Farm Direct is an innovative digital farmers’ cooperative model developed by Producers Direct to foster the inclusion of women and youth smallholders in food value chains in Peru. By providing them with training and pioneering digital solutions, it unlocks the farmers' potential, access to markets, and incomes.
Female smallholder farmers are disproportionately marginalized from global food production systems. Although women make up nearly half of the world's agricultural labor force, they do not have equal access to structured food value chains.
Women producers tend to sell their crops for less than it costs to produce them; this furthers the cycle of poverty, food insecurity, and women's marginalization in rural smallholder communities.
Producers Direct-Digital Cooperatives is a tool powered by blockchain technology to create dynamic digital cooperatives specifically for the most marginalized groups — female smallholders and youth — who have limited profiles in global food value chains.
The project supports women in scaling up their on-farm diversification products, facilitating market access, payments, and digital records through a blockchain-based platform.
Throughout the WFP Sprint Programme, the team has been operating in two regions in Peru, onboarding farmers to the platform and providing training in the areas of access to markets and biosecurity. Producers Direct works with participating smallholder farmers on creating an optimal system to aggregate the farmers' produce and improve farmers' access to markets.
The project aims to establish a strong market linkage for women and youth in the long term, increasing their market engagement and financial independence, to bolster food value chains and food security in Peru.
