By Adesina Wahab
Experts have called for the creation of a convergence of the public with farmers to boost their confidence as a way of surmounting insecurity threatening the sector and the attendant despondence it has brought on some of the farmers.

They expressed the view during a webinar that was part of the activities marking the fifth anniversary of Farmcrowdy, an agric-tech outfit.

The webinar was themed: “The Green Dream: Above and Beyond.”
Since its inception in 2016, Farmcrowdy has been on a mission to solve the inefficiencies in the food value chain using technology.

Farmcrowdy also strives to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger.

In a bid to further build sustainability in the Agri-tech space, Farmcrowdy celebrated its fifth anniversary by organizing the webinar where stakeholders like Dr. Andrew Kwasari, SSA to the President on Agriculture, Dr. Angel Adelaja-Kuye, SSA to the Ogun State Governor on Agriculture, Mr. Ibrahim Maigari, and Mr. Akindele Phillips, Co-Founder and CEO, Farmcrowdy, were on the panel to drive conversations around powering food solutions in Nigeria and across the globe.
Dr. Kwasari, while stressing the importance of a convergence, said for a sector to thrive, there was need for fiscal and monetary policies.

Maigari was also of the opinion that creating a convergence of the public with the farmers would foster confidence in spite of insecurity, and that to revolutionise the agric sector, everybody has a role to play. Areas such as road development, statistics, finance, healthcare are key to the development of the industry, Adelaja noted.

Farmcrowdy has also been able to amass a network of over 400,000 farmers, cultivated across 17,000 acres of farmland, reared three million organic chickens, and deployed funds for farming projects across 36 States in Nigeria.

Moving away from crowdfunding in August 2019 as a source of funding for farmers, Farmcrowdy now connects smallholder farmers to DFIs provided by government agencies, access to market and processed food.

A few months ago, Farmcrowdy reviewed its business structure to evolve into two strategic business lines called FC Foods and FC Shops. FC Foods serves as a digital marketplace for trading raw agro-products, inputs and commodities. Consumers can conveniently purchase fresh foods products and groceries.

FC Shops, on the other hand, is a tech-enabled B2B retail platform that helps small retailers source their inventory by facilitating access to the widest assortment of FMCG goods at wholesale prices.

The event which was also a platform to reveal Farmcrowdy’s expansion project in East Africa had its Country Manager in Rwanda, Fiona Umulisa, discussed Farmcrowdy’s impact in her African region.

“Almost all our underwriters from the past operations are partakers in the food value chain. As of now, we are doing more collaborations beyond Nigeria. We have a footprint in Rwanda”, Akindele added