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Session Speakers
Session Description
Digitising agriculture services offers a significant opportunity to enhance smallholder farmers' access to essential tools that boost productivity and improve livelihoods. However, this potential remains largely untapped, with only around 10% of smallholder farmers in the Global South currently using digital agriculture services. Key challenges faced by providers of such services include finding the right product-market fit and optimising user experience, particularly in the context of limited digital literacy and affordability among smallholder farmers. When digital agriculture services are developed in isolation from the farmers they're intended to serve, instead of being the product of collaborative, on-the-ground engagement, they struggle to take off.
To unlock the full potential of digital agriculture and ensure meaningful impact, there is an increasing need to better understand the needs and behaviours of target users, which is essential for designing inclusive services for all farmers. This session will draw upon examples from GSMA AgriTech’s ten years’ experience in helping digital agriculture providers integrate UX research and product design methodologies into their workflows to enhance services based on user needs. It will expose the gap between agritech companies’ understanding of farmer needs and the real needs directly expressed by the farmers. Additionally, it will examine the critical role of Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) to track usage trends and behaviours, aiding in the scaling and impact of digital solutions for smallholder farmers and value chain actors.