founder s mark davies employees 90 parent esoko networks ltd. website esoko.com alexa rank 1 905 141 april 2014 update 1 type of site communication platform to reach smallholder farmers available in english french portuguese launched april 2009 esoko is an information and communication service for agricultural markets in africa . it is a response to the explosive growth of cellular services across the continent . the company provides advice to farmers market prices weather forecasts and growing tips to help them increase yields and profits as well as solutions to businesses marketing products monitoring activities and sourcing goods to help them connect with farmers . the technology platform itself includes automatic and personalized sms alerts buy and sell offers bulk sms messaging sms polling android operating system surveys and more . a private initiative based in accra ghana esoko was built and is supported by a team of local developers and consulting staff . in addition to the technology esoko provides extensive deployment support strategic planning and field training to clients . contents 1 history 2 working in 3 partners 4 impact 5 investors 6 further reading 7 external links 8 references history edit esoko began as tradenet in 2004 with the encouragement of the un s fao 2 and in partnership with foodnet 3 in uganda . focused on agricultural marketing it provided current market data via sms and the web to stakeholders within the agriculture and trade sectors in developing countries . in 2005 tradenet signed a three year agreement with usaid s mistowa program 4 to adapt the product and make it available to their target beneficiaries mistowa s mission was to increase regional trade in west africa by 20 % . esoko was described as a simple sort of ebay for agricultural products across a dozen countries in west africa . 5 in april 2009 tradenet rebranded as esoko switching to a new platform with a broader set of tools . the name esoko originated from the swahili name soko which means market ; the e representing electronic . the esoko name is also used by the erwanda project in rwanda where they have a different version of esoko owned by the ministry of agriculture . today the platform can be used anywhere and with any mobile network . esoko has directly managed offices in ghana and kenya and through a reseller network have representatives in seven other countries offering local strategy and training to clients . working in edit ghana kenya burkina faso nigeria malawi zimbabwe benin madagascar mozambique partners edit technoserve usaid mtn giz prestat new york university partners for development fao ifad novus international aecom ifpri malawi government bharti airtel land o lakes impact edit results from an independent study by inra the french national institute for national research institut national de la recherche agronomique found that smallholder farmers in northern ghana saw a 10 % revenue increase utilizing esoko sms market prices . 6 new york university is finalizing a two year randomized controlled trial to measure impact of sms price alerts on farmer marketing behavior . 7 results will be published mid 2014 . esoko is actively looking for research partners to engage in studies proving the impact of more sophisticated content services for farmers weather agricultural tips and the impact esoko s business tools have on revenues and efficiencies . investors edit international finance corporation soros economic development fund lundin foundation acumen organization mark davies founder jim forster further reading edit esoko un logiciel au service des agriculteurs forbes afrique april 2014 tech startup woos youths to farming with sms service business daily april 2014 esoko launches ghana s first farmer helpline modern ghana february 2014 in african agriculture information is power national geographic september 2011 from pilot to franchise esoko arms farmers with information 2010 fara ; innovative farmer advisory systems 2009 texting tradenet what s the price of soya beans daily graphic ghana september 2008 the spread of mobiles in africa economist january 2007 external links edit www.esoko.com the esoko service esoko stories insights on building and scaling a mobile market information system in africa esoko s channel on youtube video interviews including profiles by cnn and talking heads africa references edit esoko.com site info . alexa internet . retrieved 2014 04 01 . fao agmarket foodnet mistowa usaid s mistowa program economist the spread of mobiles in africa 25th jan 2007 inra inra s research findings nyu brief on nyu s rct retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title esoko & oldid 741498565 categories agricultural marketing organizationsorganisations based in ghanahidden categories articles containing potentially dated statements from april 2014all articles containing potentially dated statements navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 27 september 2016 at 21 50 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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