Farmerhs Afric is a social enterprise that is solving rural youth unemployment by crowdfunding agriculture value chain jobs for Africa’s youth while at the same time providing support to small grocers. We onboard, provide training, inputs, finance, mechanization services, farm insurance and access to market for Africa’s youth farmers.
Our mission is to provide Africa’s youth interested in getting employed along the agriculture value chain with the resources and services they need to succeed.
Unemployment is a major crisis facing youth across Africa especially those in rural areas where jobs are limited because the few available jobs are in the cities. In 2015, the Africa Development Bank estimated that, 10 to 12 million youth enter the workforce yearly but only 3.1 million jobs are available each year leaving 6.9 to 8.9 million youth unemployed yearly on the continent.
However, rural youth who are interested in building a career or creating jobs for themselvess along the agricultural value chain (Cultivation, value addition or distribution) are faced with many challenges. It is either they have the land and cannot get access to tractors to plough the land or unable to get financing from banks and microfinance institutions because they do not have collateral to back the loan application and even the few who get the loans from banks/microfinance institutions are charged high interest rates ranging from 40% to as much as 75% and more.
Also, majority cannot get quality inputs (seeds, fertilizers) or they cultivate the produce and cannot get better prices due to chain of middlemen who buy at very low prices. Meanwhile, those who try to store farm produce for later sales also often face high post-harvest loses.
Real life story, names are changed for privacy : Oke and Ati are 24 and 25years old young men who live in a farming community and decided to go into farming as a source of employment and livelihood. Thanks to goodness, they got 4 hectares of land from a neighbor for 50€ yearly rental. However, they needed to plough the land to plant tomatoes.
To clear the land, they needed access to tractor but there are less than 10 tractors in a district of about 5,000 farmers hence they tilled the land with handheld hoes and machetes. After they have cleared the land, they went to the bank to seek capital, but the bank asked for collateral which they don’t have. A microfinance gave them credit, but the interest rate was between 48-90% per annum. Anyway, they have no alternative, so they took 300$ loan from the microfinance.
They used part of it to procure non verified seeds and fertilizer from the district market. After nursing and planting, they were able to harvest only 1 hectare worth of produce from the 4-hectares farm due to poor fertilizer and seeds. Upon harvesting, they haggled prices with middlemen who came from the city to buy farm produce. Oke and Ati, asked for 50€ per 250kg basket of tomatoes but the middlemen insisted on paying 30€ for the 250kg basket of Tomatoes.
After going through this ordeal, they migrated to the city in search of jobs since they find farming unprofitable despite the effort, they put in. Meanwhile, they are indebted to the microfinance company due to poor harvest. The above scenario is the reality of most young Africans living in rural communities who aspire to make a living through farming.
Farmerhs Afric was funded by the German federal ministry for Economic cooperation and Development (BMZ) with German Agency for international cooperation (GIZ) as coordinating Partner and Kompass in Frankfurt as an implementation partner to understand the level of unemployment among rural youth, challenges facing rural youth farmers and difficulties facing small retailers (grocers).
The farmers are mainly smallholders cultivating 1.5 acres to 1 hectare while the Retailers (grocers) are mainly mom and pop shops/ corner stores owned by families, mostly women as sole source of income with average capital between 150€ - 1000€.
Access to capital: 76.2% of the farmers have no access to capital due to lack of collateral.
Access to Market and better prices: 75.2% have no access to better prices and market opportunities for their produce.
Access to quality inputs (seeds, fertilizer etc): 66% of the farmers have no access to quality seeds and fertilizer.
Access to tractors: 78.6% of the farmers have no regular access to tractors to plough their lands
Access to Farm insurance: None of the farmers have access to farm insurance.
Access to capital: As high as 71.6% of the grocers have no access to capital due to lack of collateral
Access to Produce at fair prices: 73.4% of the grocers do not get fair prices for the produce they buy from middlemen to stock their shops.
Inventory financing: 81.4% of the grocers do not get extended payment terms for the produce they buy from middlemen because they cannot provide a guarantee.
Growth financing: 81% of the grocers do not get growth capital from banks and microfinances due to lack of collateral.
At Farmerhs Afric our goal is to support young farmers and retailers(grocers) with what they need to succeed.
We are crowdfunding agriculture value chain jobs for Africa’s youth while supporting retailers (grocers) to sustain their businesses and income through inventory, growth financing and advisory.
With Farmerhs Afric, rural youth farmers will get access to quality inputs (seeds, fertilizer), regular access to tractors to plough farms, access to finance, readily available market for produce, better prices for produce and farm insurance against losses due to flood, fire, pests, and other natural occurrences.
Small retailers will also get regular access to produce at better prices, inventory, and growth financing to sustain their businesses and income.
We invite you to become a supporter of our agriculture value chain projects and earn profit while providing jobs for rural youths and income for small retailers (grocers).