John Chukwu is a 39years old engineer who lives and works in Lagos- Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre has a 20 hectares farmland of maize, rice and soybeans in Jigawa and yet he has never been to a farm.
Despite lacking the practical knowledge of farming, Chukwu harvest tons of crops yearly and makes over N500, 000 from farming each year.
“I have no practical knowledge of farming and I have never been to a farm but I have two farms in Jigawa State,” he said.
Not only is the business very profitable but also helping Nigeria meets its funding needs to boost food production and ensure food security.
Vivian Adegoroye, a banker with a top money deposit bank in the country is also a farmer by proxy.
“I have been into farming since 2018 and the journey has been exciting and rewarding. I have a 10-ton rice farm in Kebbi and I have never been to Kebbi state before,” Adegoroye told BusinessDay.
“I could have these farms through my investments in Thrive Agric- a company that connects sponsors to farmers and the returns on my investment has been excellent,” he added.
Chukwu and Vivian are some of the investors leveraging on crowd-farming platforms such as Farmcrowdy, Thrive Agric and Agroyields among others to make investments on smallholder farmers to expand their production, thereby, creating wealth for themselves.
The likes of fintech organisations such as Farmcrowdy, Thrive Agric, Agroyields Nigeria, Agrecourse and Growsel are firms behind the initiative that is reshaping the way people participate in farming and food production using their online platform to invest.
The organisations function through their various platforms and train farmers in smart farming techniques as well as supplying them with inputs and technical support to boost their output.
The opportunity has allowed many Nigerians who do not want to be involved in the farming own a farm and venture into agribusiness.
The country currently has a total of 31 crowd-funding platforms for investors to invest in any farms of their choice.
“Farmcrowdy has recorded close to 1,000 unique farm sponsors, aggregated a combined 4,000 acres of farmland in Nigeria for farming purpose and grown over 150,000 organic chickens to date,” Onyeka Akumah, co-founder and CEO, Farmcrowdy said recently during the firm’s first anniversary in Lagos.
Supporting smallholder farmers with finance
Over the years, lack of finance has remained one of the major factors bedevilling the country’s agricultural sector and this impediment has continued to prevent farmers from investing in basic inputs, such as quality seeds, fertilizers, and small-scale irrigation facilities among others needed to raise productivity and generate sustainable income. But all that is fast changing owing to the new league of proxy farmers in the country.
“Despite contributing about 30percent to Nigeria’s GDP and 70percent to the country’s labour force, most farmers in Nigeria are still entangled in poverty, a problem that stems from a lack of funds to access modern farm inputs, which in turn drastically reduces their output,” Jerry Oche, CEO, Growsel said in a statement.
“To change this for farmers and ensure they have the required finance to expand their production areas and boost productivity, we create a meeting point for farmers and farm sponsors who are willing to invest,” Oche said.
According to experts, such financing models to farmers will increase private capital investment in the country’s primary agriculture and integrate poorer sections of the population into a sustainable process of economic growth and development.
In turn, this will reduce poverty by providing jobs, directly and indirectly, that will serve as a stimulus to the Nigerian economy and agricultural sector. “We believe an innovative national agriculture system, that supports smallholder farmers, would grow the economy and eradicate hunger. That is why we are committed to providing support for smallholder farmers in Nigeria” said Deborah Adesuwa Ameli, chief operating officer, Agroyields in an interview with BusinessDay.
