Motive Africa

Ssempebwa Joseph is an agricultural enthusiast, social entrepreneur, a researcher and field practitioner passionate about improving the quality of life of small holder farmers in hard reach communities in rural Sub-Saharan Africa. He is the co-founder of motive Africa a nonprofit social enterprise that provides crop financing to small holder farmers, and builds their capacity to increase crop productivity by providing resilient, more diverse seeds and fertilizer, trains farmers in cutting edge agricultural techniques, provides crop insurance and supplies other complementary services.

He also serves as a youth researcher with Restless Development Uganda, Global Campaigner of building inclusive Agricultural Technologies for young People under the Youth Think Tank Project, an alumnus of the social innovation warehouse, Business Development Advisor with Chedic Innovations Hub. He has a 6-year experience working with small holder farmers

More than 50 million small holder farmers in rural Sub Saharan are locked in annual hunger seasons because they are unable to grow enough food to feed their families and the consequences are severe ,1 in 10 children die before the age of five and 1in 3 severe poor children are permanently stunted, physically and mentally. Motive Africa changes that by Empowering farmers to grow enough food to feed their families and communities by Delivering a proven service bundle which improves crop productivity and doubles farm income. Farmers receive access to credit, to good inputs, to training, to storage and to market facilitation therefore making agriculture significantly more productive for them. With one planting season, we unlock three immediate outcomes for the lowest-income farmers. Food security in household, I income generation (50%+ increase in farm profits on average) and Investment power (invest their new income productively).

Food production in Africa is not keeping pace with demand. Although the proportion of hungry people in Africa has fallen slightly from 32% to 28% over the past thirteen years, the total number has actually increased from 200 to

239 million between 2003 and 2016. Food insecurity increased about 3% (FAO 2017). The majority of people in Africa are engaged in farming but most of these individuals are small holder farmers who live on less than $1.90 or less day, smallholder production generally occurs on plots of less than two hectares characterized by little access to seed, fertilizer, financing, training or markets. As a result, they still use bronze age tools and knowledge to cultivate their food therefore being unable to grow enough food to feed their families for the entire year.  As result they experience annual hunger of three to nine months of meal skipping and meal substitution and the consequences are severe 1 in 10 children die before the age of five and 1in 3 severe poor children are permanently stunted, physically and mentally. But other factors compound the problem, such as conflict, population growth and environmental challenges

Motive Africa designed an investment program model in form of service bundle for small holder farmers in last-mile areas. The service bundle combines five main products and services which include delivery of high-quality farm inputs within walking distance of every customer at the start of each planting season, extension of these inputs on credit with a flexible repayment schedule that caters for the irregular cashflow cycle of farmers, trainings on best Agronomic practices throughout the year. we extend crop insurance to protect our farmers’ livelihoods in the event of erratic weather or plant disease. Our solution is sustainable, we interact with farmers as customers rather than aid receipts and the repayment cover the field cost operation. we unlock three immediate outcomes for the lowest-income farmers in terms of: Food security in household (Our farmers grow enough harvest to feed their family year-round marking a permanent end to chronic hunger in their households), income-generation(Farmers achieve a 50%+ increase in farm profits on average translating to $130 USD or more in new income). Investment power: Our farmers invest their new income productively in education, health, additional food, housing and venturing in non-farm profit-generating enterprise such local shops

we serve the world’s lowest-income populations, smallholders living in deep remote areas. Our farmers live on less than $0.50 or less per day, farm one acre of land on average, and face the unrelenting challenge of producing enough food to feed their families. Our average client is a female farmer, in her early- to mid-40s, with a few years of primary school education. She is married with 4-5 children. Her main livelihood is growing staple crops (e.g., maize) on an average of 1.5 acres. our solution interacts with farmers as paying customers. We deliver our services on credit with a flexible repayment system. This approach places our families in a commanding position: they are our bosses – transforming the traditional aid-recipient paradigm. our program is delivered by a full-time staff: field officer who regularly interacts with farmers in the community. Every field officer serves 250 farmers. Our program improves the quality of life of small holder farmers. In 2019, our farmers made an additional $137 in profit in agricultural profit compared to similarly situated farmers in their same Agro-ecological zones and 25% less likely to report going to sleep hungry due to lack of food in hunger seasons

 we serve the world’s lowest-income populations: smallholders’ farmers who are at the base of the economic pyramid and struggle to grow enough food to feed their families. At motive Africa, we do two things to fight the hunger season. First, we increase total levels of harvest – our farmers produce enough food to feed their families for the whole year. Second, farmers can sell surplus into their communities  and motive Africa helps them sell it during the hunger season, when prices are high. Our farmers not only feed themselves, but they help to reduce the hunger season for their communities.

Am a son of a peasant farmer born in a polygamous family of 13 known children and was raised from a poverty ridden village Mirya in western Uganda, families in this region predominantly survived on Agriculture. Growing up I witnessed how my community struggled to grow enough food in their hard work and sweat yet it was not possible. This inspired me to be an agricultural student to help me community and later I was enlightened that agricultural poverty was solved a century ago and we are only poor in this century because we unable to access proven tools and knowledge. With hybrid seed, fertilizer and training, agriculture would be significantly made more productive for small holder farmers. With the saving I had obtained from working for an Agro chemical company as sales agent joined hands with my friend who is co-founder today and embarked on the journey of extending these life changing goods and services to even the lowest income farmers     

Every day children fail to eat they lose a little bit of their future, imagine how many Newton’s, Einstein’s and Darwin’s have failed to mature in Africa due hunger, malnutrition and poverty? Yet these are solvable challenges. Being Born and raised from predominantly farming community Growing up I witnessed how my community struggled to grow enough food in their hard work and sweat yet it was not possible. We always experienced annual hunger seasons of meal skipping and meal substitution and this last a period of three to six months and in conditions of drought or pest and breaks, the situation worsened. From the experience obtained as a sales man for an Agro chemical company, I realized I could create a difference in my community if I extend agricultural services in an affordable away. I envision a future where every farmer has the resources to sustainably maximize productivity, feed healthy families and thriving communities.

my motivation to work with rural communities especially smallholder farmers is greatly shaped by the kind of life I had during my upbringing. This is characterized by small scale agriculture; From my child hood experience I understood the cruel realities of poverty, hunger and malnutrition, and for this reason, I decided to create that difference in small holders farmer, 5 years down the road, I have engaged with different agricultural communities beyond my home village and working with top agricultural organizations that are really shaping the future of work in the agricultural sector such as FAO, Mastercard foundation, innovation Village,  Agri Leadership Academy etc. In areas of project management, thoughtful leadership, monitoring and evaluation, Agribusiness development, participatory research, global campaigns, fundraising, business development, policy and partnerships, sales and marketing. serving in different positions I have been able to build key competencies in those areas and skills  

In 2017, we piloted our program in Eastern Uganda for the first time with 200 farmers to provide financing for improved farm inputs, delivery, agricultural training, and post-harvest market support. The pilot was not successful because of a number of reasons which included Large land sizes reduced farmers’ interest in agricultural intensification, Low population density posed sustainability and impact challenges, Field Officers’ limited agricultural knowledge weakened relationships with farmers, Farmers’ limited familiarity with agricultural technologies led to low enrollment. This valuable experience learned led to success in the second pilot achieved, today we have 6000 farmers we serve in the area. Some of the lessons obtained from the experience include: Pilot location selection must be systematic and data--‐driven, impact potential in a selected region, Extensive marketing and education may be necessary to demonstrate the program value. As a result of the first Eastern Uganda pilot, intensive research and data analysis is now a precursor to every new region pilot. For example, before beginning our second pilot in the region we had a much better sense of where to locate our operations, what challenges we might face, and how to best serve the unique needs of those farmers.

Having witnessed the cruel realities of hunger, malnutrition and poverty in the home village, I decided to end the trend because humanity solved the problem of agricultural poverty a century ago and the only reason people remain in this century is because they are unable to receive proven tools and knowledge.  I started motive Africa to extend these life goods and services to lowest income farmers in rural communities and to date we serve 19,350 farmers in Uganda who have doubled their farm income and achieved improved crop productivity   

Motive Africa has designed a program model aimed specifically at eliminating the barriers faced by the lowest-income farmers. Our complete solution brings the power of markets directly to farmers – enabling them to participate in a functioning rural value chain, achieve greater farm profits, and become empowered and engaged market participants. The program provides financing for improved farm inputs, delivery, agricultural training, and post-harvest market support. Providing tools and knowledge to farmers improves harvest and farm income through improved practices. With improved harvest and income, farmers achieve four immediate outcomes: Reduction in household reported hunger, improved nutritional status( especially children), in productive investment assets( land livestock and business creating multiple revenue streams), Educational investment( one in four children in rural East Africa complete high school), improved health spending which improves health outcomes. With these outcomes, All the listed outcomes reduce poverty therefore improving the quality of small holder farmers in rural communities    

Current number: 19,350

In one years: 30,000

In five years: 250,000

• Digitalizing components of our service delivery in areas of enrollment of new clients, infield training, repayments system and using mobile phone scanning technology to diagnose crop diseases to improve the cost effectiveness of our model.
• Investing in building our evidence across a range of themes – food security, livelihoods, climate, nutrition, gender, and many more and also to prove the impact and cost effectiveness of our model

• To empower 250,000 farmers (with over 1,000,000 children) to have access the resources necessary to maximize crop productivity, feed healthy families and thriving communities. we are to expand our reach through partnerships with governments and private-sector stakeholders which drives nationwide impact by addressing market gaps in the broader agricultural systems in regions where we operate

• Reach full financial sustainability (100%) for our field operation. Financial sustainability is the portion of field costs covered by farmer repayment. We track this figure as one of our key performance metrics, and currently stand at roughly 84 percent financial sustainability. We are pursuing a variety of initiatives in order to improve our financial sustainability although we never pursue an initiative for the sake of financial return alone: Increasing the ratio of farmers to field officers, responsibly increasing transaction volume, ensuring consistently high repayment rates and Reducing administrative costs

Growth: Motive Africa continues to grow 40-50% per year. While we are proud of this achievement, the constant addition of new districts of operation has served as a headwind against efforts to reach full financial sustainability. This is for the simple reason that new areas tend to operate at a lower financial sustainability in the early years as we launch operations.

 Pretesting period, before rolling out an innovation in the entire program we under take it through a phased trail which consumes a lot of time to proving its effectiveness and efficiency. Prototyping

Insufficient fund. To cover up the prototyping phase of the innovations and rolling it out into the network of farmers we operate. Donor investment is required our core program model to expand drastically while leveraging economies of scale.