The importance of smallholder farmers in society cannot be overstressed. Smallholder farmers put in so much work in order for us to eat quality and nutritious food, but at the end of the day have little or nothing to show. Smallholder farmers account for over 70% of the food produced in Africa, which emphasizes their relevance in fighting food insecurity in Africa.
Agrorite is a premiere digital agricultural platform that improves the livelihood of smallholder farmers by connecting them with Finance, Smart farming solutions, and Premium markets. Our mantra is to provide positive outcomes for farmers in order to tackle the challenge of food insecurity in Africa and our vision is to inspire the production of sustainable food for Africa.
agrorite.com kicked off for the purpose of finding lasting solution to the needs of the average smallholder farmer in Africa stating with Mr. Ule, a rice farmer in Benue state, Nigeria. Ule, as most smallholder farmers sold his harvested produce at ridiculously low prices due to the involvement of middlemen and also experienced about 30-40% postharvest losses due to lack of access to premium market. Another major challenge Ule faced was a lack of finance to scale food production due to the fact that he was not creditworthy. Ule is a hard worker and most times put in 18 hours of work per day, 6 days a week so as to get the required quantity and quality at harvest. It is, however disheartening to know that he has little or nothing to show for his effort. We are creating shared value for sustainable growth for smallholder farmers and key stakeholders such as Financiers, Premium Off takers, Insurance companies, Input suppliers, and telecoms. This has proven to be formidable in improving the livelihood of smallholder farmers. This was the idea behind setting up Agrorite. So far, we have been able to increase smallholder farmer’s revenue by 15% and generate real value for their time and energy.
Lack of access to quality, nutritious agricultural commodities by premium processing companies was another major gap we spotted in the sector, which we are tackling by enabling smallholder farmers to meet up with the growing demands by these processing companies. We have also opened agricultural participation for all through partnerships with Cooperate and Institutional Funders. Individuals are not left behind as they can sponsor farming activities via crowdfunding to earn decent profits.
Not only are we well received in Nigeria, but our service is also acknowledged in the investment and agricultural sector. Consequently, we seat on over 8200 farmers network that spans across Nigeria, cultivated on 5,830 hectares of farmland, and produce well over 86340 metrics tones of crop production for local consumption and export. Commodities such as Peanut, Sesame, Cashew, Shea Butter, etc are some of the commodities we trade on.
Innovation and Technology is an essential component of Agrorite. With our in house developed farm management system (Agrorite Bookie), farmers will now be better equipped to efficiently and smartly manage their farms, get real-time updates on crop performance, and make a projection on the farm inputs required to successfully deliver on the expected output by off-takers.
Our value addition, over the last year, has earned us award recognition from the Federal Republic of Nigeria, The UK Government, GIZ, and UAE. We are currently in partnership with AirBus, GoGlobal Africa, and most recently won the African Most Innovative Digital Agricultural Platform 2020 by the African Brands Award.
More so, aligning with our vision in fighting the global food crisis, we have identified the importance of agricultural product processing and storage hence our cause for embarking on setting up a processing plant that will enable ready food production in Nigeria which in turn creates decent job opportunities in the agricultural value chain. We believe Processing adds value to the Agric produce and creates room for commercial agriculture, thereby promoting agricultural activities.
Onboarding farmers and convincing them to do things in a modern and organized manner is usually challenging, hence, our constant training and workshops in measuring their Progress. Likewise, funding – which can help improve volumes of both production and trade. Through a partnership with government and other cooperate bodies we can achieve even more in closing these gaps, that’s why we are open to collaboration.
When partnering with Agrorite be best assured of a decent return on investment. Another interesting thing about Agrorite is our readily available off-takers both locally and internationally to buy off produce at harvest. The security of investment is guaranteed as we provide extensive insurance coverage on all our farms and commodity on transit. It will interest you to know that Investors are not left in the dark; they are carried along the investment or farming circle with regular updates on progress made and we are easily accessible through our 24/7 customer support service.
Our partnership with you will largely improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers as well as beat food insecurity in Nigeria and beyond.
