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Thompson Ogunsanmi is a scaling specialist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, and Ifeoma Umunna is director of agriculture at DevAfric. They reveal how AkiliMo built a 700,000-farmer database across three countries with 70% of data flowing through feature phones rather than smartphones; how national partner associations now control data flow back to IITA instead of the reverse; why replicating India's AgriStack model fails in African contexts where women lack land tenure and farming is nomadic; and why treating farmer data as reusable infrastructure rather than a disposable project input is the only path to returning tangible value to smallholder farmers.
Thompson Ogunsanmi, Scaling Specialist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, has spent seven years coordinating the scaling of AkiliMo, a digital agronomic platform, across Nigeria, Ghana, and Tanzania. His team built a database of more than 700,000 registered farmers and, after discovering that 70% of users rely on feature phones rather than smartphones, developed parallel delivery channels including SMS, USSD, IVR, and printable guides to reach farmers regardless of device type. In each country, partner organizations formed independent associations — Akilimo Nigeria Association, Akilimo Ghana Association, and Akilimo Tanzania Association — that now control data flow, with IITA receiving data from them rather than the reverse. His approach to farmer data governance centers on designing systems where national partners and farmer organizations hold decision-making authority over how data moves, treating interoperability and local control as prerequisites rather than afterthoughts.
Ify Umunna, Director of Agriculture at DevAfric, has worked with farmers across multiple organizations over more than a decade, including roles as a gender specialist at Sahel Consulting, at Nourishing Africa, and at AFEX, where she led strategy working with more than a million farmers in Nigeria. Her career has moved across institutional design, gender inclusion, and agricultural market systems, building a perspective that spans how data infrastructure intersects with the structural realities farmers face. She approaches farmer data governance through the lens of gender and land tenure, identifying that replicating frameworks like India's AgriStack in African contexts would exclude women and nomadic farmers if digital identities remain tied to land ownership.
Thompson explains:
◼️ Why seventy percent of farmer data submissions come from feature phones
◼️ How national partner associations rebuilt data flow away from IITA
◼️ What happens to farmer data when a project ends and funding disappears
◼️ Why replicating AgriStack in Africa fails women and nomadic farmers
◼️ How AkiliMo scales impact across three countries using one shared platform
◼️ What makes stewardship a better framework than ownership for farmer data
◼️ Why treating farmers as businesses changes how you design data systems
◼️ How SMS and IVR channels reach farmers that apps never will
Ify explains:
◼️ Why seventy percent of farmer data submissions come from feature phones
◼️ How national partner associations rebuilt data flow away from IITA
◼️ What happens to farmer data when a project ends and funding disappears
◼️ Why replicating AgriStack in Africa fails women and nomadic farmers
◼️ How AkiliMo scales impact across three countries using one shared platform
◼️ Why treating farmers as businesses changes how you design data systems
◼️ How SMS and IVR channels reach farmers that apps never will
To read the discussion papers, click the link below.
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