Agricultural Monitoring

Agricultural production is highly fragmented in many developing countries, which makes timely intervention to improve yields, demonstrate adherence to quality standards or support product traceability quite difficult. Conventional farm-based software packages are not designed for this scale of production. Agro Monitor allows a range of agricultural indicators to be regularly monitored and reported on, while also providing support for conducting socioeconomic baselines, measuring crop sales, and analyzing skills upgrading. This innovative software package is currently in use by international development agencies, private sector agribusinesses, and MEDA itself in Peru.

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Project Highlight

Discovering new markets in Peru
Small-scale Peruvian coffee producers — although cultivating a high quality coffee product which is highly valued by importers in high value market — are finding it difficult to meet the increasingly high standards of the international market. Coffee cooperatives that once were able to easily access foreign customers are now struggling to meet new international quality, traceability and certification standards. Those that have previously qualified for certification on behalf of their members are finding it increasingly challenging to monitor and prove adherence by members to these standards. Some large cooperatives have recently lost their certification, thereby risking their access to global markets and the incomes of thousands of their members. In an innovative project with Oxfam Novib, MEDA has partnered with 5 coffee cooperatives to incorporate Agro Monitor as their monitoring tool. As a result of its use, member tracking and information access has improved. Several cooperatives have now regained their certification and their former markets.

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