What Wajenzi grows into
Today the platform sends planting advice and runs a produce market with payments and transport, all by phone. This is what the same platform can carry next, if the project continues.
Walk through a seasonBuilt on what already runs
Every idea on this page reuses five things the platform already has. That is what makes them next steps, not wishes.
A phone line to every farmer
Voice calls, SMS and USSD in the farmer's language, on any basic phone.
Field agents in the villages
They register farms, grade produce and can carry a smartphone where farmers cannot.
Soil and weather for each farm
Sensor readings, forecasts, rainfall and evaporation, every day.
A market with payments
Buyers, pooled orders, mobile money payouts and transport, already running.
A ledger of every cedi
Each sale and payout is recorded, which is the start of a credit history.
One season with Wajenzi
From the dry months to the market, what a farmer in northern Ghana hears from Wajenzi, and which parts run today.
Mar–Apr: Planning the season
- Choose an early or late seed variety for this year's rainsIf the project continues
- Order seed and fertiliser with neighbours, paid from the harvestIf the project continues
- Agree a price with a buyer before plantingIf the project continues
May: Waiting for the rains
- Wait or plant: a voice call once the soil is wet enoughRunning today
- Sensors checked for faults before their readings shape adviceRunning today
- Soil water estimated from rain and evaporation for farms with no sensorReady to pilot
Jun: Planting
- Plant your maize now, in the farmer's languageRunning today
- Add fertiliser at the right timeRunning today
- How many grams per planting hole, for this farm's soilReady to pilot
Jul: Dry spells
- A dry week is coming: water and mulchRunning today
- How much water, and on which daysReady to pilot
- Fall armyworm reported nearby: check your fieldReady to pilot
Aug: Crop health
- The agent photographs a sick leaf; the farmer hears what to doReady to pilot
- Crop stress seen from satellite on farms with no sensorIf the project continues
Sep: Before harvest
- Expected harvest per farm and district, so buyers can planIf the project continues
- Insurance paid by mobile money if the plot's sensor recorded a droughtIf the project continues
Oct: Harvest
- List bags for sale by phone, in three screensRunning today
- How many bags did you harvest? Answered on the callRunning today
- Dry the grain before bagging: aflatoxin risk is high this weekIf the project continues
Nov: Selling
- A buyer's offer by voice call: press 1 to acceptRunning today
- A price far from today's price is checked by the agent before buyers see itRunning today
- A transporter books the pickup; the farmer is paid by mobile moneyRunning today
- Prices usually rise in three weeks: hold or sell?If the project continues
Dec–Feb: The dry season
- Store-room sensors warn before stored grain spoilsIf the project continues
- Drip kit or solar pump sized for dry-season vegetablesIf the project continues
- The season's sales become a record a lender can readIf the project continues
Crop health
Fall armyworm and maize streak spread before anyone reports them. Agents and satellites can see them first.
Disease and pest check from a photo
Ready to pilotA field agent photographs a sick leaf, an AI model suggests the likely problem, and an agronomist decides. The farmer hears what to do as a voice call in their language.
Outbreak warnings
Ready to pilotWhen armyworm, streak virus or blight is confirmed, every farm nearby growing a crop it attacks gets a voice alert to check their field.
Crop stress from satellite
If the project continuesSentinel-2 imagery per farm shows stress early and covers farms that have no sensor.
Water and irrigation
The sensors already know how dry each plot is, and the platform already collects daily evaporation.
Dry spell and watering alerts
Running todayA voice call when a dry week is coming or the soil is drying out.
Irrigation scheduling
Ready to pilotHow much water and on which days, worked out from soil moisture, evaporation, the soil and the crop's stage.
Irrigation system planning
If the project continuesA drip kit, a solar pump or a water-harvesting pond sized for one farm, with its cost and a loan repaid from harvest sales.
Before planting
The decision that sets the season is made in the dry months, with the least information.
Plant-or-wait advice
Running todayOne instruction per farm, sent when the soil is wet enough and the rains look set to continue.
Fertiliser micro-dosing per farm
Ready to pilotGrams per planting hole from the farm's own soil profile, sent at the moment the soil can take it.
Seed variety advice
If the project continuesAn early or a late variety, matched to this year's expected rains and the farm's soil.
Inputs ordered together
If the project continuesSeed and fertiliser ordered as a group at bulk prices, paid back from the next harvest.
Contract farming
If the project continuesA buyer commits to a price before planting, and farmers grow for that buyer.
Harvest and storage
Up to a fifth of the grain is lost after harvest in a bad year. Most of that happens in the store room.
The harvest question
Running today"How many bags did you harvest?" Asked by call when the season ends, it shows whether the advice worked.
Yield forecasts
If the project continuesExpected harvest per farm and district, so buyers plan ahead and prices hold.
Drying and storage advice
If the project continuesWhen the grain is dry enough to bag, and when aflatoxin risk is high.
Store-room sensors
If the project continuesThe same soil node, reading grain moisture and temperature, with a call before bags spoil.
Warehouse receipts
If the project continuesGraded grain in a warehouse becomes collateral, or is sold later when prices rise.
Learning from every call
Before there is a season of data to train a model on, the platform already learns from every call answered, offer accepted and bag sold.
Calls at the farmer's hour
Running todayAdvice calls go out at the hour each farmer usually picks up, learned from the calls they answered.
Offers to farms likely to say yes
Running todayBuyers' offers go first to nearby farms that usually accept, so orders fill faster.
Is the advice working?
Running todayFor every message, how many farmers acted on it, and whether farms that followed the advice harvested more.
Reliable buyers and transporters
Running todayEach buyer's and transporter's record, from payments and deliveries, helps decide who can pay on delivery.
Advice in Dagbani
Ready to pilotAI drafts each message in Dagbani; a native speaker corrects and approves every word before a farmer hears it.
Price outlook
If the project continuesEvery price is now kept. After a year, farmers can hear whether prices usually rise in the weeks ahead: hold or sell.
Credit and insurance
Every sale and payout on the platform is already recorded. That record is what lenders and insurers lack.
Credit from the farm record
If the project continuesSales, payouts and advice followed become a track record. Loans are repaid automatically from market payouts.
Index insurance with ground truth
If the project continuesPlot sensors catch the drought a satellite misses, and the payout arrives by mobile money.
Harvest savings
If the project continuesPart of each payout kept back for next season's seed and fertiliser.
Beyond the field
The same phone line, agents and data serve the rest of the farm and the district around it.
Traceability for exporters
If the project continuesEach bag traced to its farm, its grade and the advice that farm followed, for soy and shea buyers.
Climate-smart farming
If the project continuesConservation practices checked by sensor and satellite, so farmers can earn carbon payments.
Livestock reminders
If the project continuesVaccination dates and disease alerts by voice, for the animals most farms also keep.
Ask an expert by voice
If the project continuesThe farmer records a question and an agent calls back with the answer.
District dashboards
If the project continuesPlanting progress, pest reports and expected yields for agriculture offices and NGOs, anonymised.
What it would take
The advice stays rules an agronomist signs off, and the farmer owns the data. Four things decide the pace.
A season of data
Harvest records, sensor history and offer answers from the first pilot season.
Partners
Lenders and insurers, agro-dealers, district agriculture offices, exporters and a warehouse operator.
Hardware
More soil nodes, and a store-room version of the same node.
People
A Dagbani voice producer, and agronomists to sign off rules and label crop photos.
Lenders, insurers, agro-dealers, district offices and exporters: each idea here starts with one partner and one pilot.