Farmspace - a low-cost AI-powered soil testing device.

Overfertilization with chemical fertilizer application by farmers to the soil for the purpose of increasing the availability of the required nutrients for plant growth pollutes the environment and degrade the health of the soil which increases loss of biodiversity and contribute to climate change as carbon and nitrogen oxide will be released to the atmosphere. These have led to a drastic decline of crop production for smallholder farmers who mostly depends on traditional guess work to examine their soil for information on deficiency or excessiveness of the required crop nutrients in their land that will help them precisely add the type and quantity of fertilizer needed. Globally, over 20% of the total arable land have experience degradation due to unsustainable and ineffective farming practices leading to low food production and causing environmental problems.

Smallholder farmers in Africa often face challenges accessing viable soil testing laboratories and how to get the best out of their resources. As most soil testing laboratories are located far in the cities/urban areas which are not easy access for rural smallholder farmers to check the fertility of their soil. Conventional even the few available soil testing laboratories is expensive for an average smallholder farmer, it is time-consuming as it takes mostly over 14 days for the result to be available, and a professional soil scientist is needed to operate the equipment for accurate soil analysis results. Most smallholder farmers use traditional process to check/make soil assessment which is a manual guess work that can affect the proper development of crop growth and development as wrong analysis of soil can cause overfertilization or under fertilization which can directly reduce crop production and impact negatively on the environment. 

These challenges have led to the deteriorating health condition of most farmlands in rural areas where most smallholder farmers live and cultivate their lands for food production. The unprofessional approach used by these smallholder farmers has contaminate the soil and water quality around farming fields which have reduce the quantity and quality of food produced.

Soil analysis is prerequisite pre-farming practice that is required to help farmers assess their soil health quality for the availability of the necessary nutrients and other elements that is required for sustainable crop and environmental development. Information about the soil data is necessary to help farmers make precise and efficient use of fertilizer and get the best suitable crop recommendation sustainable land and environmental management.  

Most rural smallholder farmers in Nigeria apply Major (NPK) or Micro (Sulphur) or organic fertilizer to their soil during farming without clearly understanding their soil information from chemical nutrient constituent level of their soil, organic matter, PH level and moisture level due to lack of awareness and understanding of the critical importance of doing soil analysis to their farming work.     

Farmspace is an agritech startup that empowers smallholder farmers with data-driven insights to sustainably manage their farms from analysis of their farming field data in Nigeria. We develop low-cost portable AI-powered soil testing devices to help smallholder farmers check their soil health status and analyze its nutrients in a few minutes to efficiently manage their crop growth and soil. The device uses sensors with advanced algorithms and machine learning to provide a comprehensive soil or water analysis in real-time. The test result is used to develop data-driven tailored decisions on sustainable soil and crop management practices via their mobile phones to recommend the most suitable crop types and how to efficiently apply fertilizer to improve crop productivity.
Nigerian rural smallholder farmers often face challenge accessing viable soil testing laboratories to check the fertility of their farmland, most of them uses manual method, which is inefficient, expensive and takes time.

The device is portable and easy-to-use which doesn't require a professional to operate, it is also powered by a solar-battery system that makes it possible for work in rural parts of Africa where electricity is major challenge. the device have a physical digital metering device that shows visualization and indicators on the soil profile after testing.

Step-by-step on how to use the Farmspace soil testing device:

1. Users collect soil sample from different part of their farmland and mix together.

2. Add up small water to the sample and make moist and divide it into 3 samples set inside the testing cups.

3. Place the cups with the sand sample in the 3 sensor side inside the device and on the device.

4. Allow the device to work for 15 minutes and check for various parameters such as (chemical nutrients (N, P, K & micronutrients) percentage per hectare, PH, conductivity and infiltration rate).

5. Print the result information from the data & merge it with the climate forecast data to make final decision on most suitable crop, fertilizer type and quantity, irrigation ratio and land management steps from seed sowing to harvest.

6. The result will be used to send actionable practices insights on farmers mobile phone every week to guide farmer on the daily sustainable management practices to achieve maximum result from their farming. 

Our solution provides easy-to-use soil testing service to farmers and environmentalist professionals. 

Our primary customers are rural smallholder farmers whose proximity to urban areas soil laboratory and the lack huge capital investment to buy expensive technological tools. these are people that have less than a hectare of land and use to farm food there eat and sell some to use the money generated for upkeeping. Most of these people lived and farm in rural areas where their homes and farms are located in close proximity.

Our secondary customers are environmentalists and fertilizer companies who need a soil analysis tool that will help them collect data and simplify their work.

Our team is consisting of 9 staffs who have skills in Agriculture, environment technology & business.
(1). Tijjani Ali Lawal (CEO): He is the founder CEO, an agricultural engineer with over 9 years of cognate experience in the application of innovative technology and digital tools to help smallholder rural farmers transform from traditional manual system of farming to more precise and sustainable farming.
(2). Muazu Ali Lawal (CTO): Oversee the operation and services of the device operation. He is the co-founder and a data analyst and an agricultural extension worker with 5 years' experience in training farmers on how to use data for better production and disseminate viable data-driven decision to farmers in Nasarawa state, Nigeria.
(3). Jennifer Aniogbu Chioma (COO): Oversees the day-to-day operation of the company. a biologist and vegetable farmer who is passionate and grew up into a farming family from younger age. She has worked as a volunteer data collection biodiversity and environment assessment staff with a local NGO for 7 years.
(4). Augustin Odu (Marketing Manager): He is a farmer and an agronomist with 11 years' experience in vegetable farming. He is charge of marketing and sells in the company. He submits and convey the soil analytic result to users via their mobile phones.
(5). Usman Ibrahim (Field operator): He is a field operator for the device.
(6). Muhammed Salau (Field operator): He is a field operator for the device
(7). Aliyu Muhammad (Storekeeper): Keeps all the device in good working condition and secured.
(8). Anita Chia (Soil scientist): He works as a soil analytics professional who explains and give professional advice and recommendations on how best to g sustainably manage the crops and soil for better yield.
(9). Amina Musa (Sells agent): Works as a sell and advertisement agent who has being a agriculture podcast operator for 7 years.

Our team consists of experienced engineers, data scientists, and business professionals. We have a track record of success in developing innovative products and bringing them to market. All individuals that make up our team have clearly been selected and placed in departments they are most suited for our company to achieve it set goals and objectives. every team member is tasked based on the needed requisite skills, experience and industry knowledge in sustainable & climate-smart agriculture.

Farmspace was founded in 2018 with CAC registration number (BN 2607181) and TIN 1024134288 by Tijjani Ali Lawal in Makurdi to help promote climate-smart technology adoption, and sustainability and contribute to the local farming economy by making precision agriculture accessible through affordable and reliable farm data analytics platform. Our team consists of 7 staff with experience in engineering, data analysis, and business with a track record of success in developing innovative products in the field of agriculture. Most smallholder farmers manually inspect their fields which has the potential to waste time, provide an inaccurate result, and waste resources.

We currently have 25 of our portable soil testing devices deployed with over 3000 farmers registered under our platform in the Riverline farming fields area at the riverbank in Makurdi, Benue state where farmers pay for our services via subscription.  We collect soil samples inside the device testing unit and then run the test for chemical analysis, PH value, and soil conductivity. The result is displayed on the meter screen showing the nutrient available and their quantity level in the soil.

As the new farming season is starting, we have carried out and complete 1800 different soil testing from covering over 200 hectares of farmland February 2023 up until date with test result returned to landowners which have helped them reduce the cost of buying excessive fertilizer increasing their efficiencies through better planned farm work from the information saving them time. resources and the environment. 

Our team is applying to solve to gain technical knowledge and get the opportunity to learn how to turn our solution into a viable impactful business to solve the issues of soil testing in farming. We want to experience the immersive learning platform by MIT Solve which will equip us with the knowledge, tools, attitudes and practice needed to undertake sustainable agriculture projects, ignite change in our community low-cost portable soil testing tool to help rural smallholder farmers check the health status of their farm for data-driven insight decision making helping them make the transformation from traditional to precise sustainable farming improving their crop production and reducing the impact on the environment. We hope to be part of the successful applicants to receive monetary and non-monetary support by the MIT Solve team.

We have watched the previous editions of the Solve programs and the grand unveiling of the winners which have motivated us and get us fired up to apply for the same opportunity to bring our passion for solving issues with poor agriculture and environmental delivery for the good of mankind and bring our passion for using a low-cost tool for increase farmers resilient and mitigate climate disruptions from our rural areas to the global stage.

Our low-cost solution helps rural smallholder farmers access reliable and affordable soil testing as a service. This assist to uncover new insights from their soil data through analysis of its chemical constituents, PH value, moisture, organic matter and conductivity.  It has improve their fertilizer usage to precise application in accordance with exact need based cutting cost, increasing operational efficiencies.

We are innovative as we design our solution to simplify soil fertility analysis with the help of an AI tool to save time and reduce the impact of farmers in the environment as they are confronted with climate change. the result from the soil testing is used to plan their day-to-day activities on their farms with a precise farming practices.

Our goal for next year is to do the following:

1. Produce 50units of our soil testing solution.

2. Expand our footprint to the 25 northern Nigeria states which are dominated by crop farmers communities.

3. increased awareness and transformative campaign to 100,000 farmers on the importance of soil testing and precise use of farm resources for better production.

4.  Employ 5 additional professionals in areas of technical and marketing support to take up more responsibility in our team as we grow to other markets.

5. We want to increase effective and efficient use of fertilizer and other farm inputs to conform with the recent climate disruptions. This is to increase farmers resilience and mitigate the impact of the disruptions as their easily make the transition to climate-smart agriculture. 

We want to increase the adoption of sustainable agriculture among smallholder rural farmers through our solution. We want to make progress in making agriculture a viable business to reduce poverty, create a means of livelihood among rural communities as well as increase adaptation of low cost Technoloy towards building livelihood with less impact on the environment.

Our solution will make it easy for smallholder farmers to solve the problem of overfertilization and unsustainable farming under the degraded soil and unpredicted climate change. Our low-cost tool will help farmers with the exact usage and prediction on the availability of the necessary nutrients for crop to flourish.

We develop low-cost portable AI-powered sensor for soil and water testing devices to help smallholder farmers check their soil health status and analyze its fertility in a few minutes to effectively and efficiently manage their crop growth and soil. The device uses sensors with advanced algorithms and machine learning to provide a comprehensive soil or water analysis in real-time. The test result is used to develop data-driven tailored decisions on sustainable soil and crop management practices for farmers sent directly on their mobile phones to recommend the most suitable crop types and how to efficiently apply fertilizer to improve crop productivity. Our device is designed portable for easy mobility which makes it accessible, easy to use, and affordable to farmers in rural areas.

Our business model currently is based on a subscription service to our customers as they pay $2 per 5 hectare field test, as buying the device may be considerably expensive for our primary targeted customers. Customers can also purchase the device outright or pay a monthly fee to use the device on a regular basis. We also plan to offer additional services, such as consulting and training, to help customers get the most out of the device

We plan to build the core part of our business where we increase the number of the units of our tool by 1000%, this will enable us raise more money to sustain our business and reach out to more users and also reinvest the revenue generated from the service we render and sells to hire more capable employees to expand our market footprints. We plan to raise investment through venture capitalist and other sources of viable investment as we grow to expand of marketing footprint across Nigeria and other adjacent countries that needed our services or want to use our products.

We have receive a startup grant from Tony elumelu foundation which has made us turn our viable idea into a viable business building our MVP and testing it in 2020, we are currently generating revenue which have help sustain our operations up until now. In the future we plan to use our revenue generated and seek more funding through investment to sustain our business operations.