Rollout in Mali

Under this project, our FieldSIM solution was trialled by the DNA (National Directorate of Agriculture) on behalf of the country’s agricultural sectors to evaluate the functioning and benefits of a supply chain management tool.

To this end, e-tumba customised FieldSim to the specific needs of the local farming sectors and implemented the tool in the field. E-tumba trained the crop advisors both face-to-face and remotely and provided them with the necessary support throughout the project.

Meetings between the technicians and the producers allowed the context to be properly understood and expectations noted in order to provide the best service.

Orange Mali provided technical support to e-Tumba to link the FieldSIM solution to its SMS APIs (transmission and reception of SMS for producers and technicians). For the maize sector the trial took place in the Kati region, under the supervision of the Koulikoro Regional Directorate of Agriculture (DRA), and for the rice sector in the vicinity of Baguineda, under the supervision of the Baguineda Irrigation Scheme Authority (OPIB).

With the implementation of this tool, the crop advisors work more efficiently and their activity is visible on a daily basis, as there is no more paper (replaced by tablets) and production managers can now check the information collected (data easily consultable on the web platform).

Producers feel they have better support and advice on improving crop performance, as farming operations are now digitised. They also now have the possibility of postponing the dates of operations simply by SMS.

Producers also appreciated the daily weather report sent by SMS.