Tech Review: Farmcrowdy is making Agriculture a good business for all

According to the company, it is a win-win situation for all - farmers, sponsors, people and the company.

Farmcrowdy is an agricultural startup which connects small-scale farmers with needed help by making Nigerians to sponsor their farming activities.

These sponsors earn a return on their money after completion of the farming cycle. To all parties involve, it is a win-win situation for all.

The CEO and co-founder of Farmcrowdy, Mr Onyeka Akumah explained more about the company's mission during an interview with Business Insider Sub-Sahara Africa.

Mr Onyeka said the mission of the company is to improve living conditions of small-scale farmers in Africa by involving everybody. More so, he said this will translate to solving the food security problems in the continent.

“Farmcrowdy is a digital agricultural platform that connects sponsors – investors, with small-scale farmers to boost food production in Africa. We, Farmcrowdy, have identified that they are over 38 million small-scale farmers that are mostly unbanked and find it difficult to securing access loans that they need to expand their farming activities.”

“Even when they get the loans, many of them don’t know the right market to sell their farm produce to earn a decent income from farming as a business.”

“So, we set up Farmcrowdy to connect these individuals with sponsors who are excited about impacting on the lives of the farmers. These sponsors also earn returns at harvest when the food cycle is completed.”

Access to finance and poor knowledge of modern agricultural practices are the bane of small-scale farmers in Nigeria. And these farmers constitute over 90 percent of players in the crop production segment of the industry.

Considering these problems, Mr Onyeka said: “To farmers, Farmcrowdy is the bridge to funds and resources they need. We don’t just give the resources they need, we also mentor and guide them."

"We train them on what they need to do to improve quality of output. This is done through both class and field training on modern agricultural practices.”

The company also hinted at how to solve access to the market problem for these farmers. In most cases, getting the farm produce to the market is a daunting task for farmers.

“We also connect the farmers to the right market by sourcing for them processors or off-takers as we like to call them. These off-takers buy their harvest and make available profits for the farmers to get a decent living from farming as a business.”

This, Onyeka noted, has endeared the company to the hearts of farmers who see them as ‘saviour’ and ‘helper’. However, the company and sponsors make income through commission on these sales.

“The most important thing is that the farmers have now found a way to connect with willing individuals, through a shared economy. These individuals invest and sponsor their activities and grow their capacity to earn more,” he said.

As at January 25, 2018, Farmcrowdy has its operations in 8 of the 36 states (25 percent national coverage) in Nigeria. It is currently farming on 1000 hectares with engagement of over 5000 farmers.

source http://www.pulse.ng/bi/tech/farmcrowdy-is-making-agriculture-a-good-business-for-all-id7906675.html