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KTDA Unveils New App to Track Farmers’ Accounts
Following KTDA’s reform agenda to provide transparency and accountability by giving farmers full visibility of the status of their accounts, the firm recently launched a mobile application, short messaging service(SMS), and an unstructured supplementary service data(USSD) platform to enhance communication, engagement and account management for its over 600,000 smallholder tea farmers in the country.
The initiative, accessible from either their smartphones or feature phones, guarantees farmers of flexibility and the ability to access the status of their accounts. The firm is leveraging the technology across its eight factories to enable the flow of communication from factories to their farmers and stakeholders regarding weight through a subscription service.
“Through this initiative, tea farmers will now be able to receive daily, weekly, and monthly notifications on plucked tea weights and payments as well as conduct queries on fertilizer disbursements and receive regular news from the organization,” the firm said in a statement.
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The KTDA Farmers App, accessible to only registered growers is available for download on the Google Play Store. Farmers are required to register with their grower number and phone number on the application in the meantime, as an iOS version is underway.
Julius Onguso, KTDA management services managing director, commenting on the development said, “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.” He expressed that this move is in perfect alignment with the state’s ongoing efforts to revolutionize the tea sector
The SMS platform is accessible through a subscription by sending a keyword to the KTDA short code (20213). Additionally, farmers have the option to utilize the USSD code (*302#) for various inquiries, including green leaf deliveries, payment status, and fertilizer disbursement, among other functionalities.