March 2021 agricultural “platforms” in a digital era

4. How will the marketplace define its 
customer engagement model?
Multiple dimensions can define a marketplace 
customer collaboration model, including the 
level of curation, the structure of the relationship 
between the marketplace operator and its users, 
and the extent of interaction between the operator 
and users when it comes to service delivery. 
Curation refers to the various practices a Platform 
operator may utilize to build trust and prevent 
bad behavior from users. Curated marketplaces 
may restrict who can join and/or what activities 
users can undertake, impose user authentication, 
and/or closely monitor user activity to avoid 
illegal or inappropriate behavior. With trust 
being one of the key barriers to adoption of 
digital solutions, most of the agricultural product 
marketplaces currently in operation involve some 
level of curation. For example, marketplaces 
facilitating logistics or aggregation tend to limit 
sign-ups to certain locations (e.g., TaniHub in 
specific locations within Indonesia). More niche 
players (e.g., Bharat Agri or Cultivando Futuro) 
screen for certain characteristics, such as certified 
produce or minimum production volumes. 
Integrated services marketplaces tend to be highly 
selective, particularly on the providers’ side—for 
instance, EzyAgric vets suppliers before they can 
join the Platform. 
In addition, on either side—farmer, buyer, or 
product/service providers—the relationship 
between the operator and its users can be 
contracted or not. In a contracted model, the 
marketplace operator formally contracts with 
large institutional buyers and/or farmers to 
offtake and sell products and services at a given 
time and price, thereby incurring associated 
transaction risks such as price fluctuations. This is 
the case for TruTrade, which contracts with both 
farmers and buyers to broker the transaction, 
as well as for Izyshop, which collects produce 
from contracted farmers to ensure large enough 
trading volumes for buyers. In most agricultural 
marketplaces, however, the relationship between 
the marketplace operator and its users is non-
binding; the marketplace operator may market 
and advertise products and services, but users 
join and interact independently through the 
Platform. Marketplaces may choose this model if 
they are targeting bigger, more commercial farmers, 
or perhaps because they don’t want to incur the cost 
and risk of brokering produce or services. 
Beyond the structure of the relationship, 
marketplace operators must consider the level 
of interaction they want or need to have with 
their target customers. More than half of the 
agricultural marketplaces profiled in this report 
have physical infrastructure (e.g., a rural service 
center or warehouse) and/or employ field agents 
to support their engagement with farmers. 
In more than 70% of cases, these human and 
physical resources are owned/employed by the 
marketplace itself—though, in other cases, the 
18
Mercy Corps (2021). 60dB Impact Series: TruTrade. 
https://www.mercycorpsagrifin.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/60dB-TruTrade.pdf
. 
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operator relies on dedicated third parties for 
these assets. Field agents are most often deployed 
to provide on-the-ground support to Platform 
operations. For instance, agents may provide 
advisory services to farmers (e.g., Waycool, 
Emsika, Farmshine), collect data for the Platform 
(e.g., 8Villages, Mifugotrade, Aibono), and/or 
support farmers in accessing the Platform (e.g., 
Mlouma, Ninayo). Field agents may also provide 
support with farmer acquisition and onboarding 
(e.g., Agrocenta, Farmshine, Agrofy, Bloom) or 
logistics and fulfillment (e.g., TruTrade, DeHaat, 
AgriBuddy, KrishiHub).