1.  Involving cooperative markets in the designing phase: From the very beginning of the concept development and designing of the digital platform, it was ensured that we involved representatives from farmers’ cooperatives so that we could address their needs and demand. We kept room for modifications and recommendations as and when required. This gave us an opportunity to cater the diverse ideas and opinions of the local markets. 2. Weekly update meetings to ensure all details are captured: The weekly update meetings helped us to track our progress and discuss areas of improvements as a team. All the partners and members from cooperative markets were given a space to freely express their opinions, doubts and concerns throughout the process from exploration to designing to testing phase. The perseverance of the team had always invigorated the mission of developing a user- and cooperative- friendly website and mobile application.  3. Coordination with the Government Body: Since CMDP is a joint project of UNDP and the Government of Nepal, it is one of the model projects fully owned by the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoLCPA). The Ministry was involved since the beginning of the horizon scanning process. The fervent role and insights of the ministry to finalize every single detail from naming the digital platform to logo selection to website layout/ design and constructive feedback throughout the process were remarkable. This motivated the task-force team and the members of the cooperative markets on developing the system within a short time span of three months. 4. Orientations on the back end of the system: Since the members of the cooperative markets required better understanding on digital platforms, we provided them with series of orientations, both virtually and physically. The objectives of these sessions were to simplify the system to make it more user friendly, adapt their needs, develop their core understanding towards the system and at the same time enhance their technical capacity so that they can at least analyze and visualize the results at the basic level. We anticipate that these sessions will support them on future operation.  5. Consumer-Centric system: E-commerce platforms are all about the end consumers. To ensure that the cooperative markets could attract more consumers, we have designed a simple User Interface with different modes of payment, including pick-up point orders at the market itself. We have also introduced membership points and voucher earning facilities to retain the loyal consumers in the future. 

https://www.np.undp.org/content/nepal/en/home/blog/2021/Digital-Platform-for-Farmers-Cooperatives.html

Since we received full support from the ministry, the process was smoother and was completed within the stipulated time frame. Though there was huge interest from the cooperative markets on digital platform, they had very limited knowledge on fully functioning the system themselves. We provided 6 training/ orientations on both the front and back end of the system and found that it will be easier for them to track the transaction and reports but they will require support for daily updating the back-end in the system. The Cooperative Market Development Programme has already initiated on hiring an IT person to maintain the backend for the cooperative markets.

1. Secondary Data: We relied on the articles and studies done on the effect of COVID in the lives of farmers and agriculture. We also tracked information from the project to better understand the needs and demand of the cooperative markets and consumers alike.   2. Tracking Data: The users and members of the platform will automatically be tracked during the transaction that will help on estimating the preferences of the consumers and addressing the demands for future supply accordingly. 

1. Horizon Scanning: It helped us to detect the potential opportunity for the farmers' cooperative markets which have been highly affected by the COVID. The consultations with the representatives of the Ministry, project and cooperative markets helped us to identify the possibility of launching a digital marketing platform as per their current needs and requirements. 2. Participatory Design: Accelerator Lab formulated the initial concept and design for the digital platform. In order to make this system more simpler and user-friendly, we conducted multiple tests and refined the system as per the feedback from the ministry and the cooperative markets so that the actual needs and demand of the users and clients could be fully met.  3. Artificial Intelligence: The application uses AI to locate the locations of the users and suggest the markets closest to their area and also suggests products that are frequently been visited by the consumers to minimize their time on searching products.  

We partnered with Bidhee Private Limited to materialize the digital marketing platform called "KrishiCoopBazaar.com". The software engineers from Bidhee helped us to code and prepare the backend of the system as per our requirements. 

This platform has been developed for the cooperative markets established by Cooperative Market Development Programme (CMDP), one of the flagship programme between Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation and UNDP Nepal. The representatives from the Ministry, project (CMDP) and cooperative markets were involved throughout the process from the beginning of horizon scanning and conceptualization; and every step has been moved ahead after the mutual consensus and approval from the Ministry.

Bidhee Private Limited and Cooperative Markets were the new and unusual partners. Since Bidhee also shared a portion of the total cost (40%) from their CSR component, this partnership became more special and cost-efficient for us. On the other hand, cooperative markets are the beneficiaries of CMDP and this is one of the interventions where we involved the project beneficiary for a participatory design of a system.