Cultivating Prosperity: Agunity’s Farmer-First Approach to Digital Inclusion
Around the world, small family farmers face extreme challenges. These farmers and their families account for two billion of the world’s unbanked, and the fruits of their labor can be counted in a few meager dollars – just $2-3 USD per day. The increased perils of climate change, crop spoilage, economic and political corruption, unreliable record-keeping, and limited access to farming inputs, equipment, financing, and extension services all serve to keep farmers in a perpetual cycle of poverty. Many farmers in emerging markets are unable to maximize their farms’ potential, resulting in up to 50% lost produce. They face significantly restricted market access and rarely have access to information on best practices that would allow them to get the most out of their land.
AgUnity is a pioneering technology company dedicated to enabling smallholder farmers and their co-operatives to lift themselves out of poverty. Their Field Apps are designed to work in offline and low-bandwidth environments, and have also been designed for first-time, low digital literacy users. Easy to follow geometric shapes, images, and colors translate into an experience that can be used by most farmers, anywhere in the world, without prior tech background. Their co-op Manager, free for co-operatives to use under a “freemium” business model, enables co-operatives to manage members’ data, as well as transactions, regulatory compliance data (including EUDR & CS3D), and certificate data (including Fairtrade and Organic). By converting traditional, paper-based systems into efficient, digital records with these tools, AgUnity facilitates better decision-making, enhanced productivity, and access to global markets. According to AgUnity, their solutions offer end-to-end traceability and management capabilities, directly empowering farmers with the technology to improve yields, reduce waste, and achieve fair compensation for their produce.
According to the initiative, they are also committed to farmers’ data sovereignty – setting them apart from other organizations. Their technology ensures that farmers and their cooperatives maintain complete control over their agricultural data. This empowerment allows them to leverage information for better crop management, fulfill compliance requirements effortlessly, and negotiate more equitable terms in the marketplace. With tools designed to safeguard data integrity and security, farmers enjoy newfound autonomy over their professional destinies.
AgUnity has improved farmers’ lives in three critical ways: a digital identity and credit history for smallholder farmers that allows them to access learning materials and a marketplace; increasing operational efficiency of co-operatives by replacing inefficient paper-based systems that are often subject to corruption and graft; and providing a pathway for farmers and co-operatives to be compliant with international regulations such as the EUDR and CS3D through the easy collection and management of the required data (e.g., GPS coordinates). To date,
AgUnity claims to successfully have completed over 15 pilot projects with smallholder farmers across various crops, including wheat, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, rice, and fish, in more than 9 countries. These countries include Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Brazil, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Solomon Islands.
The initiatives have yielded positive outcomes. Farmers have experienced increased incomes, with some seeing up to a threefold increase from one season to the next. Additionally, these programs have enabled farmers to access new buyers for export, and enabled a transition from paper-based and Excel systems to digital platforms.
They are currently running six official projects to deploy their comprehensive suite of digital solutions. These projects encompass the AgUnity Data Farm, Co-op Manager, Field Apps, Cropslist Marketplace, and the Tracingly traceability solution. They are being implemented in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Brazil.
With a target market of 2 billion farmers worldwide, AgUnity is providing a global tech platform that could touch the lives of countless people across the globe. This is just their beginning.
Learn more about Agunity here!