The agricultural landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa is vast and diverse, with smallholder
farmers playing a crucial role in sustaining local economies. These farmers often face
significant challenges in accessing both digital infrastructure in off-grid rural areas and
international markets. A key barrier to exporting is the significant compliance requirements
which are difficult to meet using the pen-and-paper-based farm record-keeping methods
typically used.
Mount Longonot Vineyards is a new export-oriented exotic fruit farm based in Naivasha,
Kenya focused initially on the cultivation of purple passion fruit (Passiflora Edulis). Zach
Kolp, General Partner of Mount Longonot Vineyards, admits he did not expect to become a
farmer. Despite his father having been an soil scientist, he swore against agriculture and
instead spent his early career in venture capital and high-growth SME financing across
emerging markets. However, when the opportunity to take on some arable land came up he
was inspired to develop the farm as an exotic fruit producer, not only to sell to local markets
but also to help put Kenya back on the map as a top global exporter of passion fruit.
As he established Mount Longonot Vineyard he encountered two key problems:
- Quality Management Systems
How to set up quality management systems from scratch in a way which is
a. Compliant with international standards
b. Easy to implement by rural field staff
c. Accessible to track on the cloud. - Decision-Making Support
How can management access real-time data and provide this to global experts to:
a. Remotely track crop nutrition, pest and disease issues
b. Facilitate informed decision-making based upon issues raised
c. Monitor post-intervention productivity changes.
Upon discovering fieldmargin’s affordable, user-friendly and mobile solution which enables
the team at the Vineyard to plan, manage and monitor fields efficiently, it was a no-brainer
for Zach to get signed up. Having used features such as mapping, crop monitoring,
multi-user task management and task tracking, Zach assessed the platform’s scalability for
both the current site, as well as for multiple future sites as they seek to grow as a regional
aggregator of purple passion fruit across the Great Rift Valley. Within the first few months of
using fieldmargin, nearly all of the tools they required for the whole team to make informed
decisions and optimise sound agricultural practices have migrated to the app.
Quality Management
While the farm still uses pen and paper to collect on-site data, this is uploaded to fieldmargin
for safe-keeping and expedited analysis. Everything from rain gauge readings, hygrometer
readings, irrigation records, store inventories and harvesting records are stored as separate
Monitoring Sites.
When deciding whether or not to start an new irrigation programme, the farm’s
decision-making process has been expedited 10-fold. The team can now compare graphs of
historic rainfall data and daily moisture level readings in each block within fields to assess
water shortfalls and prepare a new irrigation regime.
Data collection and analysis is also exported and sent directly to GlobalGAP auditors.
Each member of the scouting team is responsible for their own block of vines, the issues
they record can be easily interpreted to see whether pest and disease thresholds have been
crossed. Inventories of fertilisers, tools and pesticides are uploaded daily and are exported
to track their historic use. Harvesting records are digitally captured per block to ensure
traceability measures of produce.
The application of stringent quality measures doesn’t stop there, all crop inputs including
fertilisers, planting records, spray regimens and pesticide applications are recorded as Field
Jobs, where the operator, date, time, block and weather conditions are documented.
Introducing this level of discipline per entry has enabled Mount Longonot Vineyards to be
GAP-compliant within a year of breaking ground!
Decision-Making Support
Key pests, diseases and nutrient deficiencies which the scout team look out for on a regular
basis have been set up as feature types, for example “Thrips”; “Blight”; “Wilt”. Any vine which
presents with any of these problems is mapped as a feature under that type using the
scout’s smartphone GPS and labelled by block, row and plant number. A note is then
attached to each of these, and a photo showing the extent of the issue. The fact that
fieldmargin works offline is essential for the scouts so they can record observations in the
field which are then synced when they’re able to reconnect to the internet at the end of each
day.
Following the scouting team’s hard work, an IPM specialist reviews any hotspot areas
remotely on a weekly basis and assess any underlying details to suggest control methods for
the team to implement. As the team and management are relatively new to the crop, being
able to remotely consult IPM specialists and exotic fruit agronomists to the platform proved
to be a game-changer for Zach. Specialists from around the world have been able to access
Mount Longonot Vineyard’s farm without having to travel to the site, further reducing the cost
of production.
Advisors can also request follow-up information from the scouts who discovered the
problem. The scouts receive notifications from the specialists in their Activity list in fieldmargin, and are then able to remotely find and follow-up with any requested items, such
as further photos showing the extent of the issue.
The fieldmargin app is also used in the training of scouts joining the team at Mount Longonot
Vineyards – Zach has set up a feature type called ‘Reference Library’ and includes examples
of common pests, diseases and nutrient deficiencies which are common in purple passion
fruit crops. This reference library can be accessed by scouting staff, new and old, even
without an internet connection. It is this collaborative approach that streamlines the
communication between on-the-ground personnel, agronomy specialists and Zach himself,
regardless of location, to optimise full productivity on the vineyard.
All of the scouts at the vineyard have been kitted out with a smartphone retailing for less
than $35.00 which costs a further $3.30 per device in data costs each month. This cost
covers the data needed for the scouts to sync their data at the end of each day.
The outputs of the initial pilot have seen the following effects:
● Crop losses have been minimised due to a robust IPM system, enabling remote
real-time access to global experts
● Sale cycles have decreased as management is able to focus more on demand
issues than supply problems through automated in-house operational workflows
● Consulting costs have decreased as travel stipends for agronomists have been cut
completely
● The onboarding process for new field scouts has been reduced to 2-3 weeks and has
been received as “very user-friendly”. Staff also have access to experts at their
fingertips which has minimised on-site frustrations and improved the overall culture of
the farm
● QMS policies have been digitally streamlined, reducing hassle and headache,
making the first round of GAP audits much less exhausting for management. All
requested documents by auditors are only an export click away.
● Data-driven decision-making is baked into company culture, further reducing human
error in a rural area of an underdeveloped region.
Mount Longonot Vineyards now seeks to broaden its use of fieldmargin as it moves into
aggregating from other farms. As the farm proceeds with its GAP Option 2 certification, all
incoming farmers to its pilot programme will now be trained to use fieldmargin in the way
Mount Longonot Vineyards does, and it will be a required tool. As such, the team are excited
to manage it’s upcoming cooperative and associated QMS requirements all under the same
platform, thereby digitising smallholder exotic fruit farmers across Kenya.
Is it time to ditch your paper records and go digital? Why not try fieldmargin to help you track field work progress and manage the workflow of your team. It’s free to sign up and use our mapping tools.