Data driven agribusiness
QUARTER ONE 2023
‘‘WE ARE BUILDING AN END-TO-END ECOSYSTEM AROUND FARMERS BRINGING FARMING INPUTS, FINANCIAL SERVICES AND OUTPUT MARKET CLOSER TO THEM IN A WAY THAT MAKES THE PROCESS
AFFORDABLE, CONVENIENT AND RELIABLE FOR NOT ONLY THE FARMERS, BUT THEIR BUSINESS PARTNERS.
KIZITO ODHIAMBO FOUNDER & CEO agri BORA
Partner with us (agriBORA | an agri-fin-tech company)
Let us do it for you with our SaaS, agriMAP and agriLEDGER technology
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*384*088#
OUR CONTACTS
agriBORA Kenya Limited
Rhapta Heights, Shiriki House, Rhapta Road
Westlands, Nairobi Kenya
Tel: +254-768-548707
E-mail:info@agriBORA.com
www.agribora.com
agriBORA is an agri-fintech company that combines technology and human interaction to de-risk subsistence agriculture, increase agricultural productivity and facilitate effective trading.
We are building an end-to-end ecosystem for smallholder farmers by bringing agricultural inputs, financial services and output market closer to them in a way that makes the process more affordable, convenient and reliable for the farmers and their business partners.
We have developed an end-to-end B2B2C Software as a Service Platform to enable smallholder farmers and their last-mile business partners who we refer to as agriBORA Hubs to interact and transact with each other in a more cost-effective, efficient, transparent and reliable way.
Our technology integrates fundamental feature phone capabilities such as SMS, USSD and mobile payment solutions with advanced analytics based on Earth observation satellite data to monitor and assess crop development throughout the growing the season.
In an era of diminishing farm productivity and rising demand for farm produce as raw materials and food, smart and intensive production is key. The MAIN barrier to smallholder farmers exploitation of the full farm potential is credit which they not only lack access to but is also packaged unfavorably for the kind of businesses they do.
We understand that the farmer population provides a huge untapped market for financial institutions to expand their service share but this requires alignment of both the farming protocol and the financial products.
agriBORA is intervening in two fronts: Liaison with the FSPs to
customize products responsive to the needs of the farm and with its technology creating a lending conduit agriKOPA to facilitate this; and two, enlightening farmer community and providing a platform through which farming transaction histories can be logged, stored and utilized for credit origination.
One such engagement has since seen agriBORA partner with the largest bank in East Africa - Equity Bank to offer training to the first cohort of agriBORA farmers in Siaya and Bungoma.
Moreover, with the county government of UasinGishu, more hubs and farmers benefited from these trainings in the first quarter of 2023.
‘‘THE MAIN BARRIER TO SMALLHOLDER FARMERS EXPLOITATION OF THE FULL FARM POTENTIAL IS CREDIT WHICH THEY NOT ONLY LACK ACCESS TO BUT IS ALSO PACKAGED UNFAVORABLY FOR THE KIND OF BUSINESSES THEY DO’’.
The issues ravaging recommendations of best practices along specific crop value chains in Kenya are apparent to most stakeholders that try to bridge the good agricultural practices gap. However, most of the information is sourced from dated sources and delivery to the farmer is often reactive rather than precautionary.
A model that works for most farmers is field demonstrations where they can see and learn, and this has worked for most seed companies. Through agriBORA’s end-to-end solutions with technology embeddedness we have set-up six model farms for sorghum in Siaya and Irish potato in Bungoma counties in partnership with input companies and off takers like Yara and EAML. From these sites, we intend to not only demonstrate to farmers the good practices for better yields and market but also use the farms to show the practical application of our machine learning modules’ contribution to insights for policy and planning through the agriMAP.
The six fields have been mapped pre-season, and prototypes for planting date, fertilizer recommendation as well as pest warning system developed. Throughout the season, agri-recommendations and other support will be given to the farmers.
The design of these model farms is such that agriBORA is able to draw learnings towards good agricultural practices for the 2 value chains, credit and insurance, input use, as well as record keeping.
Together with the University of Marburg (Germany) and the start-up company Geo Engine GmbH, the team of agriBORA launched the “CropHype” research project, funded by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with €353,000 in early 2023.
In the project, data from two satellite systems will be combined using artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance our crop type classification system to identify fields based on the crops grown there.
This will help improve our agriMAP products, our field monitoring as well as the yield estimations and it will allow us to better advise smallholder farmers as well as offtakers and local governments on crop distribution and availability.
OVER THE YEARS, WE HAVE MADE AND MAINTAINED SUCH PRODUCTIVE RELATIONSHIPS WHICH HAVE NOT ONLY INSPIRED THE QUICK EXPANSION OF OUR ACTIVITIES BUT ALSO EASENED THE TECHNOLOGY BURDEN OTHER PLAYERS HAD IN IMPLEMENTING THEIR INTERVENTIONS.
agriBORA is keen on reaching out to and working with strategic partners motivated by the glaring need to leverage technology for improving livelihoods of smallhoder farming in Kenya and Africa.
Over the years, we have made and maintained such productive relationships which have not only inspired the quick expansion of our activities but also easened the technology burden other players had in implementing their interventions. Within the first quarter of 2023, agriBORA strengthened its working partnerships with Sprout, an open agriculture content platform which intends to use learn-
ings from agriBORA to scale to Nigeria; Kenya National Farmers’ Federation (KENAFF) which is the apex, umbrella farmers’ organization in Kenya;
We were honoured to host delegations from The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), DEG visit to the office
We have aggressively joined tech challenges to showcase our capacities and contributions in Africa and Europe including: the Africa-Korea Agtech challenge (emerged Top finalist), SAIStival.
At agriBORA, data counts and data relates to people and property. We thus in compliance with the Data Protection Act of 2019 under the laws of Kenya acquired the full registration as a certified data handler and processor. This shows our commitment to responsible use and protection of personal data, even as we endeavor to lead a data-driven transformation of the agricultural value chain and smallholder farming sector. Additionally, we were awarded trophies of excellence during Agriculture 100 Awards 2022 after emerging as the Best Technology Solutions Providers in 2022; and another certificate of excellence
In January, agriBORA was featured in Kenya’s most read business newspaper “The Business Daily”, and in the Siaya County Government farmer success story noticeboards following the great progress of our agriHUB model. Lately, agriBORA was featured in the 0---LAB news headlined “AI for Sustainable Development Goals initiative as yields user-focused solutions to enhance food security”.
We have aggressively joined tech challenges to showcase our capacities and contributions in Africa and Europe including: the Africa-Korea Agtech challenge (emerged Top finalist), SAIStival.
agriBORA CEO, Kizito at Olaare and Tingwa meetings
Tingwa hub meeting in Uasin Gishu
agriBORA CEO, Kizito’s delivery at the Africa-Korea AgTech Innovation Summit in Nairobi.
Gladys Agumba Field activation ongoing at Liganga Hub.
Records keeping training going on in Olaare Hub.
Nekesah meeting with 5 potential hub managers and the other an agrodealer located at Bulimbo- Samolife Limited.
Mathews and Gladys having a meeting with hello tractor at Ahero hub in Kisumu county.
Delivery of 27 bales of maize seeds and pesticides for 64 acres of maize to Kikai farmers in Namwela in Bungoma.
Kibingei Hub meeting at Chebukwabi in Bungoma.
Gladys Agumba Met with CEO of Kikai farmers cooperative in Namuela and later on delivering goods at the FSC.
