How to grow your payments app with farmer cooperatives
By SendPay Business · · 2 min read
In many countries small farmers join cooperatives to sell coffee, cocoa, milk, cotton, tea and other crops together and get a better price. The cooperative weighs each member's delivery, sells in bulk to buyers or exporters, buys seed and fertiliser for members and then pays each farmer what they are owed, minus any fees or advances. Paying hundreds of members in cash is slow and risky, and members want to see exactly what they were paid for. A payments app that sends every member's payout to their phone, collects fees and records each payment can win whole cooperatives at once, and every member who is paid sees your app.
Talk to farmer cooperatives
Ask local farmer cooperatives:
- How do you pay members for their crops today, and how long does it take?
- How many members do you pay after each harvest or delivery?
- How do members pay fees or repay advances for seed and fertiliser?
- How do buyers pay the cooperative for bulk sales?
Pay every member to their phone
Letting the cooperative send each member's payout straight to their phone, with a record of what it covers, saves days of counting cash and cuts disputes.
Collect fees and repayments
Members can pay membership fees and repay input advances by phone, and the cooperative can see who has paid without chasing anyone.
Grow through members and buyers
One cooperative can bring hundreds of farmers onto your app at once. When buyers pay the cooperative through it too, the money moves from buyer to farmer on your app.
Build it
Create your own financial platform.
Pick a template, name it, brand it, preview every page before you pay. Your brand, your users, your fees.
Build my platform →Questions people ask
What about crop buyers?
The crop buyers and produce aggregators guide covers traders who buy from many small farmers and sell on in bulk, often carrying large amounts of cash at harvest.
Crop buyers and produce aggregators →What about agro-dealers?
The farm supply and agro-dealers guide covers shops selling seed, fertiliser, feed and tools to farmers, with rushes at planting time and a lot of credit.
Farm supply and agro-dealers →Can I call it a bank?
In most countries "bank" is a protected word you can only use with a banking licence. Call it an account, a wallet, an app or a platform. The accounts and payments behind a SendPay Business platform are powered by licensed partners.
Is there a step-by-step plan I can follow?
Yes. The free launch checklist takes you from picking your people and naming your app to setting fees, going live and winning your first ten customers.
Digital bank app launch checklist →How do I start?
Pick a template, name it and preview every page before you pay. Your platform can be live on your own domain within 24 hours of confirmation.
Build my platform →Read next
This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. SendPay Business is a technology company, not a bank, and does not take deposits; regulated services on the platforms are provided by licensed partners. PayPal, Patreon and Substack are named as reference points only and are not affiliated with SendPay Business.