Unlocking the Potential of the Agricultural Sector in Nepal

80% of the population in Nepal reside in rural areas and their main source of income is farming. The agriculture sector provides job opportunities to more than 72% of the population. Despite available resources such as land and basic fertilizers and seeds, farmers are not able to reach optimum levels of production. Various research have shown that lack of information and inability to harness technologies are two of the main reasons why the agriculture sector has witnessed a decline of 1.9% in terms of productivity over the past decade in Nepal.

Mobile Krishi is a concept that was born after an extensive market research carried out by IME’s technology company- SWIFT and UNCDF. The research helped identify basic problems that farmers face daily such as:

• Lack of information: Financial knowledge, support system, new farming methods.
• Farming operations: Access to inputs, managing disaster recovery, timely and accurate weather forecasts.
• Production and sales: Access to a fair market place, knowledge about pricing mechanisms.

With technical support from UNCDF, the Swift team developed a mobile app- Mobile Krishi. This app, built on the mobile money app- IME Pay, allows farmers to access a mobile wallet along with other services such as a virtual marketplace with financial services (credit, savings, and insurance) from multiple providers as well as a platform to purchase agricultural input.

The Mobile Krishi factsheet provides an introduction to the project with the proposed solutions to the challenges in the market and the expected results.