 DRUMNET
An information exchange for rural entrepreneurs in East Africa
On a cool day in Kirinyaga district, in the shadow of Mount Kenya, Tony Kamuri
and Dawson Njagi walk from their office to visit the French Beans and Baby Corn farmers of this rich agricultural region. At a small, one-acre farm, they greet a woman who has been growing
both French Beans and Baby Corn for only two seasons. They ask about her progress, offer some technical advice, talk about the financial aspects of the business and, most importantly, they let her know that there is a buyer waiting for her crop in Nairobi.
Tony & Njagi are representatives of
DrumNet, a project of Pride Africa that offers support services to smallholder farmers who too often operate their businesses without access to information, financial services or markets. Launched in 2002, the DrumNet project has been designed to bridge
this gap using information technology, efficient business processes and economies of scale. The pilot phase is currently operating in Kirinyaga and
Meru, but it is envisaged that DrumNet will grow to become a broad network of
support centres for small-holder
agricultural producers throughout East Africa.
DrumNet provides (for a small fee) marketing and financial services for agricultural entrepreneurs. Although a number of initiatives to introduce microfinance services for this sector have emerged in the past decade, they have tended to neglect the
important functions of information and market linkages. Often, even if credit is available, farmers are unable to take full advantage of it because they lack key information or are unable to access the right market at the right time. These farmers are often
forced into unprofitable transactions with local brokers and traders who take advantage of their lack of market information. .
 The
DrumNet participants will include individual farmers (primarily through their local cooperative societies), along with agricultural input suppliers, wholesale buyers, transporters and agricultural extension/training organizations. In linking these
various network participants,
DrumNet will not be directly involved in commodity transactions nor provide direct financial services. Rather, it will act as a broker, taking care of many interactions between the farmers and corporate buyers, and building trust and confidence between
the parties.
DrumNet's support centres are simple, stand-alone facilities catering to clients who require financial, market and technical information in order to make more profitable transactions. Each
suport centre is equipped with a
computer with a dial-up connection to the Internet and a mobile phone (GSM) to link up with the central hub in Nairobi, which acts as the main server/database and provides an access centre for the storage and retrieval of information. Each
support centre is managed by
an Agent, usually a member of the local community, who collects and disseminates information, assists in forming farmer groups, and arranges buy and sell deals.
In the future, the
DrumNet team envisages that its support centres will be embedded into
existing banks, savings and credit societies, and agricultural associations, and
possibly even operated as independent franchises. The individual support centres have been designed to keep
start-up and operating costs low and allow the Agents to reach rural areas typically untouched by such services.
As members interact with the network,
DrumNet will also compile data related to the credit worthiness of individual clients - data that will be in great demand by financial institutions that have yet to tap into the market for microcredit and other financial products in this part of Africa.
By combining sophisticated information technology with an on-the-ground presence in rural communities,
DrumNet hopes to fill the current void in the provision of critical business information and financial services for small-scale agricultural producers in East Africa.
For further information about DrumNet, please click here
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