Taimba

Problem:

In Africa, Agriculture supply chain is very fragmented and almost does not exist. 

SMALL SCALE FARMERS; This is characterized by; (i) 50% food loss, which amounts to over USD30B (ii) No access to formal market (iii) Poor farming practices.

URBAN TRADERS; (i) Traders spend 2-3HRs and USD4 to procure for produce each day. (ii) High and volatile prices of food (iii) No adequate capita

Solution:

Taimba is building a data-driven Agriculture supply chain that will allow us to know when and where the produce is ready, and matching it to urban traders demand.

Scaling up;

The problem we are addressing cuts across sub-saharan markets where small holder farming on average contributes 30% GDP, employs majority of populations and feeds cities. Given we are targeting small holder farmers and informal urban traders, and through this value chain 95% of food goes through. Our strategy is to build a template we can replicate in other markets.

With Taimba we are unlocking a formal market for smallholder farmers through their farm groups. By fixing the supply chain farmers will no longer have to worry about fair prices, food wastage which renders them poorer every season. Once we provide reliable market and now they can focus on their core business which is farming. Through the data we will have visibility of when the farmers plants, progress of the farm and when produce is ready. 

Our vision is to transform Agriculture value chain such that all actors get fair share of their investment. Our customers will benefit from stable prices, access to stock financing hence grow and expand their business. Our interventions will guarantee stronger and stable local communities. 

Our business model. 

(i) Through our Agronomists we educate farmer on best practice (ii) We do sign contracts with farmers to guarantee them access to markets and better prices. (iii) Farmers access loans to purchase certified seeds and inputs (iv) Urban traders place orders (v) Our vans distributes to customers shops. (vi) Customers can access stock loans at the point of delivery.

Our Technology;

Agri-manager; This app can be used by farmers or our staff to collect farmer bio or to record harvesting quantities.

Warehouse App; Used to manage operations, stocks movements, pricing.

Distribution; Used to make deliveries, pick orders, sales

Online app; For customers to place orders on their own.

Rural Small-holder farmers; Over 80% small holders farmers are women, average age is 55, they have around 5 children and own less than 0.9 hectares of land. I group up in the village and we used to farm to meet family needs, so I understand this problem organically. Our agronomists work with farmers to assist them on best practice. Farmers need is reliable market, fair prices, certified seeds and capital. We sign contract with farmers, introduce them to our partner service providers who give them loans to access certified seeds and inputs.

Urban traders; Over 85% of urban traders are women. They wake up at 3:30AM to use public means or walk to open air market to source produce, this exposes them to attacks. This means they don't spend time with their kids who are going to school. Prices are very volatile, many times they won't get everything they need due to high prices or product runs out. Through our business model we deliver to their shops (dukas) saving them USD3 and 3.5 hours daily. We extend credit and stock financing to customers meaning they can stock more. 

Small holder farmers are currently subject to dealing with multiple brokers who pay them little, hoard produce in speculation, and collaborate to add large margins to produce in order to make higher margins. The result is high cost of food which retailers have to purchase thinning their margins and leading to poor quality due to the many handoffs. Taimba brings transparency to the cost of food by working with partners who educate farmers on best practice, farmers are then able to fairly price produce and shortens the value chain delivering to retailer fair price and quality

Currently Agriculture supply chain is fraught with brokers, an average of 5 who lengthen the chain and cause lots of wastage. Through our solution we shorten the chain, we have packhouse and cold storage and we have been able to cut wastage by more than 60%. Our system allows us to understand next week/month demand hence allowing us to plan our sourcing efficiently. By use of technology and data this provides foods movement and price transparency across the chain.

1) Warehouse application which we use to manage data, pricing, products, customers CRM, and reporting. 

2) Distribution app which is used by sales team to create new customers, sale, pick orders or make deliveries.

3) Agri-Manager app is used to capture farmer details, harvesting etc

4) Online app for customers to place orders

We used mobile money solution called Mpesa to pay farmers, casual laborors. Also our customers pay using Mpesa for goods delivered.

We believe small holder farmers co-operatives in sub-saharan countries will play a key role in shaping and revolutionizing Agriculture value chain, and these ultimately will result into high productivity hence better earning and stronger, sustainable local communities. If we can strengthen Agriculture value chains we can create more wealth down-stream and ensure we reduce illiteracy, poverty and hunger. By developing Agricultural technologies, this will spur innovation and growth in long term and transform the supply and ultimately attract more investors and partners. We have seen technology can incentivize more youth to pursue Agriculture careers and innovations.

Cumulatively we have sourced from over 2,000 farmers. In five years we will grow this number to 10,000.

Next year we will expand to new markets within Nairobi city. In five years we will expand to other cities in Kenya and expand to Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia.

The agriculture value chain is quite fragmented and players act in silos manner hence lots of duplication.

Other barriers are that Agriculture is extremely under funded by the governments, only 3% goes in Agriculture sector.

We will partner and collaborate with other players such as NGOs, governaments, private sectors, micro-finance so that we can scale up faster and meet farmers needs.

9 people.

We are very motivated to address this problem and we are all self driven. We have good mix of experience in Agriculture, finance, supply chain and venture builder.

(1) Technoserve (2) Bayer crops (3) Dodore Agri-walet (4) DOEN Foundation (5) Enviu (6) GMC Colabs

How we do it? "• Partner Agronomists educate farmer on best practice. • By signing contracts with farmers we guarantee them access to markets and better prices. • Farmers also access loans to purchase certified seeds and inputs • Our customers get better quality produce and lower prices all delivered to their shops

I am looking for global partners, collaborators and expert who can walk with us to grow and scale up our business and empower more small holder farmers. Also we are looking at funding partners.

We are looking for advisors or board members, currently we have two members but we need to strengthen by recruiting different skills, experience. We are building our future technology and we will benefit from Agriculture experts on trace-ability. 

FAO, IFC, World Bank because all these are big supporters when it comes to small holder farmers in AFrica. 

Gates foundations, Rockefeller, AGRA foundations and similar bodies who are focused on SDG's initiatives in Africa.

Our target farmer groups are over 80% women, daily casual laborers are 90% women, our informal traders 85% are women. This award will allow us to scale up and during this time of COVID 19 continue strengthening rural and urban communities by providing opportunities that generate descent income.

Our strategy is to leverage on technology and in particular AI at farm level and our packhouse to monitor produce and detect any infections or diseases early enough to reduce the impact. AI is far much better and more accurate as compared to human ability, this will allow us to scale up in controlling diseases at farm level.