Bridging the gaps in Nigeria’s agricultural supply chain through a B2B marketplace platform

Daffodil’s development team crafted a robust online agricultural marketplace, ensuring unwavering reliability. The foundation was laid using React for the user-friendly frontend, while Node powered the creation of the backend server. For data management and storage, PostgreSQL was adopted, delivering a secure and scalable solution.

Alibaba Cloud’s powerful relational database services hosted the database, offering not only immediate flexibility but also paving the way for substantial scalability in the future. This technological synergy allowed us to seamlessly integrate the following essential features into the final desktop application:

Facilitating Financial Transparency
Daffodil’s solution architects worked diligently to design a system that would grant finance companies (registered on the platform), the access to historical harvest and sales data of the cooperatives who wish to become beneficiaries of their funds. This feature bridged the gap between cooperatives & financial institutions & ensured that the beneficiaries are monetarily equipped to handle the financial burden of an agricultural loan.

Enabling Ease of Registration
The implementation of enhanced registration involved the integration of a third-party API. When a farming cooperative, logistics company, financial institution, or independent farmer entered their details, this API performed swift and accurate checks. It compared the provided information, including the company TIN, CAC documents, organization registration number, and other pertinent data, against the government database in real-time.

Product Promotion Through Ads and Marketplace
To empower farmers with an effective product showcase, Daffodil’s developers created a user-friendly interface for uploading product details and images. The platform enabled farm cooperatives and individual farmers to upload comprehensive details about their warehouse-maintained products. Users had the capability to specify product quantities, appropriate units, and showcase their products through images on the marketplace.

This feature allowed both independent and corporate buyers to access and purchase the showcased products within the dedicated Marketplace module. Notably, the product Ads also incorporated a quality assurance grade, providing buyers with valuable information to make informed purchase decisions.

Efficient Logistics Allocation
Efficient logistics allocation was achieved by Daffodil experts through a systematic process. When a buyer submitted an order, specifying the desired product type and quantity, an automated logistics request was initiated.

Leveraging the product specifications provided, the platform intelligently selected the most suitable logistics company for the task. This streamlined approach ensured that the selected logistics partner could efficiently deliver the product from the warehouse to the buyer, enhancing the overall user experience and supply chain efficiency.

QA and Finance Request Handling
Similar to how a logistics request is raised, a quality assurance request is also raised for batches of products added by cooperatives. Registered QA agencies on the platform could easily access these requests and assign appropriate grading to the products. This not only ensured product quality but also aided buyers in distinguishing between similar offerings.

Additionally, the platform featured a Finance module. Here, both individual farmers and cooperatives could initiate requests for financial support to procure raw materials. This empowerment of cooperatives allowed them to harvest ample quantities of crops, leading to healthy profits.

Comprehensive Dashboards & Reporting
The platform empowered users with comprehensive dashboards that offered a holistic view of the agricultural marketplace workflow. These dashboards aided the stakeholders in fine-tuning and optimizing the efficiency of the agricultural supply chain. Addressing a longstanding challenge in the sector, the platform introduced simple and efficient payment methods.

These methods alleviated transaction friction, fostering smoother financial interactions. Furthermore, the platform incorporated robust report generation capabilities. This feature empowered administrators to gain invaluable insights into areas that might require improvement, ensuring ongoing enhancement and refinement of the platform’s operations.