March 2021 agricultural “platforms” in a digital era

Putting it all together: product
and service marketplace profiles
The marketplace taxonomy presented above helps 
us get a deeper understanding of where, why, and 
how different types of marketplaces emerge as 
well as the implications for their business model 
and the markets in which they operate. Figure 
15 lays out a full profile for agricultural supplies 
marketplaces, with specific insights around the 
interaction facilitated, provider types, business 
models, and market level. Additional profiles for 
the other marketplace types can be found in
the Annex. 
47

---

Figure 15: Ag supplies marketplace profile
Source: ISF Advisors and RAF Learning Lab analysis
48

---

5. TRANSFORMING AGRICULTURAL MARKETS
Global experience makes it clear that Platforms 
have the potential to create, reshape, and 
democratize markets, as well as create significant 
value for a wide range of users. While it is still early 
days, the ability of Platforms to similarly transform 
smallholder agricultural markets—which are 
complex, volatile, and highly fragmented—is 
promising. These markets are characterized by a 
set of recurring challenges, many of them systemic 
in nature. Resolving these challenges will therefore 
require a systemic solution that reshapes the 
actors, relationships, norms, and incentives that 
drive market dynamics and outcomes.
In recent years, there has been a movement 
to design food systems to be more inclusive, 
sustainable, and commercially viable. While 
still emerging, this agenda could reimagine how 
agricultural markets operate. Platforms offer 
one possible approach for reorganizing these 
markets—we know from global experience that 
they can be efficient intermediaries, aggregating 
disorganized markets and introducing market-
mediating mechanisms that scale. Platforms also 
have the potential to intermediate within and 
between all layers of the agricultural market.