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Govipola 2.0: A digital marketplace for traditional agriculture

04 Feb 2020

By Uwin Lugoda In February 2019, The Sunday Morning Business wrote an article on an app built to benefit Sri Lanka as a whole. Named “Govipola” it was the country’s first agriculture-related app, designed to positively contribute towards the sustainability of the nation. The app acts as a marketplace for agriculture, targeting B2B transactions involving products such as vegetables and fruits. It was specifically developed to benefit farmers as well as buyers by creating price transparency and helping them buy/sell their produce in a more convenient way. Co-founded by veterans of the IT industry, Faiq Faaiz and Suren Kohombange, the app first launched in August 2018, and boasted trilingualism in order to support farmers and buyers from all parts of the country. The app also expanded the digital marketplace by giving users statistical information and digital price transparency, using data from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. This way, the buyer and seller are easily informed of trending prices in the marketplace. Govipola is very easy to use as all a farmer has to do is download the app for free, categorise the product, list the produce, and list their availability, location, and price. The farmers can also upload pictures or videos of their produce as well as see the prices inserted by other buyers and sellers, to adjust their prices accordingly. As for the buyers, all they have to do is put up an advertisement for their requirement, and wait for a seller to get back to them. On 28 January, within a year since that first interview with The Sunday Morning Business, Govipola unveiled its next phase, Govipola 2.0. Launched with the support of Technical Assistance to the Modernisation of Agriculture Programme in Sri Lanka (TAMAP), it is in line with the Government’s e-agriculture strategy. The TAMAP, funded by the European Union and implemented by the consulting company Ecorys Nederland B.V., is driven by its purpose in assisting the Government of Sri Lanka to move towards sustainable and productive agriculture. Version 2 During the launch event, Kohombange stated that they will be taking a step back from the app in order to bring Govipola to the web. The website will be synced with the app and will showcase the same trades uploaded on the app. He stated that the website is primarily targeting corporates, with registered accounts being able to be used by multiple people from the convenience of their desktops or laptops. “We primarily brought it onto the web for the registering of farmers from companies. We want corporates to come onboard; we want them to register and do trading on the app.” He explained that corporates or individuals only have to register if they are trading on the app; registration is not necessary to look at prices and the market. Kohombange stated that Govipola 2.0 is also launching push notifications, where users do not have to go into the app to look at the prices of their favorite products or be alerted when somebody has an order. Users can now put alerts in on trades they want to do, and the app will send a notification, after which the user can login to the app to move forward with the trade. He stated that this new option will only be available for the app users, and not the website users. “Push notifications stop the hassle of you having to go in and search for your favorite items or specifically when there is an order matching your criteria coming up on the market.” Kohombage stated the largest feature they have done so far is the “Trade Matching Engine”, which has redesigned the mobile app to enable new buy sell screens to take in a variety of information such as grade, package type, certification, and other specifications for the trade matching features. He went on to state that another feature is the ability to amend and edit orders, except for the price, after being placed. Another new feature of Govipola 2.0 is “My Order Matches”, which is a feature for the users to view matching orders for trade matching and execution features. “If a user places an order for a 100 kg of carrots for next Monday, with other specifications they require like price and grade; Govipola will give you a colour-coded metric, which will range from green, which is the best match, to red, which is a match, but does not tick all the boxes.” He went on to state that if the user is not happy with the match they get, they can edit their order or cancel the match. The new update also allows users to go and view the status of their order. After seeing the best matches for the trade, users can then pick a buyer or seller on the platform who they want to trade with, and ping them with a request, after which the buyers and sellers have to accept the request to confirm the trade. “So the platform gives you the ability to seek a buyer and seller, choose the best out of what the market is offering you and finally choose the person manually.” Kohombage stated that the app now hosts a feature to make in-app micro payments, with a telecom partner enabling traders to transfer payments to sellers using the app for agreed transactions. He then stated that both the app and website have a platform where users can see their past transactions for bookkeeping and accounting purposes. Future of Govipola Speaking on the future of Govipola, Kohombage stated that they hope to have a rating system in place to enable only trusted buyers and sellers on the platform. He also stated that another feature they want to see in Govipola is a real-time price index, in order to keep track of agricultural prices and trading. Kohombage explained that this was possible due to the amount of data available to them. “The closest cousin to a real-time price index we have right now is the stock market; you can track if the market is up or down. So we think it is the right time to start a digital index for pricing and trading of agriculture.” Another challenge Govipola wants to tackle in the future is the delivery side of the app/website. Kohombage stated that they have been speaking to several transport services to pick up, store, pack, and deliver the trades within the right timeframe. Since its inception, Govipola has been slowly spreading across the island and now boasts over 15,000 generic app downloads and over 25,000 Facebook subscribers, with active engagements from around the country. By the looks of it, it has plans to boost these numbers further in the years ahead. PHOTOS Saman Abesiriwardena

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Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Automobile, Mother and Baby Products, Clothing, and Fashion. Additionally, Kapruka offers unique online services like Money Remittance, Astrology, Medicine Delivery, and access to over 700 Top Brands. Also If you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.Send love straight to their heart this Valentine's with our thoughtful gifts!


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