14/04/2019
On way to make sure that by the your 2030 the SDG's are mate. Agriculture has been a key point of economic sector in most of African countries. So how are we youth utilize on it to make sure that we are successful on this..! Am so proud of Dr Strive Masiyiwa To Be President Of Zimbabwe
Agrifood entrepreneurs of Africa (Part 2)
__"Fortune favors the bold."
Why are so many smallholder farmers still so poor and hungry, whilst others on the same soil produce plentiful harvests? This inequity is a serious challenge across our continent and one that some entrepreneurs are working to solve. Are you? Let’s talk.
Almost two months ago now, I started a new series with a post about "Hello Tractor" whose co-founder I met in Nairobi a few weeks later. Today I want to tell you about the “One Acre Fund”, another amazing agri-venture whose clients are also smallholder farmers in Africa.
Both Hello Tractor and the One Acre Fund were launched by visionary young professionals who saw human needs, thought of ideas how to address them, and then developed innovative business models, together with co-founders.
The One Acre Fund vision started in 2005 when co-founder Andrew Youn went on a trip to Kenya that changed his life. By chance he happened to meet two smallholder farmers living in the same village: one was really struggling to produce, whilst the other was harvesting four times more food... on the same amount of land.
An urban-based MBA and management consultant at the time, this crop yield difference at first puzzled Andrew and then he decided to solve for it… that is, to answer the question with which I opened this post!
What did he do next? "I didn't write a business plan about my idea," Andrew told my team. "I actually (returned to Kenya and) tried a business model with 40 entrepreneurial farmers. I made a small loan, delivered professional farm inputs and training services, and those farmers delivered a terrific harvest!"
The individual parts of One Acre’s “solution” were not actually new ideas, Andrew noted. Many organizations work with smallholder farmers around the world.
__Their innovation was the unique “bundle” of , and (plus a dash of mobile technology) that he and co-founders Eric Pohlman and John Gachunga eventually put together, all soon focused on putting "Farmers First!" (not funders or anyone else).
Launched in 2006 in rural Kenya and Rwanda where Andrew then lived for 12 years, the One Acre Fund now works with 800,000+ farm families across Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, so far…They have 7,000 full time employees. Wow! (That's what they mean when they talk about "scaling" a business).
How does their business model work?
# The One Acre team on the ground continually do market research, gathering data and going to where the smallholder farmers live and work, to hold meetings and listen to needs, ideas and priorities.
# Once they become clients, smallholder farmers are given high-quality seeds and fertilizer on credit. These are called "asset-based loans."
# The One Acre Fund offers flexible credit terms that allow clients to pay back the loans in small installments throughout the entire season (rather than just at harvest).
__The loan is made simple and efficient in most countries by mobile technology, a real game changer. In some places, it’s all done by mobile money!
# Local staff deliver and distribute the inputs (seeds and fertilizer) to places within WALKING distance of the farmers. Sometimes they also offer credit to buy other items like cookstoves and solar lighting.
# Smallholder farmers get specialized training throughout the season, including best practices in planting and safe use of inputs like fertilizer.
# Marketing advice is critical. Part of the training is focused on helping farmers better manage when to sell their crops to maximize profits. Rather than sell surplus right away at harvest, when prices are rarely at their highest, they suggest, for example, holding some back to sell later when they’ll make more money…
__Senior Class: What kind of business model is this?
Hint: About 75% of One Acre Fund's field expenses are covered by the farmers’ loan repayments, the rest by donors. (If the farmer doesn't repay the loan in full on time, they aren't allowed to participate for the next planting season until the debt is settled).
When my team asked the One Acre Fund's co-founder if he had any inspiring quote he’d like to share with you here on this platform, he answered: “Fortune favors the bold."
"Of course, no one should take wild risks," Andrew explained, "but I often think that the biggest single risk entrepreneurs face is simply a failure of imagination. If you set a plan to grow your business by 2x in size in the next five years, you may hit your goal.”
“If you set a plan to grown 10x, you will probably miss your goal... but still, you may have grown by 8x instead!"
Hello Platform! Are you taking notes?
To be continued. . .
Image credit: https://changecreator.com/3-social-entrepreneurs-blazing-new-trails-toward-sustainability/
23/09/2019
23/09/2019
19/06/2019
14/04/2019