See CommCare in Action
Watch as our team takes you through the design of a basic app in CommCare
MOBILE DATA COLLECTION
Agricultural Logistics Programs
Modern supply chain tools require heavy investments in training, computer infrastructure, and communications which developing countries may not be able to afford with closed-source or custom development solutions.
Inefficient power supplies, poor internet penetration rates, and high capital costs mean that most systems used in developed countries are not transposable to low-resource settings, often leading to stock-outs of important agricultural inputs. The right mobile tool can serve as a low cost, robust platform capable of alleviating issues related to logistics, distribution, and management of food systems.
CommCare, which has been deployed nationally in several countries as a last-mile value-chain system for reducing stock-outs of health supplies, can also be used to manage input distribution, the cold chain of perishable goods, and warehouse receipt systems at a lower cost than complex custom-built systems.
Learn how CommCare can help your agricultural logistics program
Benefits of Mobile Data Collection in Agricultural Logistics Programs
Multimedia capabilities allow supervisors to include photos of produce being stocked, improving the effectiveness of quality control efforts.
Open solutions allow for greater flexibility in potential value-chain logistics.
Offline capabilities allow the application to be used in even the most rural, underserved communities.
Decision support and checklists increase adherence to protocols, improving extension agents’ performance and efficiency.
Complex geo-referencing data-types are reduced to intuitive, localized stock ledgers to reduce training requirements.
Case management capabilities allow stock supervisors to quickly enter product quantities and suppliers for follow-up and re-stocking.
Featured CommCare-Based Agricultural Logistics Projects
Smallholder Alliance for Sorghum
Haiti
SMASH Mobile is a mobile-based reporting system designed to strengthen the sorghum supply chain in Haiti.
World Food Program
Zambia
The World Food Program uses CommCare to track the usage of oil and grain at schools to determine their resupply needs.
Smallholder Alliance for Sorghum
Haiti
In 2016, Dimagi helped launch SMASH Mobil, an integrated mobile technology and reporting system designed to strengthen the sorghum supply chain in Haiti. The SMASH Mobil system helps actors across the value chain use data capture and analytics to effectively manage agricultural extension and logistics activities, including crop monitoring, yield projections, purchasing, transport, conditioning, and inventory management.
World Food Program
Zambia
Dimagi has been running several trials of food distribution programs for rural schools in Zambia. CommCare has been deployed to link schools to grain and cooking oil silos. Teachers send an SMS stating their attendance levels over a period, as well as on-hand levels of cooking oils and grain. CommCare is able to calculate consumption rates based on this data, alerting silo managers to when particular schools will require a resupply and at what levels. The instantaneous nature of data processing ensures neither wastage nor under-supply of commodities for nearly 5,000 children in 88 schools that rely on this program for food.
The Latest on Mobile Data Collection for Agriculture
Updates and advice from our world-class partners and Global Services team:
What’s Ahead for Mobile Data Collection in Agriculture?
A Q&A with Research Coordinator Jack Hetherington (ACIAR) on his advice for mobile data collection in ag programs.
How to Unlock the Power of Feedback
Oikoi (formerly AgImpact) shares their advice on how providing immediate feedback to beneficiaries can improve a variety of outcomes for the entire program.
Digitizing Coffee Agronomy Training & Monitoring
Global Technology Manager Kevin Zeigler discusses how three of Technoserve’s initiatives adopted mobile data collection platforms to train farmers in East Africa.
Learn more about CommCare
Learn how the world’s most powerful mobile data collection platform can help your program
More than 2000 projects across 80 countries rely on CommCare for their mobile data collection and reporting needs.
“We are ready to design
applications that are everything
from simple and straightforward to
those with challenging and unique
designs and use cases.”
- Ted Barlow, President
“CommCare gave us the ability to
control the experience of our fieldbased
data collectors, which
drastically reduced human error.”
- Bhawna Mangla, Senior Research Associate
“Thank you for helping us to
gather data, refine programming,
and spread the message about our
impact in fighting global climate
change and extreme poverty.”
- Sarah Baird, Executive Director