Farmcrowdy is Nigeria’s first and leading digital agriculture platform which allows Nigerians to venture in and sponsor agriculture.

Launched just over 12 months ago, African start-up Farmcrowdy connects small scale farmers with sponsors, who invest in farm cycles. A farm cycle can be anything from poultry [3-5 months] to cassava [9 months].

The farmers receive on-the-ground advice from Farmcrowdy’s Technical Field Specialists who also give them training in better agriculture practices and provide them with quality farm input. Prior to harvest, Farmcrowdy works with pre-arranged buyers who assist the farmers sell their yield at harvest and earn a decent margin. The sponsor then gets their original sponsorship plus 40% of the profit from the harvest, the farmer receives 40% of the profit and Farmcrowdy receives 20% of the profit. Farm sponsors can get between 6-25% returns after harvest depending on the farm type they sponsor.

The brainchild of Nigerian serial entrepreneur Onyeka Akumah, Farmcrowdy has to-date recorded close to 1,000 unique farm sponsors from Nigerians in Nigeria, the US and UK. The company has aggregated a combined 4,000 acres of farmland across 8 states in Nigeria and worked with more than 2,000 small scale farmers.

Disrupting the Agriculture Sector

Having raised over 250,000 organic chickens on its poultry farm cycles, Farmcrowdy continues to disrupt the agriculture sector through partnering with Nigerians locally and globally to build a community model for the empowerment of local farmers, and the boosting and production of food for Nigerians, while impacting positively on the lives of farmers and their families.

In December 2017, Farmcrowdy announced that it had closed on seed funding of $1 million from international and local investors as well as angel investors. The seed fund will allow the award-winning start-up to scale its operations with plans to expand into a combined 20 states in Nigeria, work with 4,000 additional small-scale farmers and engage a combined 20,000 new farm followers and farm sponsors on its platform to learn about the opportunities in Agriculture and partner with farmers.

In December 2017, Farmcrowdy announced that it had closed on seed funding of $1 million from international and local investors as well as angel investors. The seed fund will allow the award-winning start-up to scale its operations with plans to expand into a combined 20 states in Nigeria.

Farmcrowdy recently launched their first mobile app which provides an accessible platform for agriculture enthusiasts to experience, learn, do their farming business with real farmers and appreciate agriculture practice first-hand through regular updates, images and videos from the farms. There is now the opportunity for Farm sponsors and farm followers to digitally track the progress of their sponsored farms from their mobile devices. The app has seen close to 5,000 downloads in the 3 weeks since launch, positioning the start-up to take on more farm followers and sponsors both locally in Nigeria and globally.

Since its launch Farmcrowdy has been adjudged “Agro-Innovator of the Year 2016/2017” by the Nigerian Agriculture Awards, “Tech Start-up of the Year 2017” by the Nigeria Technology Awards, as well as listed as one of the top innovative companies and institutions in Nigeria; cementing their place as game-changers within the agricultural sector.

ReConnect Africa spoke to the brainchild of the agric-tech platform,Nigerian serial entrepreneur Onyeka Akumah.

ReConnect Africa: Can you tell us something about yourself?

Onyeka Akumah: Tech Innovative Solutions for me has always been something I find intriguing, you can almost say that creating solutions to problems is a passion for me.

Having graduated from Sikkim Manipal University in Gangtok, India (magna cum laude), I decided to fuse Digital Marketing with the skills and learning experience I had acquired. My career began at the British Council of Nigeria where I was their webmaster for Nigeria, and then I became a part of some of the leading Internet and technology-reliant businesses in Nigeria - Konga.com, Jumia.com, GTBank, Deloitte, Wakanow.com and Travelbeta.com; where I focused on the user-experience and the customer journey of selling products and services online.

Today, I’m committed to utilizing innovation to tackle real problems facing Africans and Nigerians in particular with special interest in applying technology to Transportation, Real Estate and most recently, Agriculture.

ReConnect Africa: What inspired you to start Farmcrowdy?

Onyeka Akumah: Farmcrowdy originated from challenges I had witnessed first-hand, some time in February 2015. At about this time, there were ongoing conversations around how to reliably channel resources into Agriculture. The Government of Nigeria had also urged individuals to put resources into this sector as a means of improving food production and security.

Participating in the agriculture sector was something that comes naturally to a lot of Nigerians, particularly on a small-scale basis, but the question we had to answer is ‘How do we channel our resources into Agribusiness in a sustainable way that would both create the opportunity to earn a decent return while impacting positively in the lives of over 38 million small scale farmers in Nigeria?’

I agree that ‘we’ are the only ones who can solve the challenges of Food Security in our Nation, but how does the ‘average middle-income person’ invest the resources he has in Agriculture; regardless of the fact that he/she does not have any Farming Experience/Skill? Even if one might know of a few farmers to partner with; how are we sure we will make profit at the end of the day?I did not have the requisite skills for farming, neither did I have the time of day to invest into day-to-day monitoring of farming activities as it were? Getting trusted farmers to partner with is also another people risk that stares us in the face?

On the flip side, Nigeria has millions small-scale farmers who live in rural areas and have farmland of about 2.5 to 7.5 acres. A common problem they face is not having the finances to expand their farm operations from subsistence farming to farming on a commercial scale. Beyond this, some small-scale farmers have difficulty using smart farming techniques and accessing the right market for their farm produce in order to make a decent profit margin.

Looking for the solutions to all the questions we asked ourselves is what lead to the idea of Farmcrowdy – an online platform that connects the small-scale farmers with farm sponsors who will fund their farms to increase their production capacity through the guidance of our technical field experts to grow their production. Then, prior to harvest, we get pre-arranged buyers to sell the farm produce so that we can sell for a decent margin to all stakeholders involved.

Looking for the solutions…is what lead to the idea of Farmcrowdy – an online platform that connects the small-scale farmers with farm sponsors who will fund their farms.

ReConnect Africa: What were some of the key challenges in getting the business and the app up and running?

Onyeka Akumah: One of the biggest challenges we faced in setting up the business was hiring the right talent with the right skills who understood our mission and our goals. Another challenge we faced was having to acquire technological expertise. These combined can have a devastatingly negative effect on the business, and obviously play a pivotal role in its success or failure. Overtime, we have had to deal with making hard decisions - knowing who to let go when things don’t work out with an individual and how to manage our growth.

We are happy with the current team in Farmcrowdy; the passion they bring, the determination and the selflessness they exhibit is not only inspiring for me as a leader but also I strongly believe they will help us to achieve Farmcrowdy’s mission of ‘Transforming Lives on the African Continent’. I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world to work with individuals who are striving - as a team, to provide solutions to an ambitious but genuine problem.

ReConnect Africa: What advice can you offer other entrepreneurs in the Africa space?

Onyeka Akumah: As an entrepreneur, you should dream about changing the continent and our world but realize that it won’t happen overnight. Know your audience and pursue your dream daily. Africa has limitless potential and there is endless opportunity for anyone determined enough to make their mark.

Additionally, stay positive, dream big, start small and stay on it. With time and perseverance, it will come together. Finally, read good books and keep good company that motivate you for more!

To learn more, please visit https://www.farmcrowdy.com/ or follow Farmcrowdy on Twitter @farmcrowdy and Instagram farmcrowdyng