FarmIT

70% of Small-scale farmers in Kenya lack proper agronomic information, sustainable crop protection and husbandry practices. They practice traditional farming that is not sustainable due with disruption of climate change. This results in poor crop yields and of low quality. Farmers face the challenge of market access. They are exposed to middlemen who exploit them with low farm gate prices.

FarmIT crop mapping mobile technology provides small scale farmers with real time and reliable agronomic information, sustainable crop protection and husbandry practices with an aim of improving farmers crop yields by 50%. During the harvesting stage the system automatically notifies Large scale buyers in our platform of the impending farmers harvest enhancing market access and reducing post-harvest losses.

FarmIT will sustainably increase food production in global regions experiencing rapid population growth. Increase in global food distribution, lowering food prices, increasing food preferences and increasing income to small scale farmers globally.

Poor agricultural knowledge

13 million small scale farmers in Kenya produce 63% of food consumed. However, their productivity growth has slowed down and is generally lagging. A similar problem is being experienced in Tanzania, Nepal and Bolivia where small holders contribute 65%, 70%, and 85% of food consumed in those countries respectively. The gap between farmers yield and technical yield globally is because farmers lack proper agricultural knowledge. In Kenya, 70% of farmers have no proper agronomic information and crop husbandry practices. The small-scale farmers practice convectional and traditional farming which is not sustainable with the current climate change. This leads low yields and of poor quality.

Poor Market Access

Sophisticated channels, high transportation cost, certification and quality requirements are factors that are transforming food supply chain. Small scale farmers practicing traditional farming cannot meet the requirements forcing them to sell exploitative middlemen. The middlemen buy produce at low farm gate prices and sell exorbitantly at high prices making them the greatest beneficiaries while farmers languish in a vicious cycle of poverty.

FarmIT crop mapping mobile technology provides small scale farmers with real time and reliable agronomic information, crop protection and husbandry practice. Majority of farmers have access to basic mobile phone with sim. A farmer registers a crop-date-of plant-county through a USSD application and a short code. The system maps the crop and farmer location thereby sending timely and reliable crop management SMS depending on the crop life stage. This improves crop productivity by 50%. The system gives farmers options of practicing either organic or conventional farming enhancing use of sustainable crop protection practices. Our system uses SMS which is more pervasive technology in the rural areas where there is no internet improving agricultural technology adoption among small scale farmers.

At the harvesting stage, the system notifies buyers (Schools, hotels, agri-processing and export companies) also registered in our platform through SMS of farmers impending harvest. This enhances market access and reduces post-harvest losses.

Kenya’s 2019 population and housing census reported a total of 16 million farmers. 13 million were small scale farmers. 25% of the small-scale farmers are practice horticultural farming that is they cultivate high value high perishable crops. FarmIT is targeting the small scale horticultural farmers in Kenya.

The small-scale horticultural farmers live mostly in the rural areas where there is poor infrastructure such as inaccessible roads that impede on their market access. They own an average of 0.47 hectares of land and Farming is their main source of livelihood.

Our crop mapping mobile system is a minimum viable product that has been deployed to farmers with an aim of getting feedback as we continue iterating. The system has an SMS survey which gathers Micro-data about their social, economic, and climate change to help us develop a holistic system that satisfies their needs.

Accessing timely and relevant agronomic information helps small scale horticultural farmers improve on their productivity, Our solution links farmers to  a wide variety of large scale buyers improving market access, The timelines of the linkage reduces post-harvest losses

Increase in Human population and the demand for food:Our solution of providing small scale horticultural farmers with agronomic information increases productivity by 50% thereby meeting the demand for food in developing countries with high rapid population growth rate.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions: Our Systems provide organic farming practices and sustainable conventional practices that are geared towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Food Loss and wastage: Our solution offers quick market linkages between farmers and large-scale buyers reducing post-harvest losses

Climate change: Use SMS survey to gather micro-data from farmers to make informed decisions on agricultural practices.

A crop Mapping mobile system that sends real  time and reliable agronomic information using SMS which is a simple ICT tool for farmers and reaches wider audience in the rural areas where there is no internet.

Mobile dashboard with user interface with ability to automatically link large scale buyers and end users directly to farmers enabling Small scale horticultural afrmers access markets.

Provides farmers with Option of receiving agronomic information either in Kiswahili or english thereby ensuring a user friendly experience to farmer with low literacy level

FarmIT crop mapping mobile technology uses a USSD short code system. The system has options of languages where a farmer can choose either to answer in english or Kiswahili. farmer registers a crop-date-of plant-county through a USSD application and a short code. The system maps the crop and farmer location and creates a message scheduling aligned with the information stored in our database. This data consist of agronomic information for over 50 crops that have been compiled by experienced agronomist and star farmers. The System has a notification prompt that detects every crop that reaches a harvesting stage. It send notifications to buyers registered in our platform of the farmers impending harvest thereby creating room for farmers and large scale buyers to negotiate.

Traction

1. 6700 farmers have registered in our platform
2. 300 Large scale buyers registered
3. over 350,000 agronomic information sent
4. operating in 8 counties in Kenya

Small Scale farmers in Kenya need proper knowledge of sustainable agronomic information and crop protection practices to cushion them from poor crop yields and of low productivity. Ministry of agriculture livestock and fisheries in Kenya, 70% of small-scale farmers don’t have knowledge on proper crop protection practices. FAO reports that there is a huge gap between small scale farmers production and technical optimal yields. Farmers are faced with poor market access leading to problems with food distribution shortages and high food prices to consumers especially those in the urban area.

If successful we will be able to sustainably improve crop productivity of 3.5 million small scale horticultural farmers in Kenya in the next 10 years. We will be able to link Small scale horticultural farmers to 100,000 large scale buyers in Kenya and improve the food distribution supply chain enhancing food availability and reducing food prices in Kenya.

Our activities will include design and development of a crop mapping mobile system, sensitization and awareness of the mobile system, supporting farmers to register into the platform. And linking farmers to the market through the system. Having direct access to the markets is a huge incentive for farmers to register in the platform.

We expect to have a farmer friendly crop mapping system developed, farmers registered in the platform, buyers registering in the platform. We expect to share various sustainable crop protection information for a variety of horticultural crops, improved productivity and farmer to buyer transactions on the platform.

The challenge is that some farmers are not literate. but we have included a Kiswahili language that majority of farmers can understand. Adoption of technology for older farmers is a challenge. However our system uses SMS which is basic and usable in rural areas where there is low prevalence of internet.                                                                                                                                     

Our current traction

1. Registered 6700 small scale farmers
2. registered 300 large scale buyers
3. made over 1200 farmer-buyer transactions
4. sent over 350,000 sustainable agronomic SMS

Traction expected in one year

1. To register additional 30,000 small scale horticultural farmers
2. to register 2500 large scale buyers in our platform.

1. To eradicate poverty among small scale farmers in Kenya and globally through use of Ag-tech solutions
2. To ensure there is food security globally through improved productions and improved distribution systems
3. To ensure quality agricultural education especially climate smart agricultural practice are practiced in Kenya

1. Capacity development

2. Financial challenge (we are currently raising funds  to scale our activities)

3. Retrogressive taxes on small business in Kenya

1. We are trying to grow organically

2. We partnered with other startups who offer services such as distribution from the farm to the market. Partnered with other large scale agri-processors who take huge volumes of farmers produces at a go.

1. Full time workers-5
2. Part time workers-1

Founder and Innovator-FarmIT -Allan C’oredo: Allan has a BSc. Agribusiness Management and Trade with six years’ experience working with small scale farmers as an agribusiness specialist in different seed companies.

 Agronomist- James Opere James has over 15 years’ experience working with farmers. He has degree in horticulture and M.Sc. Environmental Science. Currently he is a part timer and working with Sakata seeds as the product development officer 

Agronomist- Geoffrey Nganga has worked with small scale farmers for the last nine years, has an M.Sc. Horticulture with a degree in horticulture as well

 Agronomist- Evans Ndirangu has worked with farmers under crop protection for the last nine years recommending suitable chemicals for use. He has worked with different agro-input companies. a degree in Crop science

 CTO- Gideon Maina is has a B.Sc. In Computer science and has worked with Software developing companies for the last three years.

 Business Development officer- Edith has worked with young companies trying to build on their product from scratch. She has over 5 years’ experience and has a degree in Agribusiness Management

Small scale horticultural farmers pay a subscription fee of $ 1.00 per Month whereas large scale buyers pay $ 5.00 per month 

Applying for solve to raise funds. we are looking for possible partnerships and mentor ship on startup and just to share our experiences on the entrepreneurship journey