Tech in Africa
AgroCenta, the digital food distribution platform blends cutting edge digital innovation with traditional on-ground operations that transforms the lives of smallholder farmers across Ghana. The funding came from the UK charity Shell Foundation, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office,Rabo Foundation, and AV Ventures.
The new round of funding will help AgroCenta cultivate smallholder farmer inclusion programmes while procuring crops at fair and transparent market prices. Agriculture and farming is a staple for half of the population across West Africa. Despite the fact that smallholder farmers relentlessly work their plots of land, challenges arise when they harvests and try to sell their produce in the market.
A lack of adequate infrastructure, transportation, and logistics limits access to larger urban markets where better pricing for crops can be secured. A lack of Know Your Customer data and poor credit history means smallholder farmers get limited financial access. This prevents them from growing crops while forcing them to use lower quality inputs.
The $790k raised will go into scaling its agritech ecosystem and purchasing crops from smallholder farmers. Since its launch AgroCenta has:
- Enabled smallholder farmers income by circa 35%
- Reduced food waste by 25% through provision of financing, knowledge, and inputs on best agricultural practices.
- Increased gender equality and land ownership among women by 50%
- Increased crop yields among farmers by 40%
