farmX Mobile Solutions

Bakassi refugee farmers lack access to agro-support services. Absence of refugee farmers’ data is responsible for lack of credit, loans and insurance as financial institutions decline credit services to refugee farmers. Poor farm practices and market access is responsible for poor yields, weakening socio-economic activities and means of livelihood. These impact has caused malnourishment, drop out and hunger to refugee population. FarmX mobile solution profiles and provide digital identity for refugee farmers. Input suppliers and service providers’ sign-on, registers, get verified and on-boarded on our platform. The platform matches refugee farmers request to input suppliers and vice versa to access credit, insurance, inputs, wider markets and tractor services. Farmers now receives daily market and weather updates, access transport services to convey produce to market, buys and sells on our platform. Scaling our solution improve smallholder farmers’ yields, de-risk food supply chain, and increase refugee and vulnerable population adaptation & resilience.

Bakassi farmers produce yields only 30%, causing vulnerable smallholder farmers to lose profits they can’t spare. Lack of access to requisite information negatively impacts harvests, farmers and their family livelihoods. When bakassi farmers’ poorly yield crops don’t make it to market, economic development of agriculture-dependent Bakassi refugee suffer as well. 80% of bakassi refugees’ children are out of school and go to bed hungry due to poor socio-economic activities. CGAP (2016) reports that 50 million smallholder farmers population in Nigeria still do not have access to improved agricultural services, nor have access to market. This data exposes a 70% gap between total available market and serviceable obtainable market for food and agricultural services. With 65% of Nigerians earning their livelihoods from farming alone, Smallholder farmers are currently the hardest hit in the value chain. Smallholder farmers presently rely on paper-based records, middlemen exploitation, outdated agro-information, limited market, verbal promises and complicated agreements, poor yield seedling, restricted access to data or price barriers to this data, graft, language and education barrier. These problems makes it infeasible for farmers to address their concerns. Increasing demand for food security for growing 200 million population reflects the need for optimization of smallholder farmers’ production.

Bakassi refugees, with a population of 2 million and dominantly farmers are Nigeria’s longest suffering political orphans, who were driven out from their native land due to political unrest and instability. They are sitting in squalid refugee communities facing hunger, loss of diversity and poor quality of livelihood. Farming systems are the only social support that sustains Bakassi refugees.

Addressing refugee farmers’ needs starts with getting to know farmers through conversation, observation and co-creation. Information gathered through this engagement leads to our building, testing and redesigning our platforms until it effectively meet farmer’s needs. We build our application to better address the specific context, culture, behaviours and expectations such as lack of market access, poor yields, information for better agriculture services, inability to access input suppliers. Designing together with farmers, we partner throughout the project lifecycle, co-creating solutions, and continuously gathering and incorporating users’ feedback for improvement.

Farmers now downloads farmX from Google store or dial our local dialect IVR number +2348021810028 to access solutions. Bakassi refugee farmers now support their families through improved and sustainable farming practices, 60% of food loss from farms each year will be eliminated, and farmers’ children will feed and return to school happy.

FarmX mobile solutions which comprises of FarmX mobile Application (farmX) and farmTRUST Local dialect IVR switchboard (IVR) are innovative mobile matching platforms that harnesses artificial intelligence to connect refugee farmers to agro value chain players for increase productivity, market access and efficiency which help them retain bigger share of their crop value. With the exponential penetration of mobile network coverage to rural areas, our mobile solutions leverages on network coverage to help more farmers scale their farming practices by improving yields and connecting them to larger supply chains, thus, addressing food security, adaptation & resilience to climate change. FarmX and IVR offers services such as  profiling of farmers, interns, logistics services and agro-allied services, which enables digital identity of farmers. These aid in improving access to inputs and extension services from government to refugee farmers. Data from our platform also enable development agencies access farmers for plant fertilizer distribution and inputs based on gender, location and size of farm. Our platfrom also provide required information and data to banks and insurance companies who provides credit and insurance services to women refugee farmers’ to access agriculture insurance, loans, legal services and equipment hire at subsidised and reduced rates, whereby addressing gender inclusivity.

Our platform offer mobile financial services to farmers by providing logistics were farm produce are conveyed to cold-room or online market, buying and selling on the platform with secured payment to their account. Using mobile money on our platform aid farmers receive payments via their mobile phone for each farm produce sold, thus addressing mobile financial service and inclusion. The more farm produce sold on our platform, the more money is received by refugee farmers.

farmTRUST local dialect Farmers’ switchboard is the first farmers’ local dialect Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform that automates telephony system technology and interact with farmer caller on local dialect, gathering the required information and request from farmers and routing the calls to the particular appropriate services. With our modern, sophisticated IVR systems, we gather requests and input from refugee farmers through local dialect to service providers. Our farmTRUST sensor drone services Identifies nutrient deficiencies, pest damage, fertilizer needs and water quality for farmers and also enhance localization and alarming on specific outbreak of disease and pest, with acquisition of the geospatial distribution and mapping of farms and services.

FarmX mobile solutions profiles and provide digital wallets to farmers. With our Apps and IVR, farmers now buy livestock feed/fertilizer and it’s delivered at farm gate. Farmers’ data is harnessed to connect them to input suppliers, off-takers and tractor services. Farmers now receives weather update and forecast, commodity pricing, access transport service to convey produce to market and coldrooms, with credit access from their phones.

Get More Done Faster

Increases farm productivity and accelerate adoption with a flexible request tools that matches requestor to service provider based on location.

Go Where Your Business Takes You

Order inputs on mobile devices, check your inventory, take customer orders, approve purchases, and view key performance indicators on the go

Take Back Control over Your Processes

Eliminate inefficiencies, and streamline operations with end-to-end integration of farm processes to control costs and improve profits with local dialect options.

Serve Your Customers Better

Accelerate issue resolution in farms and increase service provider responsiveness with a faster and simpler access to the information they need.

Expand Market Access

Increase capacity and sell agricultural produce to consumers, guide farmers on increasing market value by effectively selecting the right produce specification.

Gain Agility and Focus On Your Business

Take advantage of online training and functionality, security, and scalability.

Get The Insight You Need, When You Need It

Get notification and monitor performance in real-time with user dashboards and SMS.

FarmX mobile Application harnesses Artificial Intelligence to determine the standard of agricultural produce, connects farmers directly to agro service providers, delivers agricultural producers directly to farmers doorsteps and uses Data Analytics to guide farmers on increasing market value by effectively selecting the right produce and reduces labour costs through customized smart agricultural equipment hiring. 

Our platform uses data to improve access to inputs and extension services from government to smallholder farmers. These also provides required information to banks and insurance companies who provides credit and insurance services to refugee farmers. Data from our platform has enable development agencies access refugee farmers for plant fertilizer distribution and inputs based on gender, location and size of farm. 

FarmTRUST local dialect IVR is the first farmers’ local dialect Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform that automates telephony system technology and interact with farmer caller on local dialect, gathering the required information and request from farmers and routing the calls to the particular appropriate services. 

FarmTRUST Agsensor drone services identifies nutrient deficiencies, pest damage, fertilizer needs and water quality for farmers and also enhance localization and alarming on specific outbreak of disease and pest, with acquisition of the geospatial distribution and mapping of farms and services. Improves crop & livestock health and yield predictability, 

FarmTRUST Blockchain creates traceability and authenticity on our food value chain and our farmTRUST ag IoT mitigate risks from weather, pest and diseases, increasing farmers productivity and profitability.

FACTORS:

Clear focus on farmers and their needs.

Raise broad awareness and use multiple channels.

Credible clear information.

Responsive.

APPROACH:

Focus on farmers, the challenges farmers face and motivating factors.

Campaigns were sufficiently intensive to be memorable.

Consistent messages pretested and revised until the intended audiences understood, responded emotionally, and retained the key message.

Programs were frequently monitored to evaluate and adjust the message and promotion strategy in response to audience feedback.

ACTIVITIES:

Farmers receives access to our solution and functionalities through WhatsApp group, SMS, local dialect IVR.

Trainings are held on how to interact with local dialect IVR and use farmX mobile.

The program promoted a small number of consistent doable actions highlighting behaviour as beneficial and  convenient.

Measurement and evaluation, focus group interviews and feedbacks.

OUTPUT:

Farmers gain awareness of the role of farmX solutions in mitigating risks, poor yield, food loss and poor market access. 

Farmers receives ongoing mentorship, access to resources and collaborative value chain community.

Farmers gain competency in various aspect of identifying nutrient deficiencies, pest damage, fertilizer needs and water quality for farms.

The public gain awareness of farmX online food market.

OUTCOME:

Farmers demonstrates a shift in values, engaging with divergent approaches to solving perennial problems.

Farmers accepts farmX mobile solution as fundamental to tackling food loss challenges.

Farmers manage and support other interested farmers in adopting farmX solutions for impact and change.

Farmers scale to a point where they are operationally self-sufficient and engage in double-bottom-line activities.

farmX application and IVR empowers 20,000 rural farmers through inclusion, create socio-economic activities for women and minorities, empower smallholder farmers, and increase farmers income.

We intend to cover 200,000 rural farmers in one year time and 3 million farmers, Agro value-chain players and food consumers in the next 5 years.

In one year, our goal is to turn information into insights for 200,000 smallholder farmers and refugee farmers in fragile communities and present it to them in a convenient manner that enables precise decision making on the farm. In 5 years, 2 million smallholder farmers will be offered unique access to larger markets of over 50 million consumers using mobile phones. Our sole aim is to support farmers including refugee farmers gain more productivity and value out of their farming and thereby guaranteeing food security and improve living standards. We will measure the impact through one to one, structured and semi-structured Interviews. Using focus groups to bring together farmers to gather feedback, surveys and Indicators.

Our platforms will enable connections between rural smallholder farmers, small and growing businesses, knowledge institutes, financial institutions, government and civil society organization. Different entities will participate in our ecosystem. Knowledge and resources will be developed and shared within our network ecosystem which will boosts business climate, improve relationships and create new commercial initiatives for agricultural production in the African continent.

1. Increase in raw-material prices caused by inflation could affect the project both the organization and end-user, to mitigate these, prices will be mutually decided with suppliers, upfront at beginning of each fiscal for tie-up products. 

2. Indiscriminate/Faulty use of the products by farmers could affect both organization and end-user, to mitigate these risk, El-kanis field staff will train and educate farmers. 

3. Dependence on Key project management/operational team, input suppliers and service providers could pose as a risk to the organization – Attrition Management, back-ups and Succession planning are mitigating factors to address such unforeseen also training and development of next level are being taken. 

4. Environmental conditions beyond the control of the Company like floods, droughts, monsoons, storm destruction of telecom mast etc. can adversely affect operations of the Company we will ensure that farms and livestock are adequately insured.

1. We ensure all agreement, terms and conditions, procedures and policies are clearly written out and partners understand their role in the project 

2. We organise In-house training and capacity development on new technology deployment 

3.We Have Human resources and staff capable of managing the project

4. Attrition Management, back-ups and Succession planning are mitigating factors we deploy to address such unforeseen also training and development of next level are being taken.

5. Prices will be mutually decided with suppliers, upfront at beginning of each fiscal for tie-up products.

6. Ensuring that all assets and business is insured 

Nil

1. 15 staff works full time.

2. 30 works as part-time.

I am an experienced entrepreneur, engineer and agricultural systems solution Innovator with a demonstrated history of working in program development, energy sector, construction, agriculture and food industry in Nigeria. Skilled in project management, rural development and operations management, I have sailed through the hurdles of entrepreneurship for over 10 years and I’m better in managing men, materials and money.

My in-house have detailed understanding of designing frontend and backend mobile application content for agriculture efficiency. Also proficient in Mobile User Interface and User Experience Design and Application Programming Interfaces (API). My developers also have knowledge of multiple operation platforms in the current industry which is majorly Android, iPhone, IoT, and machine learning programming. They are experienced coding in all the platform and conversant with Security, Database management, Hardware interaction, Implementation of memory allocation, Modern Language Programming Skills like C#, Java, HTML 5 and CSS. 

Our business capability and expertise is also an essential skill our developers possess which tends to play a critical role in this field. Other areas of our in-house specialty covers project processes such as initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, controlling and closing. In the context of humanitarian services, our expertise allows us to maximize our workers’ potential and deliver optimal products and services with strict data policy. From recruitment, to hiring, training and deploying agents, we adhere to industry best practices while customising our People Management, Human Resources and Workforce Management policies and procedures in respect of the local culture and business environment. 

New Dawn Microfinance Bank Limited creates financial and insurance services on our mobile platform. These allows users transfer money and make payments through their mobile devices. User equipped with our mobile solutions can conduct transactional activities using their device.

Airtel Nigeria, a leading mobile telecommunication services provider in Nigeria and a member of Airtel Africa Group, is committed to providing innovative, exciting, affordable and quality mobile services to Nigerians giving them the freedom to communicate, rise above their daily challenges and drive economic and social development. They provide platform for our Interactive Voice Response (IVR) using local language for farmers’ support and flash ad and incoming call ad that will promote refugee farmers market access

Agriculture for Sustainable Future arranges for short term credit for rurals on our platform in order to help them improve their agriculture and other trade and business, encourage members on adoption of new and improved methods of agriculture. Arranges supply of seeds, fertilizers, agriculture implements.

Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Agricultural Resources is charged with responsibility for planning and implementation of the state policies on Agricultural Resources. They are responsible for leasing 20,000 hectares of land to refugees on our platform for 5 years cultivation.

Key Partners

• Government ministry of Agriculture
• Farmers’ association
• Cooperatives
• Veterinary association
• Input suppliers
• National and international development agencies
• Transport unions

Key Activities

1.         Match farmers request to service providers

2.         Match input suppliers/service providers services to farmers'request

3.         Deliver orders made on the platform to customer

4.         Ensure prompt payment to sellers

5.         Check for asymmetric information on the platform

6.         Get feedback from farmers

7.         Hire equipment from platform

Customer Segment

• Poultry farmers
• Crop farmers
• input suppliers/producers
• Food vendors
• Agro allied dealers

Customer Relationship

• IVR
• Phone call
• SMS
• WhatsApp
• Focus group
• One on one contact
• Radio call-in programme

Value Proposition

• Customer Intimacy
• Process Efficiency
• Transparency
• Accountability
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Convenience
• Consistency
• Timely response to request and delivery

Key Resources

• Internet service
• Input shops
• Transport system for logistics and delivery
• Dedicated personnel (ICT and field agents)
• Farm tractors

Channel

• Local Dialect Interactive Voice Response
• Facebook
• One-on-one meeting
• Cooperatives
• farmers WhatsApp group
• Local dialect Radio programme
• Local dialect TV programme
• Interview and call-in programme
• Community Town-hall meeting

Cost Structure

Direct cost/payments=$ 56,218.22      

Indirect cost/Payment=$13,093.71 

Capital cost= $20,000.00

Other cost=$10,000.00

Revenue Stream

• Selling of inputs online and offline shops
• Equipment hiring
• Cost on commission
• Service providers subscription payment
• Ad services on platform
• Leasing of platform for government/development agencies for agriculture and food interventions programme

Our business plan forecasts financial sustainability in the third year of operations, mainly by charging input suppliers and service providers a modest subscription fee for the use of farmX as matchmaking platform. Corporate Marketing programmes and consulting services will be big contributors, too, where we will offer tailored farm matchmaking services. Selling business support to farmers and Agro-value chain players using farmX and IVR, providing services to rural farmers such as sales of fertilizer, livestock feed, equipment and selling of farmers produce with agreed commission on items sold. We will facilitate trade relationship between farmers and the external market through aggregation, business to business, business to customer with agreed profit sharing formula from all parties.

These tools will enable service providers and input suppliers to cost-effectively manage innovative new campaigns that engage their customers in sales of inputs, hiring of equipment and direct funding of small-scale farmers through revolving credit schemes.

For now, we have to be financed by a combination of grants, subsidies, personal funds, soft loans and generated revenue. Our aim is to secure all funding including MIT Solve, necessary to bridge the coming months before 2019 ending.

Federal Government Anchor Borrowers Scheme represents our Third stage funding. Mrs. Rita Edwin-Boko gave us round four funding. We’re applying to USAID Development Innovation Ventures. We’ve received notification from Bank of Agriculture that our application for Agricultural development programme passed the administrative check. In a matter of weeks I expect to secure funding from our partner, New Dawn Bank.

We expect to leverage on Solve platform to gain access to the most relevant leaders, mentors and investors in our focused areas which is community-driven innovation, technology in agriculture and Agri-business with remote coaching that can help scale our business case and boost visibility.   Eight characteristics of our expected partnership support from Solve will include:   

(1) Relevance: Promoting our market-based solutions to our sector globally.

(2) Impact: meaningfully contributing to systems change that will advance overall rural economic growth with commercially viable and replicable business models   

(3) Innovation and growth: addressing barriers that must be overcome in order to accelerate our commercially viable business.  

 (4) Value Add: Supporting our organization in tackling regional food security challenges through scaling our solutions.     

 (5) Business Advisory – Bringing professional advices and services to my business. 

  (6) Resource Smart Technology – Help in deploying our mobile and web technology to optimise the efficiency of smallholder farmers in other countries  

(7) Access to Markets – Creating wider market for smallholder farmers on our platform through linkages to international market and producers.     

(8) Support and Financing - Accelerating services and networking opportunities, improving capacity development and financial supports such as equity funding, loans or grants for my solutions.

Nil

Cargill: to connect with Cargill for trading, processing, and distribution, as well as offering a range of farmer services and risk management solutions.

USAID: To accelerate agriculture and food security program.

Food and Agriculture Organization: to partner in achieving food security  and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy live.

World Food Programme:  Increase agricultural productivity, expand market participation, increase resilience of vulnerable households, improve business enabling environment and increase access to finance. 

Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation: Partner to scale our solution

Feed the Future: strengthen and expand access to markets and trade, improving the business enabling environment

IBM: technology partnership

International Finance for Agriculture Development: partner to improve food value chain through youth empowerment.

We develop and integrate crop and soil monitoring technologies on our mobile application for farmers use.

The amount of data that can potentially be captured by phones and drones on daily basis give farmers a new ability to predict changes and identify opportunities. We predict that our AI on mobile application (for weather, crop health, predicting crop yield, etc) will become more and more commonplace for smallholder and large industrial farms in the coming 5-10 years.

Crop and Soil Monitoring – we leverage computer vision and deep-learning algorithms to process data captured by mobile phones and drones to monitor crop and soil health.

It will be important that farmers are equipped with training that is up-to-date to ensure our solutions are used and continue to improve. This will help to prove the value of these tools over the long haul.

Additionally, extensive testing and validation of our platform AI applications in this sector is critical as agriculture is impacted by environmental factors that cannot be controlled unlike other industries where risk is easier to model and predict.

We anticipate that the funds will help us build, test and deploy as we see steady adoption of AI in agriculture sector.

Nil

Our solution incorporate strategies to ensure women inclusion and equitable access to data and opportunities. Identification of income-generating activities which primarily benefit female farmers; promotion of women’s employment, and active communication campaigns on potential, new roles of women in the provision of farm support services. We  profile female users and instigate promotional activities, create special collections such as quick access to credit, loans, and insurance and leasing of tractor services at discounted rate.

Our platform uses data to improve access to inputs and extension services from government to female smallholder farmers. These also provides required information to banks and insurance companies who provides credit and insurance services to female farmers. Data from our platform has enable development agencies access female farmers for plant fertilizer distribution and inputs.

Our project is designed so that impact on female users can be measured at discrete milestones with focus on outcomes. Also mitigate risks to the security of female users and their data. We also embrace an iterative process that allows for incorporating feedback as we measure the impact through one to one, structured and semi-structured interviews, using focus groups to bring together female farmers to gather feedback, surveys and Indicators.

Bakassi people are Nigeria’s longest suffering political orphans, who were driven out from their native land due to political unrest and instability. Poor agricultural development in Bakassi refugee camps is considered responsible for 80% hunger, disease outbreak and less socio-economic activities among the over 1 million settlers.

 FarmX solution builds resilience, accelerate delivery and impact of digital humanitarian assistance using life-enhancing mobile-enabled services. Our solution create socio-economic activities for women and minorities and increase farmer’s income, reduce food waste, provide digital identity, basic mobile finance, enable insurance and loans and better life for Bakassi families.

FarmX mobile solution accelerates and improves food security by matching refugee farmers’ request to agro service providers and vice versa for optimum productivity and capacity utilization of refugees’ farms.  It helps refugee farmers scale their farming practices by improving yields and connecting them to larger supply chains, thus, addressing food security, adaptation & resilience to climate change. Using mobile money from our platform aids refugees create e-wallet and receive payments via their mobile phone for each farm produce sold, thus addressing mobile financial service and inclusion.

 We’re ethically responsible, guaranteeing respect for diversity, human and fundamental social rights. We build our application to better address specific context, culture, behaviours and expectations of users. With the fund, 10% Bakassi farmers will support their families through improved farming practice, 30% of bakassi refugee farmers’ children will be fed and will return to school, socio-economic activities will raise standard of living among bakassi refugees. 

Nil

Bakassi people are Nigeria’s longest suffering political orphans, who were driven out from their native land due to political unrest and instability. Poor agricultural development in Bakassi refugee camps is considered responsible for 80% hunger, disease outbreak and less socio-economic activities among the over 1 million settlers.

 FarmX solution builds resilience, accelerate delivery and impact of digital humanitarian assistance using life-enhancing mobile-enabled services. Our solution create socio-economic activities for women and minorities and increase farmer’s income, reduce food waste, provide digital identity, basic mobile finance, enable insurance and loans and better life for Bakassi families.

FarmX mobile solution accelerates and improves food security by matching refugee farmers’ request to agro service providers and vice versa for optimum productivity and capacity utilization of refugees’ farms.  It helps refugee farmers scale their farming practices by improving yields and connecting them to larger supply chains, thus, addressing food security, adaptation & resilience to climate change. Using mobile money from our platform aids refugees create e-wallet and receive payments via their mobile phone for each farm produce sold, thus addressing mobile financial service and inclusion.

 We’re ethically responsible, guaranteeing respect for diversity, human and fundamental social rights. We build our application to better address specific context, culture, behaviours and expectations of users. With the fund, 10% Bakassi farmers will support their families through improved farming practice, 30% of bakassi refugee farmers’ children will be fed and will return to school, socio-economic activities will raise standard of living among bakassi refugees. 

Nil