Building a Data-driven Cashew Sector

TechnoServe and the Government of Mozambique’s Institute for the Promotion of Cashew (INCAJU), jointly developed a mobile-based platform for on-farm data collection and real time analysis to help INCAJU improve the coverage and quality of its extension services for cashew farmers.

With a current registry of over 100,000 cashew farmers, this platform will help INCAJU to improve the coverage and quality of its extension services for cashew farmers, as well as to broadcast relevant and timely information to actors throughout the cashew sector. By improving INCAJU’s monitoring, analysis, and decision-making abilities, the ConnectCaju project is contributing to increased productivity and transparency across the sector. ConnectCaju’s platform connects different actors in the cashew production and commercialization in ways that enhance their abilities to make timely decisions and reduce costs. This, in turn, improves incentives for cashew farmers to invest in greater production, leading to improved economic growth. The ConnectCaju platform has several existing core functionalities:

• Farm and Farm Management: The Farm and Farm Management application enables the efficient and accurate capturing and analysis of farm-level information to help INCAJU and the farmer take timely action to improve production. Through the application, extension agents record important information such as farmer’s name, mobile phone number, number of cashew trees, and hectares of land. The application allows for geo-tagging of the farm location and perimeter. A web dashboard supports INCAJU managers to monitor the data in real time and to more efficiently produce reports that help their decision-making.
• Commercialization: The Commercialization application enables INCAJU to improve the transparency of raw and processed cashew purchases through more effective and timely monitoring during the commercialization season. The application can record and verify procurement in cashew producing communities and can track the source, volume and buying price of raw cashew.
• Seedling Tracker: The Seedling Tracking application monitors the allocation and distribution of seedlings from multiple sources with greater transparency. It also supports other users including research and development agencies interested in seedling survivorship rates. This helps INCAJU at different levels of the value chain to make allocation decisions and to inform farmers of the availability of seedlings linked to the profiles of those farmers in the database.
• Weather Forecasting: The Weather Forecasting application includes localized forecasts of rainfall, temperature, humidity, and wind provided directly to farmers by text message and/or to INCAJU extension agents. Local historical data on rainfall and agronomic expertise can be fully integrated into the application.