Having worked with 300 rural women farmers in the Gambia since 2009, through the WIFE project, I realized, that the major challenges facing rural farmers is not just lack of farming implements or knowledge of farming techniques, but also access to markets for their produces. The lack of markets discourages farmers to work harder and produce more, because after all, their products will not sell, except by intermediaries (locally call bana bana) who exploits their desperate situation and poverty to buy less for their products and resell them in the city for better profits. 

This circle of exploitation demotivates many of these farmers, making some to resort to doing nothing and chose to remain poorer than, than toil in their garden only to see their products destroyed by extreme heat or sold out to the “bana banas” 

 To address these challenges, the WIFE project, with support from socialcoders.org is building a mobile app and website call Tesitoo (meaning co-working or supporting each other in Mandinka) that will connect these rural farmers to buyers in urban areas of the Gambia. 

This new technology will enable farmers to by-passing the intermediaries and sell directly to the final consumers thereby increasing their profit margin and also ensuring that consumers buy less for their products. It will also open up more market opportunities for these farmers and reduce marketing or selling cost. The “Tesitoo” will also give information on real-time market price for agricultural goods, pest management, disease control, timing for planting etc. 

 The “Tesitoo initiative will be tested in Dongoroba village, where the WIFE project already has structures in place. We hope extend it to at least 5 communities by the end of the year. 

In addition to building the app and the website, we also buyer 50 smartsphone that will be distributed to 5 villages (10 in each village), provide 50 solar powered chargers, 3G internet connections and trained at least 50 team leaders (10 in each community) on how to use the mobile app to advertise their products. Our team in Serekunda, will provide continuous technical support and coordination with the rural farmers.