March 2021 agricultural “platforms” in a digital era

• Misjudging the balance between in-house vs. outsourced business functions
. Facilitating interactions between farmers 
and agribusinesses tends to involve a series of additional services. Figuring out which ones should be outsourced to lower 
costs and/or increase customer outreach is particularly important for agriculture, where cost may make the path to sustainabili-
ty especially challenging.
• Having to adapt to a constantly changing regulatory environment
. As agricultural Platforms become more 
powerful, increased regulation—around data management/privacy, digital payments, and know your customer (KYC) 
requirements—will emerge, forcing operators to adapt their business models accordingly. The rise of the mobile money 
and mobile wallets industry in sub-Saharan Africa offers important lessons in this regard. The operational complexity and 
funding implications of continuously having to adapt their operations to changing regulatory requirements meant many 
operators were simply left behind. Given the unique dynamics of Platforms, and their potential implications for market 
dynamics and outcomes (discussed in more detail in Section 5), the likelihood of new and evolving regulations is high.
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Based on Cusumano, Michael A.; Gawer, Annabelle; Yoffie, David B.. The Business of Platforms. Harper Business
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Source: MercyCorps Agrifin Accelerate (2021). Digital Agricultural Platforms Blueprint Series; Busara Data Analytics for DigiFarm (2020); ISF 
Advisors and RAF Learning Lab analysis
THE MARKET OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN: LESSONS FROM DIGIFARM
As with many other services, women face unique barriers to accessing and engaging with Digital 
Platforms. Women tend to have lower access to mobile phones, higher levels of digital illiteracy 
and distrust for new technologies. According to GSMA, women in low-income countries are 8% 
less likely than men to own a basic mobile phone. More importantly, they are 20% less likely to 
use mobile Internet services than men—meaning their access to an essential component of most 
Digital Platforms is limited. The gap is even more pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa and South 
Asia, where women are 37% and 51% less likely, respectively, to use mobile Internet services. A 
similar trend can be seen in mobile money usage. While there are important regional variations, women are overall 33% less 
likely than men to have a mobile money account, constraining their ability to transact through Digital Platforms. In addition, 
women tend to face important mobility barriers due to caregiving responsibilities and social norms.
For Platform operators, these barriers often make targeting and serving women customers an expensive and time-consuming 
endeavor. It requires heavy investments in targeted customer acquisition and engagement, often through trusted agents or lead 
farmers who can drive product awareness. Operators may also have to invest in infrastructure and logistics services to make up 
for women’s mobility constraints. With many Platforms tight on cash—not to mention focused on fast growth to trigger network 
effects—these investments are rarely a priority. Instead, marketplace operators may focus on the easiest-to-reach customers (often 
male farmers), further perpetuating gender gaps in digital access and usage, productivity, and income.
In the process, however, Platforms may be missing out on a wider market opportunity. Early evidence from DigiFarm— 
an integrated product and service marketplace with more than 1.4 million registered users in Kenya—suggests that, when ser-
vice delivery is adapted to fit their needs, women are as or even more likely than men to register for, and actively use, DigiFarm. 
When the Platform launched in 2017, customer acquisition focused primarily on registering farmers on market days in “market 
towns”. This allowed DigiFarm to scale quickly but with a predominantly male customer base. Recognizing the challenges 
women face in digital access, in 2019 DigiFarm partnered with a women’s cooperative, whose agents supported women farmers 
in signing up for and engaging with the Platform.