March 2021 agricultural “platforms” in a digital era

shape markets and the critical role 
of governance in managing possible 
downside risks:
The slower emergence of Digital Platforms in 
agriculture can be seen as a significant op-
portunity. With over two decades of learning 
from other sectors to draw from, and a more 
nuanced understanding of how Platforms can 
transform markets with positive and negative 
effects for different users, we are in a position 
to more fully consider the longer term. With 
the typical impact horizon of many donors, 
investors, governments, and providers being 
two to four years, we encourage the sector 
to learn from the experience of developed 
markets, where complex negative impacts and 
governance issues surrounding Platforms are 
now being rigorously debated. 
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ANNEX: PROFILES OF THE TYPES 
OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT AND 
SERVICE MARKETPLACES
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Profiles are not included for transport and logistics marketplaces and insurance marketplaces. The former are not included as we identified 
only sector-agnostic logistics providers catering to agriculture sector clients alongside clients in other sectors. As there are many more such 
sector-agnostic transport and logistics marketplaces globally that we did not profile, we did not create an overview of this type of Platform.
We identified only one agriculture-specific insurance marketplace, too small a sample size to create a profile reflecting an entire category 
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Source: ISF Advisors and RAF Learning Lab analysis
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* One Platform is active in both Africa and Asia and is therefore double-counted
Source: ISF Advisors and RAF Learning Lab analysis