25,000 farmers buy Gro-Plus
23 March 2011

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RIU has been following the Gro-Plus trial over the past few months. As recently reported, the numbers of farmers who have registered to participate in the trial has exceeded 53,000.

In addition to the free sample packs distributed for the trial, a further 25,000 farmers purchased packs through the emerging distribution network or directly from the Real IMP company at the events organised to hand-out trial packs.

In the RIUtv film Henry Wainwright explains how the product works.

Andy Ward, RIU's crops expert, said:

"It is really encouraging to see the number of product purchased at 120KSh (about 90p/ US$ 1.4). This shows that even poor farmers are prepared to invest in technology that they believe will bring them benefits.

In marketing terms this DFID RIU-funded trial is giving the company considerable strength - in addition to the data that will be generated, Real IPM now has a marketing database of over 50,000 farmers who were interested enough in their products to come and pick up a free sample pack.

The database of farmers hugely builds the capacity of Real IPM as it enables the company to engage in communication with farmers and this should be a great asset in terms of marketing inputs to farmers.

As this growing season continues we will learn about the perceptions of Gro-plus and the impact it has.

But generally this RIU-funded project is moving from extension to marketing and business development and is creating demand for a new product. This is a great achievement in such as small amount of time."