SecureFarmer: Building the Next Generation Farmer

About Solution

17 million young people enter the job market every year in Sub-saharan Africa, while there is little absorption capacity in the current labor market While the average age is 19.5 years in Sub-Saharan Africa, the average farmer is 40 years old.

The combination of higher food demand, stunted yield potential, and increasingly worse farmland and unproductive and archaic farming techniques lead to local agriculture and local food production sector that does not yield anywhere close to its full potential. Many of the government-led programs have tended to focus on some extension services, coupled with intermittent interventions to support farmers with inputs and financing schemes to support smallholder farmers. These interventions tend to focus on infusions of support rather than s more systemic approach that couples policies, incentives, technical assistance and financing models that support farmers in a more structured way. There is a pressing need to stimulate a redesigned agro-sector for assured food security and sustainable agricultural production.

SecureFarmer’s mission is to develop sustainable farming communities by deploying the most applicable mechanical and digital technology for Africa. The SecureFarmer initiative was formed with the objective to connect the dots between inclusive growth strategies for the largest economy and most populous country in Africa, by developing real opportunities in the agricultural space to be accessed by exploiting smart data approaches. These smart data approaches help narrow the gap and asymmetry of information between communities of producers and the gains in productivity and increased yields. Moreover, SecureFarmer wishes to harness the homegrown determination and resilience that typifies the African spirit.

SecureFarmer targets youth and women who constitute non-traditional

farmers within Nigeria, with the wrap-around services that they need, but often times do not receive to be successful in agriculture. With SecureFarmer resources and shared economy approach, we provide land, mechanical and digital tools to assist groups of women and youth farmers into agriculture, a group that has traditionally been marginalized or found it hard to enter farming due to barriers to entry. We plan to have a mix of farmers in the group with the aim to fill 80 percent of the land with women and youth farmers; the remaining 20% will consist of traditional farmers.

SecureFarmer’s mission is to bring relevant information to the most vulnerable member of Africa, in order to bridge the gap between knowledge and implementation in the agriculture sector. Fertilizer is a key input in farming and increasing adoption of it and other value-added inputs by a growing segment of producers is required for food security in the global south. We reduce the asymmetry of information that youth and women producers face through accessible and actionable data for increasing yields. In order to achieve this, we at SecureFarmer are dedicated to exposing and disseminating this information in a way that is adoptable and capable of improving livelihoods.

The initiative will focus on maximizing farmer productivity through three areas:

1. Aggregation of farmers on unencumbered land of 200 hectares and larger to catalyze their cultivation of Cassava, maize, and soya. Access to land is a significant barrier to farmers achieving any significant scale in the planting and cultivating of these commodities. Youth and

women specifically are traditionally excluded from securing land for cultivation. SecureFarmer identifies and acquires the land and entitlements prior to establishing new communities,

eliminating that risk for smallholder farmers. All SecureFarmer developed communities are located within 75km of the purchasing processing or production facility to ensure farmer’s crops have access to market.

2. Input Supply and Services: Provide farmer clusters with appropriate high quality inputs and mechanized services that will enable them to cultivate more land, reduce the drudgery and labor intensive aspects of farming which typically limits youth and women from entering the agriculture sector. We provide inputs and services on credit, which eases adoption of the technology to smallholder farmers and has the ability to increase yields two to three fold by using tractors, fertilizer, and high quality seed purchased in bulk for cultivation

3. Data: We are leveraging AI and Data science to empower farmers to make actionable decisions on farmer sites. Farmers will receive training and access to data from multiple sources presented in our easy to use mobile, web, and sms.

SecureFarmer the app, utilizes data from:

  • Internet of Things connected tractors

  • Site specific weather forecast

  • Drone produced remote imagery and sensing

  • Industry experts on crop cultivation and best agronomical practices

SecureFarmer already provides business development to farmers with wrap around services by using data, aggregation, and mechanization. We expect to triple incomes of smallholder farmers by increasing capacity and yields, while also educating them in modern practices. SecureFarmer builds the next generation of farmers by using the tools of the future with the most efficient and production farming methods..

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