About one million farmers in Africa will benefit from a global mobile survey platform that will give them access to data in emerging markets by way of SMS or voice recording, including market prices and standards requirements.

GeoPoll, the global mobile survey platform, has partnered with Control Union, a global leader in agricultural certification, food safety and sustainability to boost agricultural productivity in Africa.

“Accessing information from the most remote farming communities will no longer be a barrier when asking or answering consumer questions,” said Johan Maris, the managing director of Control Union.

For a start, the project will benefit countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Ghana, before expanding to key markets in Asia including Indonesia and the Philippines.

Target value chains include coffee, cocoa, cotton, palm oil, rice, tea, tobacco and fresh fruits and vegetables.

Farmers across Africa have remained poor due to lack of information on how to add value to their crops and where to sell their produce. Value addition tends to occur mainly outside of Africa.

In the Ugandan Nile perch trade, for example, nearly 70 per cent of the final sale value is added outside of Africa in the retail stages of the value chain. Of the 30 per cent value accrued in Africa, the largest portion is retained by foreign-owned processing plants based in Uganda.

This leaves only 10 per cent to be divided between factory agents, fishermen and the many middle-men along the value chain, a study by Nordic Africa Institute shows.

The lack of access to international markets has left farmers in the hands of brokers, local manufacturers and exporters who determine the farm gate price.

“Farmers can be assisted in meeting these challenges through extension services, training in good agricultural techniques and capacity development programmes,” said John Mutunga, chief executive of the Kenya National Farmers’ Federation. “They also need access to finances that will enable them to buy seeds, fertilisers and machinery.”

The mobile survey platform opens at a time when African countries are focusing on emerging markets as a destination for agricultural produce, given the strict standards required by European markets.

European Union governments have stepped up efforts to test fresh produce for the presence of pesticides such as dimethoate and other organophosphate chemicals blamed for the rise in cancer cases in Europe and Africa.

Last year, the EU market threatened to lock Kenya out of its market, claiming that horticultural produce from the country had pesticide residues above the recommended levels.