Award-winning software, M-Farm is a market-driven, highly-scalable, agent-facilitated, collective crop-selling platform largely focused on the horticulture value chain. It provides market solution for smallholder farmers through a network of agents who supply produce to wholesalers under contract.
Co-founded in 2010 by Jamila Abass, a computer scientist who bagged BSc in Computer Science from the University of Abdelmalek Essaadi, Morocco in 2009. She is responsible for driving the business and has led M-Farm to successful proof of concept.
She embarked on this project after reading about how farmers disconnected in terms of information are exploited by middlemen price-wise.
She has worked for companies like African Virtual University as Medical Records Systems developer and Akirachix as the Business Development Manager. She is currently the country manager of Wefarm.
How Does M-Farm Works?
M-Farm allows farmers to SMS a number to receive information relating to the retail price of their products, those prices are updated daily with information of 42 crops sold in 5 major Kenyan markets. It offers a group selling tool which gets farmers to team up to bring their produce to selected offsetting/drop points.
When an order is placed, the seller takes his/her produce to the designated collection point and sends a confirmation message to M-Farm. After the collection of the produce, the buyer now sends an SMS to M-Farm to verify the quantity and quality. The mode of payment on the platform is pay on delivery.
Awards and Honours
Jamila has received many accolades including 2015 New African Woman women of the year, Forbes 10 Female Tech Founders to Watch and 20 Young Power Women in Africa, Quartz’s 30 African Innovators as well as 2015 100 most influential Africans. She is also an Aspen New Voices, Poptech, Unreasonable and an Ashoka fellow.