Paper short abstract:

This study examines Farm Digital, a failed “Uber for tractors” startup in Ghana aiming to connect farmers with tractor owners. Using ANT, we analyze its struggles with informal systems, misaligned donor priorities, and local contexts, offering lessons for sustainable digital agriculture solutions.

Paper long abstract:

Digitalization is often praised for transforming agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa, improving efficiency, profitability, and rural livelihoods. Yet, agricultural matching platforms—digital tools connecting service users with providers—have received limited research attention. This paper examines Farm Digital, a startup in North-Western Ghana designed to link smallholder farmers with tractor owners through an “Uber for tractors” model. Despite its innovative vision, Farm Digital ceased operations, prompting an analysis of the challenges it faced.

Using in-depth narrative interviews and Actor-Network Theory (ANT), we explore the complex process of establishing a digital startup in rural Ghana. The study unpacks efforts to reconfigure relationships among donors, platform managers, farmers, field agents, and brokers. Farm Digital’s struggles are framed as a failed network translation, where attempts to align diverse human and non-human actors toward a unified purpose faltered.

Our findings reveal that the platform’s straightforward operational model was consistently outperformed by existing informal tractor brokerage systems. Furthermore, while Farm Digital aligned with donor priorities, such as women’s empowerment, its design failed to resonate with farmers’ needs.

This case highlights critical lessons for digital startups in agriculture. To succeed, new entrants must integrate with existing structures, such as national extension services and farmer organizations, to navigate local contexts effectively. The study raises broader questions about the sustainability of donor-driven tech solutions that overlook entrenched systems and stakeholders.