These figures reflect the inefficiencies and the challenges smallholder farmers face in the sector \u2014 particularly the lack of financial resources to ensure steady food production, which, over time, have contributed to high levels of food insecurity across the region.<\/p>\n
To unlock Africa\u2019s full agricultural potential, Uka Eje, CEO of Nigeria-based AgriTech firm ThriveAgric, said more needs to be done to change the views of Africa\u2019s small growers.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo solve food scarcity, production has to be consistent, it has to be sustainable \u2014 and to make production sustainable, smallholder farmers have to see farming beyond just a lifestyle, they have to make money from it,\u201d Eje told PYMNTS in an interview.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2017, the Lagos-based AgriTech firm started off by putting rural small farmers in community clusters, giving them access to phones and then offering them input financing to help scale their business.<\/p>\n
Beyond that access to capital, Eje said it was also important to ensure that farmers employed modern practices to be able to scale yield, as well as help them access premium markets by bridging the supply chain gap and limiting the number of middlemen farmers have to engage with.<\/p>\n
Today, the firm has more than 205,000 farmers \u2014 up from 50 in 2018 \u2014 registered on its agriculture operating system (AOS) and about 1,500 field officers based in over 20 states across Nigeria that visit growers regularly to monitor growth and track harvest.<\/p>\n
With a recent $56.4 million raise to grow ThriveAgric\u2019s customer base and expand to additional African markets including Ghana, Zambia and Kenya, the business continues to show huge potential for growth.<\/p>\n
Over time, the Africa-focused company has amassed large data sets in its AOS which have the potential to unlock huge opportunities for increased farming productivity and credit access for smallholder farmers \u2014 many of whom do not have credit histories to qualify for funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be able to make sure that these smallholder farmers are made credit worthy. This is something that financial institutions across the world expect,\u201d Eje said, adding that the company\u2019s goal is to leverage technology to give smallholder farmers an identity.<\/p>\n
Information gathered include farmers\u2019 biometric data, their land size, inventory of the inputs given to them, their historicals on farming \u2014 including their past farming techniques \u2014 as well as the crops that they farm and information around family history.<\/p>\n
With that data, on-ground field officers can make informed input financing decisions that not only help to free up farmers\u2019 cash flows, but also create a feedback system that can enable offtakers to plug supply chain inefficiencies by matching supply with demand, even a year ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine if an offtaker [knows] that ThriveAgric is able to give me 20% of my maize needs or my sorghum needs for the year?\u201d Eje pointed out, adding that that knowledge will significantly ease the burden on farmers operating in the complex and fragmented Nigerian goods market.<\/p>\n
ThriveAgric can also leverage its technology and \u201cvaluable\u201d AOS data to reinforce partnerships with financial institutions who will be more open to funding credit-worthy farmers when there\u2019s traceability, financing and visibility in the end-to-end movement of goods and commodities.<\/p>\n
\u201cData is extremely valuable,\u201d Eje said. \u201cWe are leveraging it not just as a piece of information, but also as an infrastructure for our services.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Smallholder farms make up over 60% of sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s population, according to data from McKinsey, yet only about 20% of this region\u2019s gross domestic product (GDP) is generated from agriculture and agribusiness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":4500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,21],"tags":[7,26,22],"class_list":{"0":"post-4503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-technology","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-technology"},"yoast_head":"\n