Farmbetter: 3-in-1 Digital Advisory Platform

Smart farming support—anytime, anywhere.

farmbetter is a digital system that helps cooperatives and agribusinesses give better support to their farmers, improve production consistency, and reduce advisory costs. Farmers get timely, relevant advice via WhatsApp—like how to prepare land, manage inputs, and avoid losses. Field staff use a mobile app to follow up, record farmer practices, and schedule visits. Managers use a dashboard to see who is adopting good practices, which areas need support, and how to plan activities.

This system helps cooperatives and agribusinesses reduce extension costs, improve traceability, and strengthen supplier performance across regions. Already in use by producer organizations and NGOs in 9 countries, farmbetter can be licensed and branded for private sector deployment. The platform delivers consistent, scalable support to farmers—improving yields, quality, and loyalty, while enabling real-time oversight of farming practices and field staff.

This technology is pre-validated.

9•8

Scaling readiness: idea maturity 9/9; level of use 8/9

Cost vs. revenue

Data reliability of this estimate:: 100 %

Return on investment 242 %

Every USD invested returns USD 2.42 net income.

Detailed financial information ›

IP

Provisional application, Copyright, Trademark

Problem

Inconsistent Farmer Support & Quality:
Cooperatives and buyers rely on large farmer networks, but lack systems to ensure consistent advice or practices across their suppliers.
Field Agents Are Overloaded:
Without digital tools, field staff manage farmer records manually, can’t track follow-ups, and often miss key production problems.
No Visibility on What’s Happening in the Field:
Managers can’t see which practices are adopted, which farmers are active, or where to focus support. This affects planning and performance.
Poor Traceability in the Supply Chain:
Traceability is increasingly required for quality, certification, or climate reporting—but most farmer organizations lack the digital backbone to track it.
Rising Extension Costs:
Hiring more staff is expensive. Without a more efficient system, expanding support to more farmers becomes unsustainable.

Solution

farmbetter digitizes farmer support, helping businesses deliver consistent advice, manage field agents, and track adoption of good practices.
Farmers receive advice through WhatsApp, based on locally adapted, peer-reviewed content that supports better productivity and quality.
Field staff use a mobile app to register farmers, send updates, and follow up—saving time and reducing manual work.
Managers access a dashboard to track who’s active, what practices are adopted, and how services can be improved.
The platform helps cut extension costs while improving loyalty, product traceability, and data for certification or investor reporting.

Key points to design your business plan

The farmbetter platform offers private sector actors—such as agribusinesses, cooperatives, and service providers—a scalable way to engage farmers, improve supply chains, and open new revenue opportunities. Its WhatsApp-based delivery of climate-smart advice makes it easy to integrate into existing business models. Below are adaptable options, each explained with practical steps and cost implications.

1. Cooperative-Led Subscription Model

Cooperatives or producer organizations can offer farmbetter as part of their member services, recovering the investment through membership fees or seasonal service packages. To implement this model, assess farmer advisory needs, negotiate a subscription with farmbetter, train cooperative staff, and promote the service to members. Costs to expect include the annual or per-user subscription fee, staff training expenses, and communication materials. Some cooperatives may also choose to subsidize farmer internet data to encourage adoption.

2. Integrated Marketplace Model

Private companies can use farmbetter as both an advisory tool and a channel to sell inputs or buy produce. To implement this approach, start by offering advisory access for free to attract users, then onboard trusted suppliers and buyers into a digital marketplace linked to the platform. Expect costs for marketplace integration, marketing campaigns, and transaction management (including payment systems and logistics). Over time, revenue can come from transaction fees, supplier commissions, or bundled offers.

3. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Model

In this model, private sector actors partner with governments, donors, or NGOs to provide subsidized access to farmbetter for specific farmer groups. To set it up, identify target areas with public partners, agree on cost-sharing terms, and jointly train extension agents or facilitators. Costs typically cover part of the licensing fee, training sessions, and monitoring activities. Branding and co-marketing with the public partner can increase adoption at minimal extra expense.

4. Data Insights and Analytics Model

Businesses that value agricultural intelligence can offer farmbetter for free or at low cost, then monetize aggregated, anonymized farmer data. To apply this model, deploy the platform widely to build a large user base, then set up data collection, analysis, and packaging systems. Costs involve licensing, analytics capacity (staff or outsourced), secure IT infrastructure, and compliance with data protection rules. Potential income comes from selling insights to insurers, input suppliers, or commodity traders.

5. Layered Hybrid Model

This approach combines elements from multiple models—such as subscription, marketplace, and analytics—to diversify revenue and reduce risk. To implement it, start with one model (often cooperative subscription or PPP), then add marketplace and analytics components as usage grows. Costs will combine licensing, marketplace integration, and analytics infrastructure, but these are spread across several income streams, improving the long-term return on investment.

Adults 18 and over: Positive high

Adult farmers, regardless of education level or farm size, gain timely and relevant agronomic advice. This helps smallholder men and women in both rural and peri-urban areas increase productivity, improve income stability, and reduce vulnerability to seasonal shocks.

Others: Positive high

Farmers in geographically isolated areas gain timely agronomic guidance without needing to travel to extension offices. This reduces information gaps between rural and urban farmers and strengthens local food production systems. The platform can be adapted to provide information in simple language or local languages, and through formats that reduce dependence on high literacy, ensuring inclusion of users who may otherwise be excluded from written technical materials.

The poor: Positive high

Farmers with limited financial capacity benefit from low-cost, accessible advisory services that optimize input use, reduce production risks, and improve return on investment. The impact is particularly significant in remote areas where access to formal extension or markets is limited.

Under 18: Positive high

Children and youth benefit indirectly when their households adopt improved farming practices. Better yields and income improve access to nutritious food, school attendance, and educational performance. The effect is strongest for rural youth from low-income households where farming is the primary livelihood.

Women: Positive high

Women farmers—often managing smaller plots or engaging in home gardens—gain equal access to quality agricultural information. The technology addresses barriers such as limited mobility, lower access to extension services, and fewer financial resources, enabling women to improve yields, income, and household food security.

Climate adaptability: Highly adaptable

The platform provides climate-smart recommendations tailored to local agroecological zones, benefiting farmers in diverse settings—from drought-prone rural areas to high-rainfall zones—regardless of farm size or resource level.

Farmer climate change readiness: Significant improvement

Advisory services improve readiness for climate shocks by offering location-specific, seasonal guidance. The benefits are greatest for smallholders in vulnerable regions with limited access to formal climate information systems.

Biodiversity: Positive impact on biodiversity

Promotes diversified cropping systems and integrated pest management. The impact is stronger in mixed-farming households where biodiversity also supports nutrition and resilience.

Environmental health: Greatly improves environmental health

Promotes safe and efficient input use, reducing chemical runoff and soil degradation. This benefits farmers in both high-density peri-urban zones (reducing water contamination) and rural catchment areas.

Soil quality: Improves soil health and fertility

Encourages organic matter restoration, crop rotation, and reduced tillage. These practices are especially impactful for small-scale farmers on degraded soils with limited access to synthetic fertilizers.

Water use: Much less water used

Disseminates water-saving irrigation and moisture-retention practices. The benefits are particularly significant for farmers in water-scarce zones and for women who often bear responsibility for water collection and management.

Scaling Readiness describes how complete a technology's development is and its ability to be scaled. It produces a score that measures a technology's readiness along two axes: the level of maturity of the idea itself, and the level to which the technology has been used so far.

Each axis goes from 0 to 9 where 9 is the “ready-to-scale” status. For each technology profile in the e-catalogs we have documented the scaling readiness status from evidence given by the technology providers. The e-catalogs only showcase technologies for which the scaling readiness score is at least 8 for maturity of the idea and 7 for the level of use.

The graph below represents visually the scaling readiness status for this technology, you can see the label of each level by hovering your mouse cursor on the number.

Scaling readiness score of this technology

Maturity of the idea 9 out of 9

Uncontrolled environment: validated

Level of use 8 out of 9

Used by some intended users, in the real world

Maturity of the idea										Level of use
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Cost of the investment Sum of all fixed and operational expenses..	USD 8,830 per year per organisation
Gross revenue Sum of all income before subtracting costs.	USD 21,383 per year per organisation
Net income Gross revenue minus total cost.	USD 12,553 per year per organisation
Return on investment Percentage of income earned for each dollar invested, calculated as: (income ÷ cost of investment) × 100	242 % per year per organisation

References:

Temmplate_Cost, Revenue and ROI calculation for TAAT technologies_choice-sheet_LOCKED.pdf (PDF, 62.1 KB)

Countries with a green colour: Tested & adopted
Countries with a bright green colour: Adopted
Countries with a yellow colour: Tested
Countries with a blue colour: Testing ongoing

Countries where the technology is being tested or has been tested and adopted
Country	Testing ongoing	Tested	Adopted
Kenya	–No ongoing testing	–Not tested	Adopted
Tanzania	–No ongoing testing	–Not tested	Adopted
Uganda	–No ongoing testing	–Not tested	Adopted

This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones. Any zones shown in white are not suitable for this technology.

Agro-ecological zones where this technology can be used
AEZ	Subtropic - warm	Subtropic - cool	Tropic - warm	Tropic - cool
Arid
Semiarid
Subhumid
Humid

Source: HarvestChoice/IFPRI 2009

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are applicable to this technology.

Goal 1: no poverty

Increases farm profitability through better yields and reduced input waste, raising household incomes for smallholder farmers.

Goal 2: zero hunger

Improves food availability and stability by enabling farmers to produce more and better-quality crops.

Goal 3: good health and well-being

Promotes the production of diverse, nutritious foods and reduces harmful chemical exposure through safe input-use recommendations.

Goal 5: gender equality

Ensures women farmers have equal access to agronomic knowledge, improving their decision-making power and income potential.

Goal 8: decent work and economic growth

Strengthens rural economies by increasing agricultural productivity and creating opportunities for value chain engagement.

Goal 12: responsible production and consumption

Encourages resource-efficient farming practices, reducing waste and improving input-use efficiency.

Goal 13: climate action

Disseminates climate-smart agricultural practices that improve resilience to climate variability and reduce vulnerability to extreme events.

Goal 15: life on land

Promotes biodiversity-friendly practices, soil conservation, and sustainable land management.

1. Acquire the Technology (License and Setup)

Organizations contact FarmBetter Ltd. to purchase a SaaS license tailored to the number of farmers or agents they plan to support (e.g., cooperatives, NGOs, governments). The setup includes negotiation for language customization and content localization.

2. Customize and Localize the Platform

The system is configured using over 1,700 peer-reviewed sustainable agriculture practices from databases like WOCAT. Content is translated and adapted to local languages, crops, soils, and climate zones.

3. Train Trainers and Field Agents

A Training‑of‑Trainers session is conducted where master trainers, extension agents, or cooperative staff are taught to use the mobile app and WhatsApp chatbot, and register farmers. Trained agents then roll out training to local staff.

4. Onboard Farmers via WhatsApp

Farmers either self-register or are registered by agents via WhatsApp. The chatbot prompts a short survey on farm location, crops, goals, and challenges, then delivers customized advice tailored to the farm situation.

5. Use the Extension Agent App in the Field

Agents use the farmbetter Android app to manage farmer profiles, track adoption of recommended practices, plan follow-ups, and sync data when internet is available—also works offline.

6. Monitor Performance via Dashboard

Project managers and organizations access a web-based dashboard to track farmer engagement, practice adoption, agent activity, and inclusion metrics such as gender or age. This supports data-driven decision-making and M&E reporting.

7. Iterate Based on Feedback and Scale Up

Implementation partners review dashboard data and farmer feedback to refine content, adapt language or delivery mode, and expand reach. Advanced features like AI-based chatbot automation are gradually introduced.

8. Maintain and Sustain the System

License renewals and refresher training ensure continuity. Updated practices and features (including offline support and voice messages) are pushed periodically to all users to maintain relevance.