosystem. To beprecise, thepreviously location) of elements already present in the more adequateuseorevenareuse(orre Fourth, theemergenceofEsoko enablesa the mobilephonesector. also contribute to a more rapid developmentof efficiency oftheservicesofferedbyEsokomay mers andmobile-phonespecialists.Infact,the for technicalpersonnel,instanceprogram in theecosystem,itcreatesanadditionalneed conveying information and connecting agents vation. By discovering more efficient means of Third, Esoko contributestotechnologicalinno can interactwithindividualsandcommunities. of educationalandtrainingorganizationsthat Second, Esoko creates a demand for a range cient tocompensateforthecostofsubscribing percent increase in farm-gate prices is insuffi that informationhelpingthemaccruea7to10 The riskexists thatsomefarmersmay decide on balancingshort-termandlong-termbenefits. The successofEsoko dependsinmanyways JEOPARDIZE FUTUREBENEFITS MARGINAL SHORT-TERM GAINS MAY and forthedataflow. beneficial bothfortheseagentsthemselves relocation hasturnedouttobesuccessfuland the real-worldneedsandopportunities.This reframed toensuretheyarebettertargeted work—have seentheirrolesandobjectives relatively ineffective inthetraditional frame mentioned governmentextension agents— , Research ------13 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana 23 are not.Theydescribethefollowingscenario: privileged ones, may be informed while others ing communities,especiallylargerorotherwise information is not uniform. That is, some farm sible riskthattheavailabilityofmarket price Courtois andSubervieacknowledgethepos SOME FARMERS ENJOY THAT NEGATE THEBENEFITS THAT NEW FORMSOFBARGAINING EMERGE have accessto, theseNGOs. some farmers who may not be aware of, or access viaNGOs may unintentionally exclude dy scheme at some point, and (2) aggregating may thereforehavetodiscontinuethesubsi itself does not have sustainable income and (1) farmersrelyonanorganizationtypethatin the roleofNGOsintroducessecondaryrisks: risk oflosingoutonfuturebenefits.However, scription costsoffarmersandthislowersthe ernmental organizationssubsidizethesub There doesexist someevidencethatnon-gov able byEsoko. could accruefromnewinformationmadeavail they may lose out on the future benefits that they elect to discontinue their subscription, to themarket priceinformationservice. Should  Pierre CouroisandJulieSubervie, “FarmerBargainingPower andMarket InformationServices,” Agricultural Economics, 97, No. 3,pp. 953-977, 2014, http://ajae.oxfordjournals.org/content/97/3/953 ------farmers and repackages and sells this data to Esoko collectspersonally identifiabledatafrom PERSONAL DATA supply chain. the pricinginformationasymmetryinafood Such ascenariodoesnotnecessarilycorrect avoid costlynegotiationfailures.” market priceislow, becauseitallowshimto er shouldvisitinformedcommunitieswhenthe relatively low prices. On the contrary, the trad timates ofthemarket price, agreetoaccept farmers, whosystematicallymake incorrectes price ishigh,becauseinthatcaseuninformed in uninformedcommunitieswhenthemarket “Specifically, he [the trader] should seek to deal data products. more generally lower trust in and usage of open usage oftheEsoko platformingeneral,and farmers and Esoko. This, in turn, could reduce that may currently exist between smallholder sonal data in this way could damage any trust smallholder farmersandthatanymisuseofper clients (orboth)mayusepersonaldatatotarget However, theriskremainsthateitherEsoko orits data collectedandsharedcouldnotbefound. of aggregationandanonymizationpersonal the agribusinesssector. Detailsonthelevels American Journalof . 23 - - - 14 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana market failuresandniches. consider beginning by trying to identify similar successful open data projects may therefore Organizations seekingtodevelopsimilarly be occupiedbyanorganizationsuchasEsoko. thus a genuine opportunity, or niche, that could factors together created a market failure and for relevant agricultural information. All these bined withtheongoingdemandfromfarmers phones/SMS); and the availability of data com low-cost communicationtechnologies(mobile tem (extension agents); pervasiveand relatively ricultural informationandsupportdeliverysys combination of phenomena: an inefficient ag Esoko cameintobeingduetoapropitious EXISTING MARKETFAILURES ENABLERS tive lessons).Bothtypesoflessonsareimport Enablers (positivelessons)andBarriers(nega Lessons learned can be broadly divided into LESSONS LEARNED - - - - - This mixed revenue model has enabled more income toestablishitselfasaviablebusiness. agriculture organizationstogeneratesufficient smallholder farmers and targeting established el ofprovidinglow-cost,affordableservicesto A furtherenablerwasEsoko’s businessmod MULTI-TIER BUSINESSMODEL feasibility ofotheropendataproducts. more generallyinassessingthepotentialand ant inassessingthesuccessofproject,and but alsotoitsbusinessclients. sell this data as information not only to farmers (which isofvaluetofarmers)becauseitcanre lows Esoko tocollectitsownmarket pricedata farmers toaccessEsoko’s services.Italso al - - - 15 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana 26 25 24 places asimilarburdenonEsoko’s operations. customers. An unreliable supply of electricity ity to provide a reliable, real-time service to its ture isattimesdifficult,restrictingEsoko’s abil ture, theaccesstomobilenetworkinfrastruc Infrastructure Reliability: cess toitsinformationproducts. to whichEsoko canprovidefreeandequalac costs ofdeploymentplacelimitsontheextent contributes asmallamount(5percent).The (95 percent)whiletheactualtechnologyonly ment constitutes the bulk of Esoko’s expenses Costs: side andinformationqualityonthedemandside. ture reliability, informationqualityonthesupply main challenges:deploymentcosts,infrastruc Despite itsrelativesuccess,Esoko facesfour BARRIERS theless indicativeofamaturingdataecosystem. agricultural market, but their presence is never differentiate its particular niche in the Ghanaian Each oftheseorganizationshasbeencarefulto benefit farmers across many African countries. ta-driven agriculture businesses seeking to as Esoko: FarmerlineandCacaoLink,bothda two otherplayersoperatinginthesamespace and vanSchalkwykshows, culture ecosystem.AsresearchbyAndrason Esoko is operatingin a maturing ICTforagri EMERGING ECOSYSTEM 

 Ibid. Alex AdrasonandFrançoisvanSchalkwyk, Ministry ofFoodandAgriculture, Republic of Ghana, “Weekly Market PricesofFood Commodities,” site/?page_id=13613 ta-Intermediaries-in-Agriculture-Ghana-Update.pdf. Paper, Washington DC:World WideWeb Foundation,2016,http://webfoundation.org/docs/2016/12/WF-RP-Open-Da Asfarascostsareconcerned,deploy . Intermsofinfrastruc 24 thereareatleast Open DataIntermediariesintheAgricultureSectorGhana ------

that openupinanecosystem. requisite capitaltomake themostofniches in theecosystem,andonlysomepossess cess. Thelessonisclear:Notallactorsareequal nically proficientteampositionedEsoko forsuc network oflikeminded organizationsandatech the outset,astrongB2Bmodel,connectionsto presented itself. Specifically, reliable fundingat social—that enabledittoexploit thenichethat constellation of“capitals”—mainly economicand Lastly, Esoko was endowed with an effective stand remainsanongoingchallenge. formats thatsmallholderfarmerscanunder farmers usethedata,providinginformationin telephonic support in local languages tohelp formation provided.WhileEsoko doesprovide the usabilityandpotentialimpactofin ficult forfarmerstounderstand,andthislimits formation providedbyEsoko canalsobedif Demand-Side Information Quality: prices wasforthefirstweekofJune2014. ple, the mostrecentpublisheddataonmarket and timelydata.At thetimeofwriting,forexam to beablesustainthepublicationofrelevant more frequentlyinthepast,itdoesnotappear open dataonagriculturemoreregularlyand be anissue. Whilethegovernmentpublished ment’s MinistryofFoodandAgriculturecan also and timelinessofdatareceivedfromthegovern Supply-Side Information Quality: 25 http://mofa.gov.gh/ Thequality , Research Certain in 26 ------16 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana and vanSchalkwykonopendataintermedi- 2012. Similarly, while the study by Andrason and Subervie studyrelieson data collected in pirical evidence provided by the cited Courois However, itisimportant tonotethattheem impact ofopendataindevelopingcountries. is availabletosupportclaimsofthepositive few instanceswheresolidempiricalevidence agricultural sector in Ghana offers one of the This casestudyontheuseofopendatain CONCLUSION are negotiatedintheagriculturalsector. transparency willcontinuetochangehowprices data willenterthemarket, andthatvaluechain likely thatnewinformationproductsrelyon needs ofsmallholderfarmersevolve, itseems more datasourcesbecomeavailable, andasthe able businessclimateforopendataprojects.As the localICTecosystem,andperhapsasustain the existence of genuine market opportunities in similar productsandservicesinGhanasuggests of otherorganizations (e.g., Farmerline)offering cability of its product. Inaddition, the existence ber of The fact thatEsoko currently operates in a num LOOKING FORWARD

African countriesisindicative oftherepli - - - - disseminate thedata. technology andexpertise tocollect,curateand some forEsoko to retain, while Esoko has the other staffthatwouldbefinanciallyburden sources intheformofextension officersand this case, theMinistryhasaccesstohumanre Agriculture to collect data on market prices. In oko isworkingwiththeMinistryofFoodand ing accesstobetterqualitydata.AlreadyEs diaries andthedataownersbenefitfromhav data ownersmayalsoevolveasbothinterme Partnerships betweendataintermediariesand risks andbarriersidentifiedinthiscasestudy. rently available, andtobetterunderstandthe on andfurthervalidatethepositivefindingscur ment, additionalresearchisrequiredtobuild can make apositivecontributiontodevelop while thereisstrongevidencethatopendata the smallholderfarmersthemselves.Therefore, primary sourceevidencefromEsoko andfrom its findingsareinhibitedbylimitedaccessto aries in the agricultural sector is more recent, ------

17 GHANA | Esoko – Leveling the Information Playing Field for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana