MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

DigiShop MarketPlace for farmers

One-line solution summary:

FarmersPride offers offline to online marketplace platform for farmers and agro-retailers to access trusted inputs, services and information

Pitch your solution.

Distribution of agriculture inputs and services is poor, inefficient and unreliable and dominated by poor quality seeds, counterfeit seeds and agrochemicals, poor input stock management, unaccredited agrodealers, poor farming technologies, poor post-harvest management and poor market intelligence to inform farming decisions. Majority of rural farmers depend on agrodealer stores to access inputs and services. These stores face numerous challenges ranging from record keeping to sourcing inputs to management. Solving these problems for agrodealers makes them offer improved services to their farmers

Farmers Pride provides a one stop lastmile online-to-offline marketplace DigiShop platform that connects village level Farmers to relevant information, quality inputs and credible agriculture service providers in local community to ensure increased farm Production and mitigate effects of climate change. Our DigiShop platform creates new agriculture opportunities to Village level farmers to access trusted and dependable information, inputs and Services

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

There are over 12,000 village level informal agrodealer stores across Kenya 60% owned by women entrepreneurs each servicing on average 500 farmers monthly bringing the total number of farmers serviced through these stores to over 6M. The village agrodealer stores offer a complex mix of inputs sourced from scattered suppliers located several miles away with little or no trace-ability thereby no guaranteed quality. In addition the stores don’t keep records and have little or no capacity to offer key services like soil testing, extension services, farmer education among other key agriculture services. These stores face numerous challenges ranging from lack of information, distribution, access to counterfeit products, capital and management where farmers end up purchasing poor quality products at exploitative prices with limited or no extension and education support. Modernizing these stores through digitization of their operations, professionalizing operations, breaking last mile supply chain barriers and giving them digital tools to offer extension services to their customers massively translates to local farming communities accessing better quality and affordable agriculture services, inputs and information. For example farmers serviced by the DigiShops record a 30% increase in farm harvest translating to 30% income increase through DigiShop intervention

What is your solution?

Farmers Pride provides a one stop lastmile online-to-offline marketplace DigiShop platform that connects village level Farmers to relevant information, quality inputs and credible agriculture service providers in local community to ensure increased farm Production and mitigate effects of climate change. Our DigiShop platform creates new agriculture opportunities to Village level farmers to access trusted and dependable information, inputs and Services

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Farmers pride customers are Agro-dealers whose ultimate customers are farmers who are low-income, rural families that rely on mixed farming for their livelihood. Majority of these farmers are serviced by village level agro-dealer informal stores. These stores face numerous challenges ranging from record keeping, exploitative pricing, distribution, access to counterfeit products, capital and management where farmers end up purchasing poor quality products at exploitative prices with limited or no extension and education support. Transforming these stores through digitization of their operations and professionalizing operations as well as solving last mile distribution challenges ultimately leads to local smallholder farmers accessing improved services, quality inputs, services and information at more affordable prices to succeed in their farming ventures.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Support small-scale producers with access to inputs, capital, and knowledge to improve yields while sustaining productivity of land and seas

Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Challenge and your selected dimension.

Farmers Pride model targets rural smallholder farming populations who are most disadvantaged in access to right agriculture inputs, services and information. Through Farmers Pride ecosystem these farming populations are empowered to run profitable farming ventures. Agro dealers are the closest point of contact to farmers in the input supply chain and have the good understanding of what the needs of farmers are. Farmers Pride leverages on this unique position that agro dealers happen to have to engage them in actively shaping the way agricultural inputs and services are distributed to smallholder farmers

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Athi River, Kenya

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model rolled out in one or, ideally, several communities, which is poised for further growth

Who is the primary delegate for your solution?

Samuel Munguti

More About Your Solution

If your solution has a website, provide a link here:

http://farmersprideafrica.com/

If your solution proposes an app that is currently live, provide a link to your app online or in an app store here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.com.farmerspride_droid&hl=en

If you have additional video content that explains your solution, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link here:

Which of the following categories best describes your solution?

A new business model or process

Describe what makes your solution innovative.

Farmers Pride is pioneering a digital one stop farmer extension platform where farmers can easily connect to agronomy and veterinary service providers in their local community bundled with access to right inputs and other services like climate information and insurance through the comfort of their phone. Our DigiShop technology is an open platform connecting service providers to local community farmers and farmers to key services

Thousands of youth leave universities and colleges with agriculture and veterinary skills and because of lack of employment opportunities they stream back to villages. Farmers Pride platform aims to leverage on this opportunity to solve extension challenge among smallholder farmers in Africa as well as give opportunity to these skilled youth to offer extension to farmers in their village in need of their services

Covid-19 disruption on traditional delivery of farmer solutions has affected traditional farmer education channels and lastmile delivery of agriculture inputs and services . Majority of rural farmers depend on agrodealer stores to access inputs and services. These stores face numerous challenges ranging from record keeping to sourcing inputs and now with COVID-19 regulations on stay home and social distancing they are faced with eminent collapse as they lack alternative platforms to continue trading and continue educating farmers. Solving these problems for agrodealers makes them more resilient and offer improved services to their farmers and gives them a lifeline to continue trading.

Describe the core technology that powers your solution.

Farmers Pride is pioneering a digital AI one stop farmer extension platform where farmers can easily connect to agronomy and veterinary service providers in their local community bundled with access to right inputs and other services like climate information and insurance through the comfort of their phone. Our DigiShop technology is an open platform connecting service providers to local community farmers and farmers to key services

Provide evidence that this technology works.

Farmers Pride solution is used by rural agrodealer stores and the farmers they serve with currently over 200 stores and 11,000 farmers using the platform

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcRXTNHuz-c&feature=emb_title

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
Big Data
Software and Mobile Applications

What is your theory of change?

Farmers Pride offers a unique platform for distribution of agriculture inputs like certified drought tolerant green gram seeds and Sorghum seeds bundled with right agrochemicals, fertilizers and agronomy training and extension. We believe that traditional delivery of agriculture solutions is inefficient resulting to low productivity. We are leveraging on franchising and digital technology to break last mile agriculture solutions distribution barriers while facilitating our customers with climate information and climate smart practices to cushion them from impact of climate change. We are building a one-stop online-to-offline marketplace platform where rural farmers can access right certified seeds, fertilizers, climate information and right training and extension. We have trademarked this solution DigiShop

Select the key characteristics of your target population.

Rural
Poor
Low-Income

Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?

1. No Poverty
2. Zero Hunger
5. Gender Equality
8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
10. Reduced Inequalities
13. Climate Action

In which countries do you currently operate?

Kenya

In which countries will you be operating within the next year?

Kenya

How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?

Currently serving 11,000 farmers and targeting 20,000 next one year and 1m next 500,000 years

What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?

Revenue Forecast (3 years):

- 2020: $856,320

-2021: $ 1,712,639

-2022 :$ 3,425,278

Farmers reached (3 years):

- Current: 11,000

-2022: 200,000

-2024 : 500,000

Farmers income impact ( 3 years)

-Current-$ 4M

-2022- $ 35M

-2024- $150M

What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your goals in the next year and in the next five years?

Delayed fundraising targets mostly affected by covid-19

How do you plan to overcome these barriers?

We have stepped up our fundraising efforts targeting equity/grant opportunities we had started discussions before covid-19 and also looking at new opportunities. In them mean time the business has freed cash from operations costs savings and utilizing existing credit lines to continue offering uninterrupted services to our customers

About Your Team

Your Business Model & Funding

Partnership & Prize Funding Opportunities