Agricompas

Agricultural Data Analytics: Knowledge and decision support

Management

The rice value chain: better knowledge, best decisions

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By Nicolás Gonzalez, Business Development Manager at Agricompas

The last few months have been challenging, but also revealing for EcoProMIS and our approach to entering the market. While working hard to develop a comprehensive platform for data analytics, we are doing extensive market research with each of the stakeholders involved in the value chain for rice and agriculture in general.

EcoProMIS is a platform that collects and processes data into analytics from many different sources, providing a complete overview of the production chain. Establishing a link with each of the actors involved in the chain is fundamental. For this reason, our business and product development team work side by side with these stakeholders with the purpose of creating services that generate value and become the source of the company’s revenue.

For the market analysis, which is comprised of the study of both its size and the possible services to offer, a series of interviews and validations have been conducted with each of the stakeholders.

The main stakeholders we are engaging are drawn from the rice milling sector, agri-insurance, credit, seed, machinery, fertilizer and agrochemical suppliers. All of these have a key role in rice production and for which intelligent information is relevant in the decision-making of their business, improving competitiveness and optimising their processes.

Access to information is the critical factor

One of the common factors that the Agricompas team found in the interviews conducted with each of the key actors mentioned above, is that information for them is considered as their guide in daily operations, in the prediction of supply and demand, and in the management of decision making with respect to their business strategy.

EcoProMIS provides real-time data analysis tools for the agri-finance sector

Today there is no platform like EcoProMIS and the different actors mentioned above could see clearly the business advantage it would lend them: the possibility of knowing and predicting the yield of farmers’ production, seeing and mitigating risks for the credits that most of them offer, and the management of inventories and supply and demand.

Thanks to this market feedback, we have been able to generate valuable information products, taking our access to satellite images, artificial intelligence, climate information and data provided by farmers themselves, to generate differentiation in the market and value for platform users, making agriculture in Colombia more competitive through better decisions in crop management.

Best services, better conditions for farmers

With the development of the EcoProMIS platform, after market validation and the approval of rice farmers, we are creating a conducive environment for the innovation and growth in the agricultural ecosystem in Colombia.

The information for each of the actors in the chain translates into better products and services for farmers, because with this understanding of production, they are able to better identify their needs and their ability to pay and manage risks, all of which in turn translates into a considerable improvement in the structuring and costing of products.

Technology and access to information are part of the new generation of agriculture that is evolving worldwide. We believe that EcoProMIS is the platform responsible for bringing it to the life of each of the farmers who are part of the project and to the door of each of the companies that are part of the production chain.

EcoProMIS provides users not only with information, but with a valuable tool for daily operations, decision-making, and the way in which users innovate new products and services.

Measuring the real impact of EcoProMIS

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Editor: In this article, the EcoProMIS Monitoring and Evaluation specialist explains how and why we are measuring the impact of our rice and oil palm project in Colombia. Written by Elizabeth Sweitzer, CIAT.

Often in the realm of research for development there is a tendency to focus on results. Indeed, this is the focus of results-based management (RBM), arguably the leading management methodology for international development. In an effort to uphold accountability and transparency (especially in the face of fiscal austerity), RBM defines clear results and products and demonstrates how interventions achieve those results.

But results are just the beginning. Results tell us what products and services the project provided. In order to tell the full story, we also need consider how these results generate and sustain impact. Impact on the other hand explains the changes in behavior we see as a result of those products and services, and how they contribute to holistic improvements for individuals, communities and landscapes.

Why measure impact?

Simply put: we want to tell the full story.

It’s one thing to report on the number of farmers that participated in EcoProMIS trainings – a result. When we measure or forecast impact, we explain how those farmers used those trainings to improve their productivity and livelihoods. We learn about how knowledge services shared on mobile applications help to improve on-farm management decisions. We can estimate how financial savings amongst farmers help improve gender equity, household nutrition, and education outcome.

And that’s where I come in. I’m Elizabeth Sweitzer, the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for EcoProMIS. Known by most as an “M&E Specialist”, my work revolves around assessing performance. I am based at CIAT in Cali, Colombia. I help EcoProMIS measure the progress of interventions, the efficacy of knowledge services we provide to farmers, and more to help tangibly understand results and impact.

My work also helps us understand the nature of results, for example were they positive or negative? Intended or unintended? What was learned in the process, what will we change moving forward? In doing so, I help to understand, forecast or even measure the impact of the project.

How do we measure impact?

During the project, we keep robust monitoring systems verified by a ‘logframe’ (logical framework) to test the attainment of our results. Process evaluations keep track of how we are doing, and provide opportunity to pivot course where needed. Learning questions are defined and keep us on our feet, helping us reflect. We also plan to be able to tell the “happily ever after”, by developing plans to measure the sustained impact of our interventions, how people change over time and what practices they truly adopt and make habit of.

EcoProMIS team conducting interviews with growers

Measuring impact with EcoProMIS

Working alongside a team of researchers, implementers, managers, extension agents and more, we work to find dynamic tools and mechanisms to measure this impact for a number of different stakeholders. As EcoProMIS is made up of a dynamic team of specialists with backgrounds in socio-economic, environmental, business, and management backgrounds, we possess dynamic ways of measuring impact.

Our metrics come from a host of different qualitative and quantitative studies, and are promoted by an idea that iterative monitoring and evaluation is essential throughout the project lifecycle and even after. We look forward to measuring lasting impact and helping farmers develop sustainable, profitable, and productive lifestyles.

Gantt for Good

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Sam Adams, Agricompas Head of Programmes

Gantt charts show tasks in a chronological order

At EcoProMIS, we are well aware that our project is both exciting as well as full of demands, requiring careful planning and communication. In my last blog article I explored how we are managing the complexities of a five-year international agri-tech project.

I mentioned in that previous article that to help manage complexity, we have implementing a new cloud-based project management system. Today I share a bit more about that process and how we have introduced ‘Gantt’ to clarify roles and responsibilities, manage expectations, and design a robust and logical workflow.

Cloud to the Rescue
The EcoProMIS team is spread over seven organisations, based in multiple sites in both the UK and Colombia. There is a six hour time difference. Because of these logistical realities, we have chosen to work with cloud-based digital communication and project management.

So, like most of us during this time of global working-from-home, we have been extensively using digital communication tools. How grateful we are that these tools are widely available! It would have been a very different picture just a few years ago.

In practice, this means that for daily communication we use a mobile chat app, the usual email correspondence, and we are slowly getting used to Microsoft Teams (having previously used Slack for years, this is a bit of an adjustment).

Gi-GANTT-ic Support
In addition to these daily conversations and regular team meetings, there is still the need for an advanced system of project management. For a project of our size, this is a gi-GANTT-ic need. So over the past weeks and months, I have been setting up a Gantt chart system for our EcoProMIS project management.

For those who are unfamiliar, a Gantt chart is a way of seeing a project’s lifespan in a single image. It shows all of the tasks in chronological order. Further details can be added, such as who is responsible for each task, and which tasks are dependent on others.

Most projects have a timescale of 3-6 weeks. EcoProMIS however, is a five year initiative, so the scale and detail required in our Gantt is significant. I have certainly enjoyed the challenge of creating it.

Open Source Trial
In order to choose the most appropriate and affordable Gantt software, I tested six different products. Most have the same features and similar pricing, so it was difficult to navigate the options.

Initially I settled on Open Project, an open-source product that can be self-hosted. Having access to our own servers and our own world-class IT team meant this seemed like an easy option, and the open-source values resonate with our vision to make positive change in the world.

Unfortunately, the maintenance for this self-hosted option was excessive and beyond the availability that our team had. I made the reluctant decision to start again and transfer to a paid system hosted in the cloud.

Remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic means new challenges and opportunities.

TeamGantt
Leaving Open Project behind, I settled on a dedicated and affordable product called TeamGantt. It is a responsive and clean-looking Gantt chart, with all the features that we required. In early June I rebuilt the entire project plan from scratch on this new system. This was frustrating but ultimately served to refine the end result, which is now working well.

The EcoProMIS Gantt structure is based on quarterly tasks and milestones. This is because each quarter we deliver tangible outputs and report on these to our funder, the UKSA.

A Dynamic Map
It is an important point to state that the Gantt chart is not a static document that once created is filed away somewhere. Part of the purpose of the chart is that it is alive, a tool or dare I say ‘friend’ of the project. It is used as a dynamic and responsive communication and management resource.

In practice, this looks like using the Gantt chart in a screen-share during our meetings, to communicate expectations around each others’ roles, and to plan timelines and scheduling.

A Gantt chart is also a reference point for everyone in the project to use. At any stage and any time zone, our team can login in to the website and see their own tasks, their colleagues’ tasks, and how the entire five year project fits together.

Likewise, it can serve new arrivals to our team. For example, recently I met with Rodrigo Gil, our new Crop Modeller, to look at the Gantt and show where the project has come from over the past three years. This forms an essential part of new colleague induction.

Effective Project Delivery and Culture Change
All of this work and technicality is ultimately to aid the smooth delivery of a complex multi-faceted project. Our new cloud-based Gantt chart is a great asset to the team, and I believe will improve our ability to reach the demanding goals and cutting-edge targets of EcoProMIS.

The colourful and clean digital interface is appealing and immediately gets attention. The details of the task interdependencies and scheduling of roles and timeframes, means that all partners are better equipped and more accountable in their work.

I also note that by introducing an effective Gantt chart, it can bring an organisational culture-change. Using an accessible Gantt chart contributes to a change in mindset from loose project delivery and inefficiency; to a much tighter project, with greater cost and time efficiencies and hopefully a happier, more connected workforce, better able to deliver our mission to support the Colombian rice and oil palm growers.