Agrotech+

Helping smallholder farmers in emerging markets increase their profits. Using agronomic machine learning, remote sensing, and mobile technology to help farmers access credit, high-quality farm inputs, and customized advice.

Agrotech+’s key solution is the delivery of a proven product - Financial loans to purchase high quality inputs (Agrotech+ will procure inputs directly from manufacturers), agronomic advice and insurance through a digital, vertically integrated, and cost-effective approach. This starts with the use of high-resolution satellite imagery and machine learning to develop credit profiles for smallholder farmers who otherwise have no financial personality. Complementing this is automated processes from customer acquisition to repayment, that radically reduces the cost of acquiring and serving smallholder customers. In addition, the company’s commission-based rural task force automatically managed through a mobile app gives Agrotech+ a low-cost, as needed customer touch point for in-person interactions like GPS mapping, soil sampling, and harvest measurement. Finally, Agrotech+ provides voice trainings (on climate smart agriculture, Financial literacy and saving) in recognition that their average customer is 50 years old and does not engage effectively via SMS.

Agrotech+’s innovation is in the use of mobile technology, satellite data and advanced statistical methodologies to predict farmer credit outcomes and assess credit risk, thereby enabling the provision of loans to underserved farmers. This integrated approach to working with farmers is intended to increase yields and improve livelihoods. 

Access to finance remains one of the major challenges facing smallholder farmers across Kenya. A large portion of these farmers are unable to get the financing they need for things such as purchasing farm inputs and harvesting crops. This is a serious barrier to achieving food and nutritional security in the country, given that smallholder farmers produce more than 80% of food consumed in Kenya. 

Some banks and other financial entities have employed unsavoury and predatory tactics that affect these agricultural businesses in the long term. Also, smallholder farmers are very rural, remote, and difficult to reach.

In 2015, Geneva-based policy advisory firm, Dalberg Global Development Advisors conducted some research about small-scale farming. From its findings, $450b was required to meet the needs of smallholder farmers around the world. But these farmers only got $31b, which was less than one-tenth of the supposed financing.

Coming closer to home, The World Bank reported that while agriculture made up 18% of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP, lending to the stakeholders in the agricultural sector represented only 1%.

With the smallholder farmers lack of access to credit and finance leading to the challenges of not affording the cost of well-understood high-return investments like hybrid seeds ,fertilisers and insurance that can increase their yield and income. This leading to every year, rural poverty increase along with environmental degradation.

Agrotech+ is targeting rural small-holder farmers in Kenya .They get access to better seeds and fertilizers, insurance and sustainable agricultural advice. This improves their harvests and increases the income of farmers, who now often live in poverty.

The vast majority of small-holder farmers in rural areas in Kenya  still cannot access tools like hybrid seeds, fertilizers, and insurance that can increase their yield and income :

First, they lack access to credit and thus, cannot afford the cost of well-understood high-return investments like hybrid seeds and fertilizers. Also, smallholder farmers are very rural, remote, and difficult to reach.

Some banks and other financial entities have employed unsavoury and predatory tactics that affect the rural small holder famers in the long term.

Till date, approaches to smallholder financing have relied on human-driven and manual processes. The problem is these processes are costly and slow to scale.

This is where Agrotech+ comes in, by digitizing and simplifying these processes. 

First, we build credit profiles for unbanked small-scale farmers using machine learning models that process large volumes of customer data, including satellite data of fields.

Next, the data obtained is then used to build automated digital processes for each step in a farmer’s lifecycle from customer acquisition, to training, to collecting the payment. This is in a bid to reduce the cost of generating actionable data throughout the customer’s lifecycle. Additionally, Agrotech+ helps the farmers access increasing levels of their investment over time.

I previously worked at The Climate Corporation, a digital agriculture

company that analyses weather, soil and field data to help Kenya farmers determine potential yield-limiting factors in their fields. My team also includes staff with strong experience in working with smallholder farmers, agronomy, and insurance in Africa. As such, the team has credible
experience in technology development and business commercialization of relevance to Agrotech+, as well as in working with smallholder farmers in Africa. 

While growing up, I worked on my family farm with my mother. She was a smallholder farmer who planted what she had access to, low-quality seeds. In addition, she had little or no fertilizer and harvested only five bags per acre each year.

While we both knew what was needed to be done to increase production, we couldn’t afford credit to buy the necessary tools.

Living with this experience, I went on to study agribusiness and management  at the university and also work for ACRE Africa, a Nairobi-based service provider working in the agricultural insurance value chain. I really want to solve the problem we faced with my mother at this right time.

I also have a background in agriculture. He worked for The Climate Corporation, a Africa-based agritech company that used machine learning to provide optimized recommendations to help farmers increase their yields.

In 2021 alone, Agrotech+ has been able to close 3,000 farmers. In total, it is serving more than 7,000 farmers in Kenya.

The business is currently testing whether it can acquire farmers and garner their interest in the model – this is taking place through traditional and digital marketing and advertising, and SMS referral. It will then affordably credit rate them, lend and get repaid. The first loans were provided to 1,000 farmers (with over 6,000 requesting support) covering 2,000 acres in Kisii District, in March 2021, which was due for repayment after harvest
(November 2021). Critically, this process will allow the business to test how
effectively credit risk can be evaluated based on satellite data and remote farmer registration. Current assumptions on the relationship between farm/farmer characteristics and successful repayment are based on the team’s background experience, but the team will not rely on assumptions to make lending decisions as it builds the credit rating model. Rather it will lend broadly and then rely on sophisticated, “machine learning” techniques to identify the factors that are most predictive of repayment. 

Depending on the success of this pilot, Agrotech+ will then bulk buy inputs and develop a scalable distribution network, before fully developing and rolling out the supplementary agronomy and insurance service offering. 

Agrotech+’s innovation is in the use of mobile technology, M-Pesa mobile money,  satellite data and advanced statistical methodologies to predict farmer credit outcomes and assess credit risk, thereby enabling the provision of loans to underserved farmers. This integrated approach to working with farmers is intended to increase yields and improve livelihoods.
The process works as follows:
1. Farmer requests an input loan via SMS
2. Credit risk is evaluated based on satellite data and remote farmer registration
survey
3. A field marking agent walks the boundary of the fields for which the farmer is
requesting a loan.
4. Qualified farmers make a nominal downpayment via m-PESA, receive inputs and
take out bundled weather insurance
5. Basic farm practice training is provided remotely (e.g. via SMS)
6. Farmer repays loan via m-PESA following harvest

Agrotech+ helps farmers in emerging markets to maximize their profits. the use of agronomic machine learning, remote sensing, and mobile phones  helps us to deliver financing, farm products, and customized advice to smallholder farmers with radical efficiency and scalability. Agrotech+ assesses farmer credit risk and customizes each product to a farmer's specific location using satellite data, soil data, farmer behavior data and crop yield models: Satellite data and machine learning enable better credit decisions, and automated operations keep costs low and processes scalable. 

Our first product is a customized package of credit, high-quality farm inputs, and advice that can double farm yields, starting in Kenya.

In 2021 alone, Agrotech+ has been able to close 5,000 small holder farmers farmers. In total, it is serving 10,000 farmers in Kenya (with over 15,000 requesting support)

However, the team isn’t stopping there. It has plans to rapidly scale by partnering and securing more farmers. We have got a great product that farmers love and we want to continue to scale it.

We are plan to serve 60,000 small holder farmers in the next year.

Agrotech+'s goal is to help small-scale farmers in Africa in their transition to commercial and profitable agriculture, by offering products, services and financing. Agrotech+'s vision is that every farmer, all over the world, deserves the opportunity of profitable farming.

To drive home our mission of maximizing farmers’ productivity and profitability, Agrotech+ is looking to transition 1,000,000 rural small holder farmers (its customers) from subsistence farming to commercial farming so that they can make more money by the year 2025

The expected impact of the loan on these small holder farmers from Agrotech+ is:

●       Improvement of harvests and income 
●       Improved living circumstances for themselves and their families
●       Knowledge development regarding sustainable agriculture

We are also exploring new ways to support our customers particularly with the challenges around food security as a result of COVID-19. We are piloting a variety of options to best support our customers through these challenging times.

We’re partnering with Rural small holder farmers to produce lots of high-quality crops, and we potentially be a great partner in helping those farmers access stable prices for their yields.

Agrotech+ has been able to deliver essential agricultural inputs on credit to over 5000 farmers so far in 2021 despite the covid disruption, Ending poverty in all its forms from the rural small holder farmers in Kenya as a result ending hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture in 5000 plus families. 

This is made possible by Agrotech+'s technology-led approach to providing finance to rural small-scale farmers. Their automated operations allowed Agrotech+ to continue providing these services to farmers at a time when they otherwise would face significant challenges accessing timely inputs. This highly scalable and commercially viable approach has helped farmers sustain improved yields and incomes even during these difficult times. 

Market barriers: Smallholder farmers are very rural, remote, and difficult to reach.

Finacial: Lack of enough finance to reach our beach head market and give loans to small holder farmers

The lead team at Agrotech+ previously worked at The Climate Corporation, a digital agriculture company that analyses weather, soil and field data to help Africa farmers determine potential yield-limiting factors in their fields. The team also includes staff with strong experience in working with smallholder farmers, agronomy, and insurance in Africa. As such, the team has credible experience in technology development and business commercialization of relevance to Agrotech+, as well as in working with smallholder farmers in Africa.  

Management team

• Elisha Caleb, Agrotech+’s founder and CEO, has a Bachelor of Information Technology and Data science. He used to work as Product assistant Manager for The Climate Corporation. The Climate Corporation is a digital agricultural business that studies weather, soil and field data to help farmers boost crop yields. 
• Enock Imani is Agrotech+’s Chief Customer Officer. He has an Bachelors from Kibabii University. With a background in agribusiness management, he has extensive experience in financial services and insurance in the agricultural sector in Kenya. Enock’s motivation is to facilitate profitable agriculture for many small-scale farmers through the use of technology. He monitors all business operations at Agrotech+ that concern the customer’s life cycle. 
• Joe hopper Chief Technology Officer, has a bachelor’s in Mathematics from Harvard University. He used to work as a Software Engineer for The Climate Corporation. At Agrotech+ he is responsible for the software development and data science team.
• Sharon Esther, Chief Financial Officer, has more than 3 years of experience in the financial sector. She started her career in institutional asset management and moved on to a hedge fund. Since 2017, she has been working in development finance, among others for Frankfurt School's International Advisory Services, Finance in Motion and for DEG (Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft GmbH). 

Agrotech+ currently has two groups of partners for Finance transactions and training on climate smart agriculture:

• Food Security for Peace and Nutrition-Africa- on training of our smallholder famers on climate smart agriculture and a broader research partnership. https://fspnafrica.org/
• Safaricom MPESA- On mobile phone-based money transfer service, payments and Financial transactions. https://www.safaricom.co.ke/pe...
• GIZ Kenya - Business mentorship . https://www.giz.de/en/worldwid...

Agrotech+ the Co-founder being a female, is stepping-up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-induced impacts, including: climate-related hazards in Kenya; improving education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity with respect to climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning through our digital platform and local trainings on climate- smart agriculture.

Agrotech+ is Increasing resilience of smallholder farmers against shocks from climate change, natural hazards and other unforeseen events thus impacting climate change.

Every year, crops are affected by natural hazards leading to crop and income loss for smallholder farmers, Millions of rural small holder farmers' children are still out of school. Due to climate change there have been increased instances of untimely rains, temperature rise and prolonged dry weather. As per FAO, between 2005 to 2014, USD 93 billion was lost in crop and livestock production due to natural disasters.

With rise in natural hazards, there is increased need for risk management solutions for smallholder farmers. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has further emphasized the significance of customized solutions for smallholder farmers to absorb shocks from both, production and market linked losses.

This will greatly promote children back to school and fight poverty.

Agrotech+ Indicative Solution Domains
• Digital (crop) insurance as well as solutions across the value chain to make digital insurance offerings more efficient
• Information / intelligence based solutions around alternate agriculture, climate and weather data to help facilitate production planning and to protect smallholders farmers against unforeseen events
• Income continuity products for smallholder farmers to sustain and recover from income loss due to climate change and natural disasters .

How the team will use The HP Girls Save the World Prize to advance my solution

This Prize will support our strong continued growth, enabling us to help more Rural small-scale farmers access high-quality farming inputs, advice and insurance on credit, significantly increasing their yields and income.

Resources to increase Agrotech+’s fintech capacity, such as fast uptime runners and cloud hosting services

With The HP Girls Save the World Prize, Agrotech+ is able to reach more small-scale maize farmers  families in sub-Sahara Africa. 

Through our research and experience overtime  , Agrotech+ exclusively works with Youth, girls and Women at the grassroots towards sustainable Food, climate action and Nutrition Security through our guided approaches including Policy Advocacy , Research and Development, Community Education and Sensitization and Technology and Innovation together with our established partnerships with Community Based Organizations( CBOs)  and other stakeholders in the Food and Nutrition Security value chain. With the current rapid advancements, we remains a very dynamic institution, engaging with every useful resources who are our central driver towards improving lives of Youth and women (fighting poverty in rural areas), and the achievement of our set organization goals.

How will the team use The Pozen Social Innovation Prize to advance the solution

With the prize the team aims to empower women and youth smallholder African farmers by removing the existing barriers to accessing capital and financial services, data-driven best practices, and technology. 

Agrotech+  team will launched more project that aims to support 150 000 women and girls smallholder farmers that grow tomatoes, potatoes, maize, and soybean in Kenya and Tanzania. The initiative shall forms part of the agrotech+’s commitment to strengthening value chains in the countries and the programme will be a tech-driven approach to assisting smallholder farmers.

The programme will be targetting smallholder farmers in Kenya and Tanzania. The 150 000 smallholders selected to take part in the project will receive agronomy advisory services on climate smart agriculture and financial saving, logistics support, links to credit and agriculture insurance products, and access to the company’s current and future mobile apps.

In addition, the project will create 1,000 jobs for others involved in the agricultural value chain, including for prospective farm, field, and warehouse managers. Nearly 70 percent of these jobs will go to women, who are often overlooked for higher-paying managerial positions. 

Agrotech+ will created a mobile app Agrotech+Soko, which shall provide farmers direct access to seed and other input providers, and off-takers within their locations. In addition, the Agrotech+Soko mobile app shall provide customers with a digital mobile wallet, which can be used to send, receive, save, and borrow money.