Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Engaging African rural farmers via mobile surveys

4 February 2015. GeoPoll, the world’s largest real-time mobile survey platform, is announcing a strategic partnership with Control Union, global leader in agricultural certifications, food safety, and sustainability, to link rural farmers across Africa to a global marketplace. This is in a bid to be able reach 1 million farmers via SMS and voice messaging by 2020.
“Control Union is excited to focus its expertise and better support smallholder farmers. GeoPoll’s team and platform provides us practical tools to connect with rural farming communities to educate, certify and link them to a global marketplace,” said Johan Maris, Managing Director, Control Union.
The partnership will initially focus on countries in Africa including Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda, expanding to key markets in Asia including Indonesia and the Philippines. With consumers demanding increased transparency, target value chains include coffee, cocoa, cotton, palm oil, rice, tea, tobacco, and fresh fruits and vegetables.

Together GeoPoll and Control Union will launch several mobile products aimed at non-profits, commercial organizations, exporters and suppliers, such as Certification Surveys - Mobile survey instruments which will monitor farmers’ compliance with programs such as Global GAP and Organic certifications; Value Chain Monitoring – Mobile survey instruments that will serve as a tool for sustainable value chain design and monitor social, economic and ecological impact; Compliance Messages – One-way push content messages promoting agricultural compliance, and Custom Surveys - Mobile survey instruments with customized questions and design, allowing clients to collect mobile data which will inform and enhance their operations in local markets.

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