The origins of the Product Platform for Agricultural Solutions
The Product Platform for Agricultural Solutions resulted from the recognized need by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to more systematically compile and access the full range of agricultural solutions available to modernize and transform African agriculture.
At first, IITA intended to conduct this process as an internal exercise but then realized that its many achievements alone did not provide the fullest range of solutions needed by its partners and clients, so it shifted to a more open-ended mode of operation.
We assembled a group of agricultural scientists, development specialists and data managers to design a platform, and then tested it by entering a range of solutions, devising ways to sort through them, and providing different options to access needed information. Through this process it became obvious that opening the Product Platform for Agricultural Solutions to everyone concerned, both those holding solutions and those standing to benefit from them, and then finding ways to track and interpret users’ interests was the best way forward.
Developing a website around those functions emerged as the best way forward, and this was assigned to a team of talented programming specialists.
