Over 650,000 smallholder tea farmers affiliated with the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) will now be able to track their green leaf payment at the click of a button after the agency unveiled a mobile application, a Short Messaging Service (SMS) and an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platform to enhance communication with framers.
Through these platforms, tea farmers will also be able to receive daily, weekly and monthly notifications on the quantity of plucked tea weights delivered to the factories and also receive extension services.
According to KTDA Management Services Managing Director Mr. Julius Onguso, for the first time since the government rolled out the subsidised fertiliser programme in 2022, tea farmers will now be able to make inquiries on fertiliser disbursement.
Onguso said the rollout of the KTDA Farmers App, SMS and USSD platforms is part of the agency’s reform agenda, which is aimed at providing transparency and accountability by giving farmers full visibility of the status of their accounts.
The Director noted that the multi-approach rollout would guarantee farmers the flexibility and ability to access the status of their accounts on their mobile phones. “This heralds the digital transformation of KTDA’s service offering to its farmers, which we believe will go a long way towards sustained efficiency,” he said in a press release.
The app, which was piloted in eight factories prior to its rollout, will provide information about various KTDA services to registered farmers. On the other hand, the SMS subscription code 20213 will facilitate direct communication between the farmer and the factory.
Farmers have also been advised to use the code *302# to make inquiries on green leaf deliveries, payment status for green leaf deliveries, and fertiliser disbursement.
“By embracing and leveraging technology to enhance our communication and engagement with our farmers, we believe that this will enhance the transparency and credibility of all our undertakings for the farmers,” said Onguso.
By Wangari Mwangi
