Agro

The problem: women in farming and smallholder farmers inability or their reduced chances to access farm funding, inputs, farming skills/know-how, viable marketplace, smart farming technology and farming jobs.

We have 5 branches to solve these problems : Agro, AgroHow, AgroCart, AgroTeq and AgroLink. 

Agro is an online platform for these farmers to access debt-free financing  through Agro-Contracts.

AgroHow gives farmers tailored knowledge about farming, what they want at their fingertips online

AgroCart for farmers to sell their produce and buy inputs directly from/to manufactures.

AgroTeq gives small farmers access to smart farm technology through community renting schemes.  

AgroLink is online networking smallholder farmers to list jobs and look for farm jobs.

It changes lives since farmers get minimised price risk, increased profits and reduce wastage by 30 % with precision farming. It increases lifestyle and eradicates poverty in a sustainable suppl chain in agriculture

We are solving the problem of wastage and unsustainable agriculture in the production and supply system, which degrades the environment.

These farmers are often marginalised and neglected yet their practices impact the entire world such as their uninformed fertiliser application methods were over 40% of applied fertiliser ends up in rivers and oceans

 Or how Zimbabwean cotton farmers  are forced to use cheap environmentally toxic chemical since they don't have proper funding and inputs

 Or how farmers loose 30 % of their produce due to lack of market and sell the remainder at low prices, and often are plunged into poverty and hunger.

Just in Zimbabwe there are 7.1 million smallholder farmers and over 70% of them don't have access to reliable funding or markets or even knowledge about farming the crops they want.  Globally over 470 million people are smallholder farmers who face the same issues. 

 Our solution encompasses creating a sustainable production and supply chain in the agricultural sector  that  would be eliminating wastage of inputs and farm produce where every crop produced is efficiently delivered to customer, where every crop will have a viable market  even before its harvested or during the cropping season. 

We are targeting smallholder farmers and women in agriculture, in urban and rural communities.

Currently developing our solution during the covid lock-down times we are using secondary data which is open sourced from agricultural rural extension officers which enlightens us about the farmers plights, from past experiences, and also use of  engaging surveys on our web-page and whats-app chat-bots.  

To better understand farmers plight if they will be able to access our services meaningfully we plan to carry out door to door visits in peripherals regions of Harare ,We carrying out a test pilot in a satellite town of Norton, engaging 40 farmers in the month of July to august trying out the feasibility of AgroTeq service for use of sensors and drones to monitor their farms.

The solution will address their need directly as we will be actively engaged with farmers at every stage of their farming inputs through technical assistance on our mobile platforms and we will work closely to ensure farm productivity. 

Since most of these farmers cant access internet  we will use whats-app chat-bots and text services to be inclusive of every farmer. Access to our platform will improve their productivity and revenue 

Main problem is wastage, pollution and poverty in smallholder farmers. We are aligned to  challenge since we are optimising the production and supply chain to ensure food produced by these farmers isn't wasted and they also increase productivity. With enhanced access to funding, inputs and technology wastage is eliminated through us since every crop being produced will already have a consumer. This whole process will manage to feed the nation with the existing farmers numbers with minimum environmental impact as they now engaged in precision farming reduce wastage of inputs such as water,fertiliser. Its easily accessible and cheap for farmers

Solutions similar are offered by Tanganda Tea and Cottco company. Where these company like Tanganda offer contract farming for only producing specialised  tea crops that they will resale at higher price, whilst at Agro we are unique as a for-good for-profit company will cut across all crops/livestock and across all companies that use farm produce even in just their kitchens hence expanding our user base, a Company/individual looking for stocking their kitchen can simply contract a farmer through us for regular supply of farm produce they want at low price and high quality, with complete traceability, and complete power being given to the farmer, eliminating middleman where theycontrol

 Cottco offer funding and  knowledge only .  A farmer can get skills and funding still need market, still need increase productivity, still need to reduce wastage, they still need affordable farm technology/inputs. Agro has advantage that it offers a wholesome package  to solve all problems, even allowing farmers in communities  share resources such as tractor renting, resource pooling. And easily accessible to all farmers without segregation, by simply going on their phone, use of text and whats-app chat-bots eliminating gruesome verification 

We improve lifes of these smallholder farmer otherthan companies that just digitising a middleman. 

Farmer they have a customer before they even start farming, have constant support trough-out farming process. As a consumer you have complete traceability and reduced price on quality farm produce without even leaving your home.  We are creating a solution and also a market for our services. 

Our solution core is based on  technology that is digital website  technology, phone applications, text messaging and whats-app chat-bots. But these services have now been tailored to allow smallholder farmer to access our services needed to run a farm successfully through their phone, and in our conditions in Africa.  We use these multiple technology to able to access even the remotest or poorest marginalised people in the farming sector.  Such as text based service where farmers can get automated responsive text to order inputs, access funding etc with minimal cost e.g a single text cost less than 2 cents USD, and through that simple 2 cents text they can start farming.

On other branches such as Agro-Teq  use existing drone technology, soil sensors and animal monitors and farm management application to give an internet of things for precision agriculture, tailored for these farmers, where a  phone application controls the sensors and drones and gives them feedback om their farm and requirements of plants or animals. This data is constantly sent back to Agro database and its interpreted on how best the farmer uses his land, and we send recommendations and updates on weather and pests changes in those areas. 

On  whatsapp chatbot we use customer learning where machine bots response vary to the users requirements and questions, leveraging current technology to make resources accessible to marginalised farmers and women in agriculture. 

Agrolabs branch we will be working with new technology of developing paper from wheat stalk and maize stalk. 

We have activities that we currently offer through our service that is access to fund,inputs,farm knowledge and skill, farm jobs, a market we offer these services to the smallholder marginalised famers and women in agriculture. 

The outcomes would now benefit the  farmers in that they have access to farming tool they need and they will have increased their farm productivity, their personal skill, and utilise their land without engaging in debt funding.(have  better profits ) To the processors/investors they will outcome a reliable supply of produce with traceability and low prices. 

Long term as wastage is reduced the environmental impact is reduced, where fertilisers and other harmful substances are used without waste precision agriculture creating a zero waste production and supply chain in the agriculture sector. 

Prices of farm produce will gradually decline as middleman will be removed and also the farmers profit increased if there is direct link between a consumer and a farmer, s 
In conclusion lifestyle of farmer will be increased they will have more money in their pockets, healthier crops, better technology, productivity increases lifting these smallholder farmer and women from near subsistence farmers to commercialised farmer. 

On a nationwide scale increased productivity and utilisation of existing resources will result in more export of produce, more factories for processing and more increase in the countries GDP. 
Empowering these farmers would cause ripples in Zimbabwean economy to regain its breadbasket status. Through the export market and local processing the economy will manage to be change and regain stability through agriculture  just from the 7.1 million smallholder farmers they can impact over 30 million people. 

On a global scale increased productivity and eliminating that 30% wastage of food produce global poverty will be reduced if food is available it will be channelled to areas with less food by demand countries such as Ethiopia  with climates that don support agriculture and ongoing food shortages will be helped in eliminating the hunger

We use website as e-commerce platform where it has been utilised in other industries such as amazon service's but in our case we are taking it to tailor the needs of our farmers to give them access to agricultural services conveniently at their fingertips .   Text messaging has already been used to advertise products or services we would be using it to for service delivery to achieve larger user base inclusive of everyone . Leveraging existing technology to enhance farmers livelihoods   
For our AgroTeq services drones are used, They have been used for imaging and videos shoots on various platforms and have proven  use full and efficient.  We are using the same technology approach but  modifying it for  image sensing and spraying of pesticides since they are easy to control. In farms where it saves time and labour by just using the drones through mobile phone or laptop, through a simplified application.

The use of sensors has been used widely in agriculture hence we will be making it more available and cheaper by resource pooling and community renting/purchases through our website and application. 

For agrolabs research on paper from wheat and maize stalk the following links below show reasearch papers and feasibility of study

Wheat paper video 

research paper

Our solution core is based on  technology that is digital website  technology, phone applications, text messaging and whats-app chat-bots. But these services have now been tailored to allow smallholder farmer to access our services needed to run a farm successfully through their phone, and in our conditions in Africa.  We use these multiple technology to able to access even the remotest or poorest marginalised people in the farming sector.  Such as text based service where farmers can get automated responsive text to order inputs, access funding etc with minimal cost e.g a single text cost less than 2 cents USD, and through that simple 2 cents text they can start farming.

other branches such as Agro-Teq  use existing drone technology, soil sensors and animal monitors and farm management application to give an internet of things for precision agriculture, tailored for these farmers, where a  phone application controls the sensors and drones and gives them feedback om their farm and requirements of plants or animals. This data is constantly sent back to Agro database and its interpreted on how best the farmer uses his land, and we send recommendations and updates on weather and pests changes in those areas. 

On  whatsapp chatbot we use customer learning where machine bots response vary to the users requirements and questions, leveraging current technology to make resources accessible to marginalised farmers and women in agriculture. 

Agrolabs branch we will be working with new technology of developing paper from wheat stalk and maize stalk. 

We use these multiple technology to able to access even the remotest or poorest marginalised people in the farming sector.  Such as text based service where farmers can get automated responsive text to order inputs, access funding etc with minimal cost e.g a single text cost less than 2 cents USD, and through that simple 2 cents text they can start farming.

On  whatsapp chatbot we use customer learning where machine bots response vary to the users requirements and questions, leveraging current technology to make resources accessible to marginalised farmers and women in agriculture. 

In Zimbabwe there are over 7.1 million smallholder farmers 75 % of those do not have access to either one of  funding, Farm-skills or knowledge, market, jobs, inputs or farm technology.

 
Currently we are engaged with 40 farmers in Satellite town of Norton as we building and refining our prototype services. 

Within a year we plan to have actively participated in giving access to one or all aspects mentioned (funding, Farm-skills or knowledge, market, jobs, inputs or farm technology) to these farmers that is a target population of over 5 million farmers. These farmers will have used the service at least once in our first year of operation . 

From the second year we planing to scale  to have worked with all of the 7.1 million smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe and 15 million smallholder farmers in Botswana, South Africa and Zambia, we plan to create a pool of agriculture within the SADC region where farmers can sell buy look for jobs in the SADC region on our platform linking counties seamlessly to disrupt boards that control produce flow from boarder to boarder giving direct link from farmer to farmer 

We plan to have been able to impact over 50 million smallholder farmers by the 5th year, having each one of them use the agro platform once.

The world has a total of 470 million smallholder farmers and we hope to one day be able to make farm easier faster and smarter for all them

Our goal is to be able to to eliminate wastage in agriculture improve productivity and livelihood of these farmers who are mainly. 

Our initial target is the 7.1 millions smallholder  farmers in Zimbabwe, we plan to have each of them to have accessed one of our services in the first year. 

We plan to.partner with local companies that produce seed, inputs, irrigation, supermarkets etc to be able to get a wider reach and platform. Through their help.we plan to impact these 7.1 million farmers in our first year, that they would have each accessed one or more agro service at least once. 

We plan to partner with the government approach through the command agriculture which already providing inputs to smallholder farmers, partnering with them to distribute and assist and monitor farmers during their farm proceedings and harvest to the market. 

We plan to scale to other countries and replicate the same model in fellow SADC countries through government lead agriculture initiatives which will allow us to reach even the remotest parts in the SADC countries. 

We will scale even more by creating an agriculture online Zone withing the SADC region to allow easy transactions withing the region for inputs or selling goods giving direct link e.g producers in Zimbabwe can directly sell cotton to  processors in Zambia without leaving their farm. 

Our target will be over 30 million farmers in our region within the first 5 years 
And help the 470 million smallholder farmers in the world as we progress. 

The first and foremost barrier would be the rising inflation of the local Zimbabwean dollar where it limit our profits and complicate our pricing system whether it will be local currency or foreign currency and also our ability to access funds to deploy our products within the specified time 

And also it  it might limit farmers profits if they sell their produce in the local currency. 

We also foresee the barrier of scepticism by rural farmers to adopt the technology and mechanism with their believe of sticking to the native farming techniques or farm technology, 

We also foresee the government's reluctance to incoperate a private entity into its system

The inflation of the local currency can be offset by use of multi-pricing system where will.price our services in foreign currency until the local currency can stabilise 
And using inter-bank rates valuing for the local currency and converting it to foreign currency after each transaction. 

The reluctance of government to adopt us into their system can be offset by being gunnering a strong following of farmers after we prove our viability and consistency it will prove to be our We can also solve it by getting mentors and assistance to help us through the process to get recognition by such a reputable institution would be of great help.

We have a 8 member team 

With 4 of those being co-Founders and other 4  are employed  

• Tafadzwa Chikwereti Ronald Founder   +263776950582 ronaldchikwereti@gmail.com

• Golden Nhunhama Co-Founder +263713011618 goldennhunhama@gmail.com 

• Yolandah Sibandah Co-Founder +263716309668 yolsibs@gmail.com

• Tafadzwa Mutanho Co-Founder +263774297373 tafadzwamutanho@gmail.com

The other 4 are cureently full time but at website development marketing

• Panashe Chisasa 

• Mazvita mukondo 

• Chantalle william 

• Claire Nhahoda

The team was carefully selected based on the input they can bring and their determination.

The Team leader and founder is Tafadzwa Chikwereti, who was born and bread in a farm hence has intricate knowledge about farm activities hence sheds more light on how best we solve the problems farmer face.  He has also completed 2 accelerator programmes for agri business

Yolandah and Golden  are responsible for the website development which is currently underway with projected  launch date of the first Agro ( www.agro.co.zw ) on the 25 th June and will also be responsible for sourcing application developers to tailor to our specific needs, since we are technology based company  

Mutanho Tafadzwa is responsible for agricultural knowledge, as she is well versed in agricultural lingo and experience on how best to approach our target market and best way to solve their problems and still make a profit, as she is an agronomist by profession. The team has room for other enthusiastic Youth, with passion to bring new modern solutions to empower our youth and farmers.

We partnered with NUST a local University where we attend. We are working with them to produce paper from wheat stalk and we use their research labs, And technical assistance from lectures and staff members

Our model serves the 7.1 million smallholder farmers Zimbabwe and over 30 million farmers. 

We provide smallholder farmers access to funding, inputs, farm technology, a market and also jobs within the farming sector.  We provide the services through online platform and community renting through text based, and web-based platforms. 
These will hence increase farmer productivity, reduce wastage, improving livelihood of these farmers and lower costs of production and farming 

It enhanced traceability of produce from farmer to consumer

We plan to get our initiall investment through grants and prize funding. 

Agro is divided into branches. Agro, AgroCart make revenue on commision base where a commison of 6 % is charged on each deal or product sold. Profits in these ones will be based on 4 % where the 2% fee calculated to cover expenses.  

Agrohow ,AgroTeq work on package basis where price varies from which package farmer chooses to use. Where fixed price is set inclusive of  profits.

We project to offset a reliable-consistent profit after attainment of a minimum of 15000 farmers split across the various services.

Scaling the bussines would include introduce two more branches which are still in development.

1.An agriculture job link service to list and look for agric jobs for free which will attract a lot of farmers hence increasing number of people in Agro database using Agro services.

2. Final nail will be introducing an Regional marketplace and job search engine where small holder farmers in SADC region can be able to cross border sell their products and search for jobs on their phones

pending major funding 

We plan to raise money through grant or equity financing 

Where we offer a stale of company to get funding. 
We plan to have raised a minimum of usd 50 000 before End of year to be able to.launch and scale all of our branches successfully

Our expenses are for starting up and launching . We require 20 000 to deploy into computers and office space purchases. 

Salaries will be constituting 5 000 per month.  Purchases of technology would cost an additional 10 000  Daily expenses such as fuel.

These values are based on deploying and scaling the project with goals to achieve 1 million farmers by end of 2021