Digitising 12,000 smallholder contracts without leaving anyone behind
Illustrative case study · Client details and outcomes await verification. An offline-first platform brought transparency to a vast out-grower scheme — cutting leakage, speeding payments and forecasting yields.
What changed
The starting point
AgriGrow contracted thousands of smallholder farmers across districts with minimal connectivity. Paper registration meant ghost farmers and duplicated input loans; collections were disputed; payments took weeks; and buyers demanded yield forecasts nobody could produce.
What we built
HLM built an offline-first field platform: agents register farmers with GPS-verified plots and photo ID, issue input loans against digital records, and log collections with instant SMS confirmation to the farmer.
Deduplication removed ghost records; automated reconciliation matched loans against deliveries; and an AI yield model combining field records, weather and satellite data now gives buyers forecasts within ±8%.
How the rollout ran
Phased, transparent, and designed to earn trust at every gate.
Phase 1: Field app & registry
Agent app built offline-first; 12,000 farmers registered and geo-verified in one season.
Phase 2: Loans & collections
Input issuance and collection logging digitised with SMS confirmations and automated reconciliation.
Phase 3: Payments
Farmer payments automated via mobile money, cutting cycles from weeks to days.
Phase 4: Yield intelligence
Forecast models trained and validated across two seasons; buyer reporting automated.
Illustrative quotation · not a verified testimonial
“Farmers trust the SMS receipts, buyers trust the forecasts, and we finally trust our own numbers. That trust is worth more than the efficiency.”Operations Director
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