Tech start-up, CoAmana, recently organised Community Supported Agricultural Day (CSA Day) at Nairobi’s Karura Forest in a bid to bring together farmers and consumers who are interested in buying directly from farmers at affordable prices. The event featured farmers and produces from 16 farming clusters, including; Nakuru, Narok, Nyandarua, Nairobi, Kiambu, Muranga, Laikipia and Meru.
According to the founder and CEO of the company, Hafsah Jumare, the event is part of a movement to encourage the conscious consumer by linking them to farmers in their local communities. Worldwide, CSAs are systems based on mutual trust to give farming communities more sustainability while reconnecting people to their food sources.
“While solving some technical issues such as logistics and storage are part of our mode of operation, I see the market access problem as not only a technical issue but also a human behaviour one. The breakdown of trust has made us a cash-based economy,” said Jumare.
Over the years, Ms. Jumare, a behaviour economist, realised that trust between farmers and buyers and misinformation about local farming markets were some of the most significant barriers to trade in agriculture. She also runs a digital marketplace, Amana Market, which enables buyers to source produce directly from farmers and connect with other local businesses, cutting out the middleman.
“Farmers want to be paid on pickup, and buyers want to pay on delivery. Price and contracts also never hold, and terms could change from one community to the next or within an hour. Our goal is to deliver the technology needed for the buyers to connect with small businesses and farmers and to support the right human circumstances that enable such a connection to thrive,” she said.
