Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 11 Apr #10
Nigeria to enrol farmers on eNaira agri wallets, Pula, SunCulture and MasterCard commit to US climate plan for Africa, India’s AgroStar secures investment
24/03/23
Central Bank of Nigeria launches agri eNaira programme
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has partnered with the Association of Northern Agricultural and Allied Commodities Practitioners (ANAACOP) to enrol by the end of 2023 one million farmers across northern states on the eNaira wallet. The plan is to provide farmers with an agri sub-wallet offering affordable agricultural input loans, supporting financial inclusion and food security. The eNaira is the first central bank digital currency (CBDC) launched in Africa and the second globally. ANAACOP and CBN plan to scale up the agri eNaira initiative to five million farmers by 2024. Nigeria has experienced a cash shortage since early February, which is boosting the use of the eNaira.
31/03/23
Pula, SunCulture and MasterCard commit to US climate plan for Africa
Insurtech Pula, agritech SunCulture and MasterCard are among the 24 organisations to have committed to US Vice President Kamala Harris’s call for the private sector to promote and enhance climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation in Africa. The White House said that the private sector has made over USD7 billion in new commitments, with the US Government also announcing new federal funding. Pula has committed to increase insurance coverage to 100 million African farmers by 2026, providing up to USD 20 billion in insurance. SunCulture said it will mobilise USD 100 million in private capital and USD 40 million in grant/subsidy funding to deploy smallholder farmer solar irrigation to address food security in Kenya by 2028. Mastercard said it will increase access to its Community Pass platform, which establishes a digital identity to unbanked people, to a total of 15 million African farmers by 2027.
06/04/23
Schroders UK Public Private invests in Indian agritech AgroStar
Investor Schroders UK Public Private (SUPP) is backing Indian agritech company AgroStar with USD 8 million, in its first transaction in Asia. The investment is part of a larger USD 25m investment during the start-up's financing round, which also sees the participation from other existing investors including Accel, Chiratae Ventures, Evolvence, Aavishkaar Capital, British International Investments and IFC among others. Established in 2013, AgroStar started as an e-commerce platform for inputs, and evolved to become a cloud platform combining agronomy and data science to provide customized crop advisory. The agritech, which claims to have 7.5 million users, operates in the five states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. AgroStar has to date raised USD112.4 million, according to Crunchabse.
29/03/23
Small Foundation launches facility to support digital agriculture innovators
Small Foundation has launched the Emerald Africa Financing Facility (EAFF) to support early-stage digital agriculture innovators enabling access to finance for rural SMEs. A two-year pilot within Small Foundation, EAFF will offer loans between USD 50,000 and 250,000 to selected agritechs whose solutions provide credit to SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa. The target agtech is an early-stage venture looking for funding to scale their on-lending loan book. Small Foundation is a philanthropic foundation based in Ireland that is working to catalyse and scale income-generating opportunities for people living in extreme poverty in rural sub-Saharan Africa.
In other news…
25/03/23
Akello Banker works with Ugandan coops to digitise oil seed value chain
The FAO Investment Centre, IFAD and UNCDF Digital are supporting a pilot with Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries and local agritech Akello Banker to provide digital advisory and financial services to farmers in the oil seed sector. Akello Banker has developed a platform that offers agricultural advisory and input linkages on credit. The solution is available via a partnership with local cooperatives looking to improve oil seed production and provide inputs on credit. Currently, the project is being implemented in six districts of the Lango, Teso and Mount Elgon sub-regions, with the main agribusiness partner being the Lango Cooperative Union. Over 100 UNCDF digital village agents are responsible for enrolling and training farmers onto the platform, which is accessible both on an app and on feature phones.
30/03/23
Agrvision to develop Kenya-wide programme for crop monitoring and yield forecasting
Kenya’s Directorate of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing (DRSRS) and precision agriculture company Agrvision have joined forces to develop a Kenya-wide digital programme for satellite and artificial intelligence (AI) crop monitoring and yield forecasting. The platform, which will digitally monitor and classify various crops in the country, will enable government and farmers to obtain precise information about fields, crops and forests. Established in 2022, Agrvision leverages AI/ML and big data for precision agriculture. In February, the start-up partnered with US based EOS Data Analytics (EOSDA) to use the EOSDA Crop Monitoring platform to deliver accurate data for crop classification and yield prediction.