Description

Maano aims to connect millions of rural Zambian smallholderfarmerswith new buyers of their produce. Maano will do this by: •Makinginformation on farmers’ supply and buyers’ demand, identityandlocation visible to everyone through a smartphone application•Facilitating farmer-buyer discussions and price negotiation•Facilitating the sale of farmers’ produce through an escrowpaymentsystem where WFP acts as the guarantor between farmers andbuyersHow it works? Maano is essentially a combination of strippeddownversions of Ebay, Uber and WhatsApp adapted to the needs ofruralZambia farmers and buyers of their produce. Like Ebay, thefarmercan advertise the produce they have to sell on a dashboardthatbuyers can view. Buyers bid on this produce and the highestbiddermakes payment at the end of the bidding period. Like Uber,Maanouses an escrow payment system: payment does not go directlyfromthe buyer to the farmer. It goes first to the owner of thesystem(in this case WFP), and is held by WFP until the exchange ofgoodstakes place. Then WFP releases the payment to the farmer.LikeWhatsApp, farmers are placed in chat groups with other farmersfromtheir locality and with other farmers growing the same crops.Thishelps farmers share knowledge (market price information,transportcosts, tips on how to grow their crops, etc.) and iscriticallyimportant to help farmers organise the bulking of theirproduce sothat they can attract bigger buyers. When and where isithappening? Now in Zambia. There is only one rainy season inZambia,therefore only one harvest, and therefore only one marketingseasonwhen farmers can sell their produce: between April andOctober. In2017, Maano aims to work with 50 smallholder farmercommunities infour districts in southern and central Zambia. Whatdoes ‘Maano’mean? ‘Maano’ was the name given to the project by thefirst groupof participant farmers. Maano means ‘intelligent’ in thefarmers’local language, Tonga, which is widely spoken in Zambia.Farmersexplained their choice, saying that “the success of thisprojectdepends on farmers’ using their head” and because “the ideabehindthis project and the technology it uses are clever – we areusing‘smart’ phones!” Also noteworthy is that the word ‘Maano’ mayhaveancient origins. ‘Manu’ is a Sanskrit word, which means"thinking,wise."