Its planting season in East Africa. For agri-based enterprises, this is arguably “Peak Season” for the supply and sales of agricultural inputs. Just like most of their farmer customers, agri-enterprises must be mulling over how to optimize productivity in order to better meet their customer needs and drive revenue growth.
This overly-simplified characterization largely summarizes most of Africa’s agricultural value chain activity. From small scale subsistence farmers to emerging commercial farming enterprises the onset of the rainy season heightens agricultural activity. This also means that there are certain data and insight advantages that this season brings for actors and investors seeking opportunities within Africa’s agricultural value chains.
We have put together a short list of 3 market research considerations that are intended to trigger actionable insight demand, and a desire to explore new markets and value driven solutions for one of the most potentially lucrative sectors for many African economies.
- THE SAY-DO GAP DILEMMA FARMERS FACE
Like most of us, farmers face a dilemma between farming inputs they desire, prefer and what they actually end up purchasing. Product sales may not accurately capture the disparities that exist between desirability and functionality when it comes to product use in farming. Research into farmer behavior and practice can help close the gap by providing illuminating insights into what drives preference, purchase consideration and product satisfaction/
- GLOCALIZATION GAP BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE
The gap between global production standards and practices and local contextual realities means majority of Africa’s small holder farmers struggle to access markets and better prices for their products. Granular data can provide impactful, localized insights into farmer contextual realities. Data granularity may include anything from crop pest and disease prevalence in specific regions to inadequate agricultural support services to empower farmers to barriers in adapting new agricultural innovation. A deeper data driven understanding of local contextual realities facing farmers can help re-balance the gap between global standards and the adoption of solutions that are fit for local conditions and cultural contexts.
- THE DIFFERENTIATION GAP BETWEEN FARMER SEGMENTS
Small holder farmers as consumers are often perceived as exactly that…. small scale, rural, subsistence farmers with tight incomes that complicates their ability to access financial solutions. Like in all other sectors, segmentation analysis can be beneficial in identifying specific behaviors, needs, drivers, barriers and coping mechanisms that fit specific profile groups within the broader small holder farmer population. The same segmentation principle can be applied to unpack powerful insights that refine and target how agricultural inputs and solutions are designed and delivered to meet different use-cases, consumption moments, market gaps between quality, affordability, functionality and productivity, ultimately delivering real value to farmers where they need it most.