The International Food Policy Research Institute in 2002 described food security as a situation in which all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active healthy life.
Food security is the measure of the availability of food and the access to same by individuals. This means that on the one hand is the availability of sufficient food to cater to a teeming population and on the other hand is the capacity of the population to afford and access the available food. It therefore means a reduction in starvation and poverty will meet the objectives of food security.
The World Bank defines food security as a condition where everyone has access to sufficient food to live a healthy and productive life.
Food insecurity in Africa is generally caused by poverty. That is, the inability of people to access nutritious food in sufficient amounts due to lack of money or poverty. This reality is more worrisome as a higher percentage of the population who cannot access sufficient food are rural dwellers who are generally smallholder farmers. The same small holder farmers who are also key players in the scheme of agricultural things still constitute a large portion of the demography of persons affected by food insecurity in Africa.
Underdeveloped Agricultural sector practices which include; soil management practices, pre and postharvest losses, financial inclusion on the one hand, and access to market barrier on the other hand are all responsible for the lack of agricultural profitability of small holder farmers who are then victims of food insecurity.
The Agrorite Approach
Agrorite is a premier digital agricultural platform working to tackle food insecurity by creating shared value for smallholder farmers and investors/businesses. The Agrorite platform creates social impact on these smallholder farmers who have been identified as constituting a major part of the overall number of farmers in agricultural production. Agrorite promotes participation in agriculture by enabling sponsors to earn and learn through crowdfunding.
It is the vision of Agrorite to create a technologically driven impact for sustainable agriculture with a mission to inspire and nurture participation in agriculture by all.
To actualize the mission and vision statements, Agrorite has fully aligned itself with certain Sustainable Development Goals which include;
SDG Goal 1: No Poverty.
The approach of Agrorite is to commercialize these small holder farmers to ensure agricultural profitability such that they grow above and beyond the subsistence farming of what they do and target expansion of production to cater to high scale demands and volumes of agricultural produce by off takers.
SDG Goal 2: Zero Hunger.
Through driving agricultural participation and prosperity by all and sundry, there will be a reduction in Hunger index and in the end; Agrorite hopes to record zero Hunger and work towards that.
SDG Goal 10: Reduced Inequality; which stresses equal treatment of persons across different age, sex, disability, race, religious groups.
SDG Goal 12: Responsible Consumption; which stresses the need to reduce food loss which generally occurs during production, supply/ logistics and other post-harvest loss.
Agrorite is already actively engaged in mitigating produce loss by ensuring access to ready market or off-takers by the Farmers and equipping them with the necessary information they need to further mitigate pre harvest production loss and postharvest loss. The creation of foodies.ng, which is a subsidiary of Agrorite, is another platform charged with further off taking the agricultural produce of these smallholder farmers to curb any form of loss of agricultural produce.
The approach of Agrorite has been to reach out to Small holder farmers, vet and engage them with the following under listed objectives which the company has achieved thus far:
- Local integration and enlightenment with a view to providing invaluable information and data driven insights to these farmers, which includes knowledge of soil topography, weather condition, pest control etc. The aim of these seminars is to enlighten the farmers as to better developed agricultural practices that can boost productivity and increase the per capita income of these small holder farmers, thereby increasing their standards of living.
- Increased and improved crop yield that meets nutritional and quality standards which will be guided by Agrorite’s renowned Experts and Partners in these areas.
- Financial inclusion of these smallholder farmers vis a vis assistance with accessibility of credits, insurance, pensions etc.
- Access to fair and competitive market after harvest. Linking up these farmers with off taking markets will take the burden of selling farm produce from the framers and will lead to increase per income capita for them. Agrorite will ensure that there are standby off takers to buy up any and all crops produced by these farmers. The implication of this is that the burden of sourcing buyers is taken off the farmer’s shoulders and this will in the end motivate them to farm dutifully and to even harvest cultivated crops. In line with this undertaking on our part, Foodies.ng which is a subsidiary company of Agrorite dealing directly with customers, will ensure to take up as much of these harvested crops as is possible to ensure rise in per capita income accruing to benefiting farmers.
Industry Projections
The African Investment Forum in 2018 projected that Africa’s Agribusiness sector will reach $1 Trillion by 2030. Similarly, a World Bank report titled Growing Africa: Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness, says that Africa’s farmers and agribusinesses could create a trillion-dollar food market by 2030 if they can expand their access to more capital, electricity, better technology and irrigated land to grow high-value nutritious foods.
The implication of these statistics is that Agribusinesses have the ability to improve the quality of life for Africans by creating better jobs and facilitating improved nutrition and quality food consumption. To this extent, Agribusinesses such as Agrorite are a catalyst for ending poverty especially as the reach is smallholder farmers who in their numbers constitute a large part of the African population and will be more socially impacted by this dynamics. Asides the smallholder farmers, Agribusinesses can also promote industrialisation and thereby increase urban employment such that many people both directly in the agricultural value chain and persons even outside the chain can be beneficiaries of employment arising from the activities of Agribusinesses.
The nexus between creation of jobs and food security cannot be over emphasised. The capacity and availability of purchasing power of sufficient quality food by all persons is essentially food security. To this extent, the increase in gainful employment ultimately translates to a higher food security index in Africa.
Agrorites projections
Agrorite as an Agribusiness aims to be a major player in the projected $1 Trillion 2030 Agribusiness sector, to grow beyond Nigeria and traditional farming methods and be a major stakeholder in the Agricultural sector in Africa at large, to engage and improve the quality of living of at least 1 million smallholder farmers by the year 2020.
Food security in Africa will be curbed if poverty is reduced and if food is made available and accessible to all. In no small way, ensuring a better life for smallholder farmers will ensure food security. The objective of zero hunger by Agrorite and to end poverty through the above listed objectives which are already being practiced will go a very long way to ensure food security and better the lives of small holder farmers.
Agrorite is charged with the mandate of reaching out to a million small Holder farmers by the end of 2020 and this will see the company implementing all the measures spelt out above to ensure an overall increased per capita income for these farmers. A drastic reduction in hunger, starvation and poverty will ultimately lead to food security.
The idea of commercializing these smallholder farmers to boost agricultural profitability is the drive of Agrorite and this approach will go a long way in achieving food security in Africa beginning from Nigeria.
Happy World Food Day!
TOYOSI AYODELE
Toyosi Ayodele, Founder/CEO, Agrorite wrote this article in commemoration of the world food day this week.
