A group of Peace Corps Ghana Volunteers (PCV) and staff, known as the “Tech Think Tank” (T3), along with local farmers and IT specialists came together to brainstorm ways to improve local cashew farming practices. A Cashew Farming Hackathon was inspired by common challenges observed by PCVs working with small-scale cashew farmers in ‘last mile’ communities. Cashew farmers lack an easy-to-use tool to manage important farming data such as farm inputs, input costs, total sales, acreage, and numbers of trees. Additionally, cashew farmers, who tend to work independently, often don’t have information about sales opportunities or receive low prices for their product while buyers often have little or no information about the farmers’ production.  The Hackathon addressed these and other related challenges to assist farmers and buyers to improve the cashew supply chain.

The Hackathon took place at the University of Ghana between August 2^nd and 5^th, 2018 and involved 80 local software engineers/developers, GIS specialists, cashew farmers, cashew business owners, and other stakeholders as well as members of Peace Corps Ghana’s T3. The goal was for participants to examine nine self-identified problem statements. Problems identified included: inadequate cashew production metrics, lack of access to training in growing practice, and a lack of competitive marketing opportunities. Multidisciplinary teams of eight – four farmers, two PCVs, and two programmers were asked to analyze problems and, over a three-day period, develop and propose an array of digital, cloud-based solutions that would address at least two of the problems.

Participants were initially trained in a design process to prepare them to use solution-oriented thinking. Then, teams were tasked to look at how to create a system to track and monitor the cashew supply chain and to report production-related analytics. Next, teams looked into the use of spatial GIS and mapping of cashew farms to evaluate the suitability of certain locations for specific purposes, to estimate and predict production outcomes, to interpret and understand changes in production variables, and to detect important patterns in a cashew field. Finally, teams were asked to develop an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) function to enable farmers to receive real-time SMS updates tracking changes in the cashew production process that affect prices.

Solutions proposed by the teams included interactive smartphone applications, online platforms, and “yam” phone directory-based programs. Each solution was presented to and judged by a panel of industry stakeholders, including representatives from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), wholesale RCN buyers, industry researchers, related NGOs, and commercial nurseries. The winning solution was titled “Ton Tracker”, a software application designed to enable cashew farmers to collect and input accurate production-related data that can then, be easily accessed by interested buyers.  Ton Tracker employs USSD, Web and Android platforms to provide an enhanced level of transparency and communication that allows both farmers and aggregators to benefit from greater forecasting possibilities and insertion into the buying and selling process. 

As a direct result of the problem analysis, design training and solutions-oriented thinking practiced from day one, participating farmers increased their capacity to improve their cashew farming practices. One participating farmer noted that, “If the farmers and buyers can use these programs to work together, we will have more money for our house and for our children and we will get more benefit from our farm production.” All participants gained an appreciation for the potential of digital solutions to identified challenges. An unexpected outcome was that several of the programmers and developers that participated in the event were offered jobs by Hackathon sponsors.

Peace Corps Ghana Cashew Farming Hackathon YouTube video: