Kenyan Peasant League Food Coop Market hub

Interview of the Kenyan Peasant League on the software "Food Coop Market hub" developped for making easier the work of KPL Food Cooperatives. Each coop has a sell agent (organizing the coop product selling). The sell agents are using the Food Coop Market hub to record and report information. The App is very recent (2025) and in a piloting phase. https://kplfoodcoopmarket.co.ke/

1. Who developed the app?      

The platform was developed internally, by a KPL member (Barack), responsible for the  Tech Collective. KPL set up a Tech collective specifically
to build digital tools that reflect their cooperative reality. Barack wrote the below text.

"So instead of outsourcing, We are building our own capacity to come up with custom tools".

2. “The app reflects your way of functioning” — explain

"Most digital platforms are built for individuals. But KPL works through cooperatives.

So we designed the system to:

• aggregate produce at cooperative level
• support collective selling and
• reflect how farmers already organize

So, we did not change our system to fit the tool —
We built the tool to fit our system."

3. Cost of maintaining the app

"The maintenance cost is relatively low because we use open source technologies; from the development environment to integrations like live weather focus and region mapping.

So roughly:

• Hosting, domain, and business email are paid annually, totalling to around $62/yr. And Infrastructure(When I say infrastructure, I mean the backend systems like the database, storage, user authentication, and backups — everything that supports the app beyond just the interface.): is about $80–100 per month."

  4. Does it work offline?

• "Yes, it works offline. We are designing for:
• low bandwidth usage to handle connectivity issues
• mobile-first use and
• PWA enabled (A Progressive Web App (PWA) is a website built with web technologies (HTML, CSS, JS) that offer a native-like experience, including offline access, push notifications, and installation on devices. PWAs are fast, secure, and cross-platform, allowing a single codebase to run on Android, iOS, and desktop.

Key Features of PWAs

• Installable: Users can add the app to their home screen or desktop for direct launching, often bypassing app stores.
• Offline Functionality: Using service workers, PWAs can operate without an internet connection or on low-quality networks. When they get access to the internet, the data entered offline is automatically synced or pushed to the database. A similar model with ODK.
• Highly Performant: They are known for being lightweight (smaller storage size) and fast, which can significantly increase engagement."

5. Can other organizations use it?

"Yes — and this is very important.

The platform is designed to be:

• adaptable
• open
• Replicable, and more so, built on GitHub, an open source coding or development environment. Github can be used to deploy dynamic platforms as well as static sites, and most importantly, allows for collaboration.

So, other organizations functioning like our food coop can:

• reuse the structure
• customize it to their context
• or co-develop with us"

See the Agroecology Fund video on the Food Coop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZkQKaDoj8Y