As government intensifies energy and resources to diversity the economy and make agriculture the mainstay of the economy, two young Nigerian entrepreneurs have developed a state of the art App that will connect farmers, broaden knowledge base of stakeholders in the sector with the ultimate aim of broadening agriculture business in the country.
Speaking with journalists in Lagos on the new tool, Olushola Ogunniyi, co-Founder and CEO of Probityfarms, explained that the new technology is a simple-to-use farm management app to help farmers manage both the day-to-day activities of the farm and even the business-side of their operations. Farmers can use the application throughout the value chain of all farming activities.
According to Ogunniyi, We understand that there are two sides to running successful farming; the business side and the technical side. However, many farmers today lack the professional and business skills needed to manage these two farm operations successfully. With ProbityFarms, our “pilot farmers” depended on our simple dashboard to solve these important needs. After creating their farm profiles, they can easily capture all activities on the farm, from crop production, livestock production and farm economics.
The tools enable them to measure and track every activities in the farm, thereby enabling the farmer to plan better and make sound decision and not just guess work or native intelligence. They also utilize the platform to communicate, learn, share knowledge, and build their relationship with other farmers.
Giving further insight into the the App, he said, that the solution is divided into 7 core offerings based on our assessment of the needs of small holder farmers.
He said that using the tool will help operators Keep farm records and all farming data in one place in order to get real-time insight to livestock and crop activities. Manage sales, expenses and cash flow to ensure the health of your farm finances. The data generated from the information supplied by the farmer makes it easy to work with insurance, banks and accountants or their financial providers for assessments.
Also, the App is an e-Commerce Market place for farmers to sell their farm produce, list agricultural equipment like tractors for sale/lease. It is designed as a business listing site where farmers can list their produce online and off-takers can connect with them, and also noted that as online forum, it will help farmers seek expert opinion and to discuss farming related issues and best practices with other farmers or extension workers and also do business with other farmers.
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“The Pest Weed and Diseases report alarms warn you if your crops are at risk, he said.
Ogunniyi also revealed that ProbityFarm is developing, Relamtime farm produce pricelist across six major markets, saying, “We are currently working with our partner to make wholesale market rates of products available to farmers to assist them in getting the best prices for their products in the marketplace. The price chart would be updated everyday with data points sourced different markets in the country.
On the Farmers cooperative management solution, he said, Farmers Cooperative Management Solution enables farmers to manage their farming activities and cooperative activities one solution, a development he said is coming up in Nigeria for the first time.
Also, the App has opportunity to help determine test and analysis, saying with aa very affordable hardware being currently developed with their partners to evaluate the soil condition for the 13 nutrients required for plant growth, water, sunlight, pH etc and analyses the data in order to understand the appropriate nutrient to apply to improve farm yields. .
He said the seven core offerings is designed for the benefit of extension service workers, off-takers, cooperative societies, Government Institutions, NGO (Agric related), industrial consumer of farm produce, retail outlets and manufacturers
All the innovations, he added are purposely designed for farmers, farmers associations and government agencies managing farmers or regulating the agric sector in terms of cost and technology requirement in Africa, considering prevalent challenges and peculiarities.
“The financial and business upsides of using a tool like ProbityFarms to manage farm operations is immense. These tools will help farmers to be better informed about the happenings in his farm; not depending on guess work.
The average farmer will also have intelligence on what crop will grow better on his farm and adequately measure farming activities in other to access credit/loan.
He also can have access to expert knowledge of best farming practices and have a go to place to meet with farmers. The overall objective is to Increase food production, Create employment, Reduce importation of food, Reduce demand for foreign currency and More happy farmers” he explained.
Speaking on current impact of the technology, he said, “it is commendable that youths, (that make up 70 per of the population) now proudly associate with farming or go into agriculture as against the backdrop of reproach that characterize an average farmer in Nigeria as poor and uneducated. This new class of “agriprenuers” understand that a farmer in Africa has changed from hoe-and-cutlass to laptop and tractor.
The average modern farmer that uses probityfarm understands the needs for real-time information and tools to make life easy and boost agric productivity”.
On the challenge of the technology, he said like every new solution, adoption is gradual,” but like I said before the numbers are encouraging. The future is bright as I see the price of data become more affordable to increase internet penetration, since all our solutions are cloud based”.