What is the name of your organization?
AGRIGATE COMPANY- SMC LIMITED
What is the name of your solution?
Agrigate micro-saving system
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Building sustainable financial cycles for smallholder farmers.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Kampala, Uganda
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Uganda
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
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What specific problem are you solving?
Smallholder farmers are faced with unstable income patterns as a result of seasonality in farming, they only earn income after harvest and by the time the income comes, there are a lot of demands waiting like, school fees, healthcare, feeding, etc. By the time a new season starts, they have little or nothing left to purchase quality inputs for production in the next season, because of a lack of finances to buy quality inputs, they resort to poor quality home saved seeds that have low viability, low or no tolerance to climate stresses thus resulting into low yields.
This is exacerbated in refugee farming families as they have small plots of land on which they operate, the majority of the farmers, (refugees) are given 30 x 30 plots of land which they have to utilize for production and homestead at the same time, this limits their ability to produce thus resulting into inadequate available food for consumption. Many farmers in the host communities produce on small fragmented plots of land. This limits their production levels as a result of using poor quality farm inputs, this causes threats of food insecurity, poverty, and malnutrition thus increasing the impacts of climate change.
What is your solution?
Agrigate’s unique mobile micro-saving technology enables smallholder farmers to save for drought-resistant input varieties in small increments over a given time. By dialing *284*34#, farmers can access inputs in small increments. The Agrigate digital layaway model redefines financing of agricultural technologies and access to agricultural input distribution in several ways, which include, the digital layaway making use of a USSD code and a scratch card, (voucher) to enable farmers to save for inputs. Through our village digital agents, Agrigate conducts onsite training for our registered farmers with a major emphasis on integrated regenerative farming approaches before the planting season. The farmers also receive messages on good agronomic practices directly on the phones as the system has an E-extension system embedded in there that enables farmers to receive customized agricultural support services. The model creates employment opportunities for rural residents as village digital agents and also gives women an opportunity to save for quality farm inputs with less interference from men thus reducing cases of domestic violence in rural farming families. The digital layaway model is a win-win model for all actors involved.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our solution is targeting all smallholder farmers in Uganda, majority of the smallholder farmers are located in deep rural communities that are hard to reach, they struggle to access basic crop production inputs as a result of lack of access due to them being located in remote communities and lack of financial muscle due to seasonality in farming.This limits their production levels as a result of using poor quality farm inputs that are not tolerant to drought conditions and have low yield potential, this causes threats of food insecurity, poverty, and malnutrition thus increasing the impacts of climate change. Therefore, it's important to improve the productivity of the available small farms through an integrated farming approach to enable farmers to increase their on-farm production levels and also respond to climate shocks accordingly.
