Harnessing Agriculture Data for Access to Finance

The digitalization of agricultural value chains in Uganda over the past seven years has shown promise for enabling data-driven financing for farmers and other actors. However, despite investments by AgriTech companies and development partners in data collection and platform development, the lack of a coordinated approach has delayed scalability and sustainability. AgriTech platforms largely operate in isolation, leading to high costs and limited value due to fragmented data. This model has resulted in inefficiencies and reduced benefits for smallholder farmers. Could the establishment of an aggregated database offer a solution to enhance access to innovative financial services for smallholder farmers by leveraging their data?

This study was commissioned to evaluate the feasibility of creating an aggregated database for agricultural data. The objective of the study is to explore how to facilitate data-driven financing by consolidating fragmented farmer data into a centralized platform.