For co-operatives, extension officers, counties and warehouses.
Harvestly is designed to sit inside what you already run: tell a farmer how long a batch will keep, and send the farmer to you at the right moment. It is a prototype.
Partner with Harvestly (opens in a new tab)Or email harvestlyafrica@gmail.comHow it fits
01 What each gets
What each of you would get.
- Co-operatives and aggregators
- A planned list of members’ batches by risk and ward. A way to enter a meter reading on a farmer’s behalf. Dry grain at your door, because the farmer was told to dry it first.
- Extension officers
- A planned dashboard (built in Oracle APEX) of batches by risk and ward, messages sent, replies (the alert-to-action rate), data flags, and a directory of stockists and warehouses.
- County governments
- Agriculture is devolved. This would be extension advice delivered on the day it matters, at the cost of an SMS, and a ward-level record of farm-gate moisture and storage practice.
02 How it fits
As a module inside MoA-INFO or KAOP.
MoA-INFO, run by Precision Development, sends free SMS and Telegram crop advice ward by ward, in English and Kiswahili 14. KAOP, the Kenya Agricultural Observatory Platform, sends ward-level forecasts and agro-advisories 15. We found no per-batch storage monitoring in either, so Harvestly is designed to run inside them, not to compete for farmers’ attention.
The engine is one package. In: a ward, a batch (storage type, harvest date, language) and any readings the farmer sends. Out: a recommendation code and the message, in English or Kiswahili. Templates sit in a table keyed by code and language, so your wording can replace ours.
03 The farmer
What it costs the farmer.
The design is for alerts to be free to the farmer. A reply, such as SALT YES or METER 14.2, would be an ordinary SMS, charged at the sender’s network rate unless the short code is arranged otherwise; who pays for inbound SMS is not settled. Unprompted messages are at most one a day, at most two SMS, and STOP ends them. Only a meter, hygrometer or depot reading clears grain, which needs a visit to a co-operative or an NCPB depot.
04 Who might pay
Who might pay. Hypotheses, not agreements.
Nobody has agreed to anything. Each idea is untested.
- Counties, for advice that arrives at SMS cost.
- Warehouse-receipt operators, aggregators and millers, per tonne that passes intake. Dry grain means fewer rejections and lower drying costs.
- Hermetic-bag makers and distributors, for a stockist listing that is clearly labelled as one. A design rule: payment never changes the advice a farmer receives.
- Existing advisory services, licensing the engine as their post-harvest module.
Partner with Harvestly (opens in a new tab)Read the pilot plan