Case Study: USAID Southern Africa Trade Hub achieves centralized commodity tracking and boosts farmers' food and financial security with Oracle

USAID Southern Africa Trade Hub Centralizes Commodity Tracking to Support More Sustainable Farming and Financial Security for Regional Farmers

USAID Southern Africa Trade Hub, working across eight Southern African countries from its Gaborone headquarters, set out to boost regional trade, competitiveness and food security. The organisation needed a centralized stock-management system to give visibility into harvested crop inventory, reduce up to 30% post-harvest losses from inadequate storage, minimize environmental damage from makeshift facilities, and help smallholder farmers improve sales and financial security.

APPSolve built and rolled out a secure web-based Warehouse Receipt System using Oracle VM, Oracle Database Express Edition and Oracle Application Express, with training and support. The WRS created a central commodity repository, improved buyer visibility and distribution planning, integrated supplier payments, encouraged professional warehousing (reducing losses and tree-cutting), enabled farmers to store and sell for better prices, and proved scalable for use in other countries such as Zambia.

USAID Southern Africa Trade Hub

Craig Dunlop

Technical Lead: Warehouse Receipt Project