ARANMI

Aranmi an agricultural technology startup empowering rural farmers by
providing them with improved seeds, farm inputs, training on modern
farming techniques and a market for the sale of their farm produce. This
gives the farmers the capacity to farm more acres and by extension
leads to increased food production and security in Africa. As our global
  population approaches 10 billion citizens, more food will be needed to
feed the population. Lack of access to finance and market as well as
broken value chain keep smallholder farmers locked away from expanding
their farms. By providing farmers in Bangladesh with access to capital,
technology and expertise, we will empower them to scale their farms fast
into commercial sizes and produce more food to ensure global food
security. Our mission is to enable smallholder farmers to compete on a
global stage. Local production, local consumption and local shared
prosperity are the values to which we are espoused.

While Africa is expected to add about 1.3 billion people by 2050, its agriculture is still dominated by small scale farming, aged farmers with limited or no access to finance and no platform for inter-generational transfer. These problems resonates with what is happening with smallholder farmers in Bangladesh and in most of the Asian countries.

40% of Bangladesh’s population live on less than $1.25 per day.  Among the poor, 75% live in areas where agriculture is the predominant source of income. Yet, farming is increasingly failing to meet the demand of a fast growing rural population. Food security is far from guaranteed.

Small plots of land, dated techniques and limited access to markets make it difficult for Bangladesh's smallholder farming communities to produce enough to feed themselves and their families, let alone make a profit. These factors are compounded by the effects of climate change which can make growing crops in traditional ways more difficult.

Primary research with smallholder farmers in northwest Bangladesh by
our partners revealed struggles with market prices, debt-driven cycles
of high interest crop financing and a lack of agricultural extension
services and knowledge. This is where Aranmi comes in.

Aranmi supports smallholder farmers and empowering them by lowering
barriers to accessing Capital and financial services, data driven best
practices and technology to improve yield as well as access to local and
global markets for their produce with established offtaker
relationships like with big food brands like Flour Mills of Nigeria,
Dangote Foods, Nestle, Stallion Rice, Grand Cereal, Amo Byng, and a lot
more others. Aranmi has built on its research with smallholder farmers
in Nigeria since 2017 to define its focus on using data and built-in
algorithms to identify the most promising smallholder farmers that have
the potential to go to scale. Our model is based on identifying the best
farmers that can build commercial farms and take advantage of efficient
use of technology, professionalism, and economies of scale to maximize
profit. As a part of the partnership, the farmers are required to
provide paid internship opportunities to unemployed youths who are
recruited at boot camps conducted periodically by Aranmi. Aranmi’s
mission is to create a thriving and sustainable agricultural sector that
empowers farmers, forges strong markets and improves global food
security.

Aranmi provides an innovative combination of asset-based credit, agro-extension, and post harvest management services that are affordable and accessible to poor smallholder farmers. This in contrast to government agencies and NGOs that provide inadequate and inconsistent services to farmers. We guarantee market access for the farmers we work with - purchasing the majority of their yields in order to market to our industrial clients using an integrated supply chain, powered by technology, data science, infrastructure, and a logistics network. This model allows us to offer large volumes of responsibly produced grain to large stakeholders in the food and agriculture industry.To scale production to meet demand, Aranmi creates savings groups among farmers called Agbeloba.We train each Agbeloba to operate like it's own business: they raise their own capital and produce food commodities at Aranmi standards, which they can sell to us or at local markets. Increased income among Aranmi farmers incentivizes others to practice sustainable farming practices—a strict requirement for joining Agbeloba. From a business perspective, we partner with farmers to increase capacity and share accountability for production, while tapping into their abilities as entrepreneurs. 

Aranmi’s set of solutions includes the following proccess:

On Farmers Side:

Aranmi sets up Agbeloba savings groups in 4 stages: 

1. Introducing the business model – We conduct a 1-day orientation for farmers interested in joining or setting up their own Agbeloba savings group. 

2. Smart farming training – For 10-15 hours of training a week after orientation, we make sure farmers are aware of and committed to sustainable farming practices. We also train them on packaged food production and introduce clean and natural manufacturing practices. Finally, Aranmi trains farmers on small business management, including product development and marketing. To provide high-quality training, Aranmi partners with experts in the field, including NGOs and local government offices. 

3. Values formation – For 6 months after forming a new Agbeloba, Aranmi conducts weekly 5-hour training sessions to build values essential to building conscious businesses.

 Aranmi emphasizes that farmers are responsible for their families, communities, the country, and the environment. 

4. Club management – Each Agbeloba participates in monthly coaching sessions for continuous improvement of business systems, overall state of operations, and financial health. 

On the Business Side:

Buyers use our platform to make orders, while farmers receive notifications via SMS

Buyers pay Aranmi through bank transfer or mobile money

Aranmi uses mobile money to pay farmers and agents

Our solution is innovative because:

1. It solves the inefficiencies in our food supply chain through technology and world class supply chain innovation to add value to stakeholders (farmers, retailers and supply chain partners) and change the way food reaches our plate in terms of quality, affordability and accessibility. At one end, we help farmers get efficient farm inputs, better prices and deal with consistent demand and on the other, we help retailers source farm produce at competitive prices directly from farmers. We do this effectively at lower cost, better speed and larger scale, using an integrated supply chain, powered by technology, data science, infrastructure, and a logistics network. 

2.The brand value of a responsible social business makes our initiative innovative. There are millions of farmers growing food through environmentally detrimental means. What we introduced to the market is a brand that they can trust to provide clean and sustainably, responsibly sourced farm produce. We attribute high market adoption to this brand value. Consumers appreciate a nationalistic brand that increases the incomes of farmers, while protecting the environment.

40% of Bangladesh’s population live on less than $1.25 per day.  Among the poor, 75% live in areas where agriculture is the predominant source of income. Yet, farming is increasingly failing to meet the demands of a fast growing rural population. Food security is far from guaranteed. The situation is exacerbated by lack of efficient farm input and access to market. Aranmi’s was founded with rural development in mind. Our business model increases farmer’s income in multiple ways: (1) by giving them access to farm inputs and purchasing their harvest at fair market price (immediately doubling previous earnings); (2) by increasing the value of their produce through post-processing; and (3) by allowing them access to a larger market beyond demand from local towns and extortionist middlemen. On top of increased income for farmers themselves, Aranmi also employs their wives who take care of production and packaging. This empowers women in the community who are elevated in status as partners in income generation, which supplement their role in managing the household. Furthermore, Agbeloba savings groups are built to function as independent enterprises in charge of managing and growing their own production of packaged foods. A testament to the entrepreneurial spirit unleashed by Aranmi, we’ve seen families begin to save surplus income to grow their Agbeloba business. When farming families increase their purchasing power, they invest in their families’ basic needs. They purchase healthier food options in the local market, and spend on their children’s education and healthcare.

 To date, Over 5,000 rural farmers have been able to keep a job, expand farm operations 6x more and increase their income by 82% since we launched in November, 2017. Aranmi farmers are now protectors of the environment, actively campaigning for sustainable farming practices in their communities. By demonstrating that farmers can earn a decent living and increase their incomes without destroying the environment, more are turning to responsible farming. After Aranmi began purchasing farmers’ produce at fair market price, we became every farmer’s trader of choice, and other traders have begun offering fair prices to retain access to supply. In each farming family, Aranmi farmers have more than doubled their annual income, allowing them to invest in education, nutrition, and healthcare. Our goal is to enable everyone responsible farmer participate in the achievement of global food security and impact on the lives of One Million smallholder farmers by 2024 worldwide. 

Right now, we have proven that our model work, farmers welcome our help. Our immediate goal is to scale to impact more farmers outside the shores of Nigeria, and Bangladesh represents a huge opportunity for us to scale. The Tiger challenge Prize will lend international credibility to Aranmi, which will allow us to test and accelerate our work with partners in Bangladesh impacting 30K farmers in the first five years. Our In the first quarter of 2020, we will organize a round-table discussion with NGOs and local government representatives to share our plans of investing in their municipalities with the prize award and co-creating a master plan that would guide us in our project implementation. And honestly a connection with Solve on how to change the existing value chain of how we grow our food to be more sustainable in innovative manner will really enable us to deliver more impact. We will build and execute a content marketing strategy that focuses on the benefits of smart farming. We will continue to generate content to educate our food partners on how to make the food more nutritious and at the same time help them make better income. this is through using technology and online media. 

Prior to setting up Aranmi, our team brainstormed and we asked ourselves some difficult, but important questions. For instance, are we simply replicating what others are doing? Is there space for Aranmi? Can Aranmi make a difference? This dialogue was crucial as it allowed us to crystallise the unique advantages that we possessed to implement this idea. Here for this challenge, we are already asking ourselves same question again. Are there competitions out there, what can we do differently? etc

Key Focus: - Commitment to creating fair, inclusive and sustainable value chains; - Ongoing technical and market support for farmers (not just training); - Organic farming as an alternative to chemical farming; - A triple-bottom line business; measuring success by social, environmental and financial outcomes; - A scalable and replicable programme. 

Unique advantages of Aranmi are: - Support from local community, local government offices and ministries; - Temporary infrastructure and staff team in place; - Financial, HR, admin systems; - Research student placements etc

Aranmi team will oversee and manage the implementation of the overall pilot programme. This will be carried out with support from local partners including local NGO's, farmer groups, Community Forest User Groups and local Village Development Councils. These partners will enable this project to successfully reach the intended beneficiaries. Aranmi aims to set up 2 farmers group in each province, each with a minimum membership of 30 farmers. At this growth rate, we will increase the income of 5000 farming families, reaching 30000 people, by 2023.We believe in empowering people by offering them the tools that will help to improve their lives and income positions. 

Full time 5

Part time 3

contract staff 4

The Aranmi team is an international group of business and design leaders with over 60 years of experience in technology, agriculture, and business management working together for over 5 years, and also building all of our technologies in-house. 3 full time leadership team oversees product design, partnerships, market distribution, and overall growth strategy. Two part-time founding team members oversee marketing, sales, and financial management. Aranmi employs 2 full-time Operations Officers from our communities. From farming families with decades of experience in food processing, they manage production and ensure the quality of Aranmi products across all farmers group. Aranmi will employ 2-3 full-time Operations Officers for every 5-10 provinces, depending on geographic limitations. We will also hire full-time Ops, Sales, Marketing, and Finance Officers.  Aranmi team is passionate about bringing creative solutions to complex social challenges. We care about people, the planet, and generating a healthy profit. We are similarly passionate about bringing meaningful change and innovation to the agribusiness space. We have experience as entrepreneurs, leaders in social ventures, educators, and designers.

• Development Finance Institutions e.g Gateway savings and loans for farm input loans
  

• Agriculture Industry stakeholders for input supplies
  

• Food and Beverage Companies Dangote Group for sales of produce
  

• Foundations and NGOs e.g RGFN for training
  

Aranmi offers a digital end-to-end solution for farmers to access inputs on credit, advisory services and markets at fair prices. Farmers can purchase inputs like fertilizer, seed and crop protection from our partner retailer on credit using digital vouchers delivered to their phone. Aranmi pays the retailers directly and collects mobile payments from farmers over time as they harvest their crops. At harvest, Aranmi signs short-term off-take agreements with the farmers to purchase their crops, which Aranmi then sells via wholesale markets in urban areas at higher prices. During harvest time, Aranmi coordinates logistics to transport the crops to the market and pays farmers for their produce using mobile money. Each transaction is managed using technology, mobile money and artificial intelligence to capture KYC data and credit score customers, send and receive payments, fulfill input orders, determine farm gate prices, and match buyers and sellers of produce.

Aranmi’s value proposition is compelling to both farmers and value chain partners. Farmers are able to improve crop quality and yields and sell their produce at higher prices, while value chain partners see efficiency gains and higher revenue streams. To date, Aranmi has reached over 5,000 farmers and partnered with over 100 input retailers, aggregators and buyers to test our product market fit. Over the next five years, Aranmi plans to serve 100,000 farmers in Nigeria and Bangladesh through partnership with more than 500 value chain partners. If Aranmi achieves these targets, we could create up to USD 80M in value annually for farmers and USD 5M for our partners. Aranmi knows that satisfied and loyal partners and farmers are core to its growth and success. By focusing on creating real value, Aranmi is on the right path to developing a sustainable service delivery model and projects gross margins to exceed 85% within five years.

We are applying for an opportunity to gain investment and strategic support. The Tiger investment can be catalytic for Aranmi by building up our capacity in 3 areas: infrastructure, internal systems, and consumer awareness. On infrastructure: we need to open up processing centers to enable farmers groups process their farm produce into finished products. we have not been able to acquire the necessary requirements for export due to the limited size of our production center. We will invest in a customized space that will allow farmers group (Agbeloba) to mass process farm produce into consumables e.g Cassava into cassava flakes for exports. On internal systems: we will create modules, materials, and technology-enabled tools that will help speed up the training of new farmers. On consumer awareness: we’ve been successful at connecting general audiences to the plight of smallholder farmers through community interactions. We will invest in a strategic awareness education campaign to accelerate this movement.