Farmer Empowerment through Contactless Cards (FECCards)

Enhancing social inclusion for rural farmers through secure digital identity systems

Farmerline is a Ghanaian software company that aims to transform millions of farmers into successful entrepreneurs through market-driven solutions. As a social enterprise, Farmerline deploys mobile and web technologies that increase access to vital resources and information.

Farmerline creates a digital identity for farmers by attaching a unique QR code to pre-printed contactless ID cards that are assigned to a farmer upon registration. Before farmers are registered, they are sensitised on the benefits of having their bio-data and farm details taken. Farmers who are comfortable enough to provide the necessary details give their consent for their details to be recorded. The information gathered helps to serve farmers better as it informs Farmerlines decisions in introducing tailored solutions to the farmers.  The farmers’ information is only accessible when the QR code is scanned using an in-house farmer database application. This application is only available within Farmerline; giving us exclusive rights to housing farmer details. Scanning with a random QR code reading software only reveals the farmer’s unique ID number. The innovation seeks to work with relevant service providers and stakeholders to recognise these ID cards as valid to help farmers benefit from certain formal services (especially in the banking and insurance industries) that they may not enjoy by virtue of their financial status. With the individual cards and a secure database, the farmers’ privacy is protected as they have  absolute control over who can access their data.

Farmerline’s digital identity for farmers can be classified as a new application of a technology as it narrows down on providing a credible and accountable farmer registry to boost their social inclusion. Information stored include farmer biodata and transaction history on input purchases and promptness in paying back input loans advanced by Farmerline. This helps build a history of credit worthiness for the farmer. Collaborating with players in the formal banking sector, this innovation would provide an alternative to farmers in the traditional ways of accessing banking services.

User-centric Design:

First, the farmer is given detailed  information about our service and how we will use their personal information. This allows them  to make informed decisions on whether to share information with that us or not. This includes understanding of the data to be shared, clarity about how long data will be kept and information with whom it will be shared (and for what purpose).

Minimum collection and transmission of personal data:

To mitigate potential misuse of retained data, our system requests the minimum number of data items at the minimum level of detail needed to provide our service.

Confidentiality of personal data:

Confidentiality of farmers’ data both in transport and in storage is ensured. In transport, confidentiality is maintained by using the trusted ‘https’ transport protocol and in storage, farmer data are highly encrypted to prevent inadvertent or malicious loss or access.

Access Control:

Access to farmer information is access controlled. This means, for example, an aggregator may not have access to the same data as an agent of Farmerline. Third party access to the farmer’s data will be on an aggregated form to ensure the protection of individual farmers and misuse of their personal information.

Our solution can be incorporated into digital identification systems through secured APIs. Our digital identity for farmers offers flexibility as it can be adapted to suit various industries and use cases.

Our solution makes the process of generating a digital identity for farmers as seamless or as easy as possible.  A serial code is generated which is then embedded into a QR Code. When a field agent goes to register a farmer, he or she would only need to scan the code to create a digital identity for the farmer as well as issue the contactless card to the farmer.

Our changes maintain compatibility and stability except when a functionality is fully removed, in which case, violating compatibility is inevitable. However, the removal of such functionality follows standard deprecation procedures. Every change that results in a new version of our system is tested across other versions to maintain compatibility and consequently interoperability.

Interoperability for farmer digital identity comes in the forms of internal and external system interfaces. Unlike external systems, we can easily control internal systems. To control  external interfaces, we must be involved in testing, control and configuration management of those interfaces to the greatest extent possible.

When a card is assigned to a farmer, the data is stored offline when in environments with low connectivity. When an agent is in an area with internet access, the data can now be synced to our platform.

The farmers’ only contact with our system is when he or she is issued with the card which contains their digital identity and educated on its benefits. This in turns ensures that individuals even with low literacy can have access to a digital identity.

Thus, they can then use their card when purchasing agricultural inputs and products from Farmerline Agents.  

By the end of 2019 alone, we expect to have 50,000 farmers successfully registered onto our database. This number is expected to grow exponentially in the next three to five years as the company’s staff strength increases. We envision that the IDs received after profiling can help farmers access financial services and benefit from support services that can  to improve their yield. Also, as the Ghanaian government leans towards providing digital identities to all citizens to inform policies, we believe Farmerline would become an essential partner in providing useful information.

So far, the implementation of Farmerline’s digital identification system has been carried out solely with Farmerline resources and expertise; without the help of other organisations. However, there are currently discussions with financial institutions to partner in the future.

In working with farmers over the past 6 years, we have learnt that farmers value personal relations and not just the solutions we are working to make available to them. Thus,  it is important not to lose sight of this as partnerships and grants are sought to deliver sustainable solutions to farmers. Our Farmer Services Team works to maintain these relationships while developing new products and services to cater to their needs. Our Corporate Services Team on the other hand collaborates with major stakeholders in government and the private sector to secure an enabling environment to make our innovations thrive.

As we pilot our innovation, the farmers who get a digital ID benefit from discounts on inputs sold by Farmerline agents and input loans advanced by us. Thus, the revenue stream for now  is from sales on inputs. In the future, as further iterations take place, we plan to develop sustainable revenue streams through active partnerships. For now, our innovation is more focused on impact rather than revenue.

Participating in the Mission Billion Challenge serves as an opportunity to further test the viability of our solution as we seek to  scale our innovation to other locations and value chains. Also, our participation would go a long way to provide a high level of credibility when seeking partners to collaborate with.

Possible challenge 1:Adoption/acceptance of system by service providing institutions.

Possible solution: Farmerline would closely with such institutions as partners. Currently, the team is working to establish partnerships with strategic government and private sector players to ensure the successful adoption of our innovation.

Possible challenge 2: Access to some useful data which may not be readily available to Farmerline; particularly, Mobile money transaction which have to be procured from Mobile Network Operators.

Possible solution: Make use of existing relationship with mobile telecommunication giants in Ghana to make this information available while protecting the farmers’ data privacy.