Agri-Tech: When Agriculture Meets Technology
I recently celebrated my second year anniversary of investing in Agri-Tech and in this time, I have noticed that a lot of people I speak to seem either unsure, surprised or confused at the thought of investing in this relatively new industry. What I found was that, people are happy to invest when they understood the business model so I quickly realised that the problem was a knowledge gap. If you’ve ever heard the saying, “A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle”, you will know why this post is an absolute necessity to make the ‘room brighter’ as I shed some light *LOL* on this topic.
As a technology enthusiast, it was really exciting to see the ‘good old’ agriculture industry catch up with technology. The application of technology in agriculture focuses on boosting productivity and profitability, as well as simplifying processes and creating the jobs of the future. There are various aspects to Agri-Tech but the focus in this write-up is mainly around the crowdfunding platforms and passive income they bring. I say passive because these investments often require minimal effort from the investor yet result in a regular cash flow for an agreed period of time.
I typically ask 4 important questions before I move forward with any Agri-Tech investment:
- Does the farm have insurance? — to mitigate some of the risk of doing business
- How much do I need to put in? — to know if I can afford that right now or to start planning towards it
- How much will I get out? — to calculate the Return on Investment (% RoI) and determine if it is worth it
- How long do I leave my investment in? — to know the duration that my money will be tied down
Research is super important with any investment, regardless of the industry so to answer the questions above, you can ask someone who has invested in or heard about the company and/or call the phone number on their website to probe a little more. Honestly, this is where like-minded friends come in handy and over time you will identify who these are and possibly make some more.
Regardless, ensure you conduct a background check on the company and study their business model. A simple google search will help qualify the company’s online presence; do they have a website and are they active on social media? If they the answer to this is no, this is definitely a red flag for me because they are supposed to be ‘tech-savvy’.
I must also talk about the Referral Schemes from which I have personally earned a lot from and gotten a number of ‘free’ plots/units over the years from various investments. In summary, some companies reward your kind act of knowledge sharing which definitely sweetens the deal… I’m sure you’ll agree. So, look out for those websites with referral schemes and don’t be shy to share your link with friends when you tell them about it (I’m happy to share mine *wink*!)
If you are comfortable after the intense and extensive investigation, I will advise what is arguable the most important rule of investing: ‘Do not invest more than you are willing to lose!’… simple enough right? Well, I’m sure you are eager to begin your research so to jump-start the process, here are 18 Nigerian Agri-Tech companies I have stumbled on in my journey (with a short summary from their websites):
- Agrecourse: An Agribusiness Sponsorship Platform. We partner with sponsors who are willing to finance small holder farmers, thereby ensuring food security, increased farmer incomes and economic growth.
Link: https://agrecourse.com/ - Agropark: Purchase or Rent Farmland. Agropark farm estates offers the opportunity to acquire from an exceptionally located portfolio of farm lands.
Link: http://www.agropark.ng/ - Agropartnerships: A Digital Platform for Agribusiness. An innovative digital platform that gives everyone the opportunity to engage in Agribusiness anytime and on the go, by funding farms and trading of agricultural commodities.
Link: https://agropartnerships.co - Efarms Nigeria: An online platform that allows Farm Investors invest in a farm to fund small holder farmers; and we provide empowerment for youths and graduates passionate but unskilled in agriculture.
Link: https://www.efarms.com.ng/ - Farmcrowdy: Nigeria’s First Digital Agriculture Platform that empowers rural farmers by providing them with improved seeds, farm inputs, training on modern farming techniques and provides a market for the sale of their farm produce.
Link: https://www.farmcrowdy.com/ - FarmFunded: We provide a crowdfunding platform for farmfunders to fund farm operations while we channel the funds to practicing farmers in need of funds to scale-up operations. We exist to connect the missing dots of funders to farmers.
Link: https://www.farmfunded.com - Farm Ignite: Gives you the opportunity to fund a farm, empower our small scale farmers and share in the harvest. Also, get practical agricultural training, consulting and establish your land for agriculture with our experience farmers.
Link: https://farmignite.com - Farm Right: Our vision is to rapidly grow a farm estate investment company and provide the best professional service that will help people start and grow their farms around the world without them having to do the farm work.
Link: https://farmright.co/ - Farm Sponsor: An agri-tech platform where individuals sponsor farmers with their money for a 15% return on their sponsorship at the end of a farming period.
Link: https://farmsponsor.com.ng/ - Farmkart: An agric-tech platform where people can invest in livestock farming to increase local food production, support farmers and get returns on their investment.
Link: https://farmkart.ng/ - Flextree: Farming and Farm Management; We help you to setup and manage your farm with quality consulting service.
Link: http://flextree.farm/ - Groupfarma: We give opportunity to investors to participate in agriculture in Nigeria without getting their hands dirty. You can invest in agriculture by sponsoring farm units and machinery to earn competitive interest on your investment.
Link: https://www.groupfarma.com.ng/ - Grow Crops Online: Growcropsonline is a platform that allows busy people farm. We offer farming services and contract farming via this platform. After farming for you, we either sell the products for you directly and then pay you OR we process the products for you to avoid wastage which occurs especially with our vegetables.
Link: https://www.growcropsonline.com/ - Growsel: An award-winning nonprofit agricultural crowdfunding organization that connects underserved Base of the Pyramid smallholder farmers with lenders around the world to alleviate poverty.
Link: https://www.growsel.com - Hastom Nigeria: A leading company which orientates, promotes and support people to invest into real estate through agriculture. We help them to acquire the best farmlands at affordable prices and start their big farms and plantations.
Link: https://hastomnigeria.com/ - Payfarmer: An online Agriculture marketplace that connects investors with real farmers who are ready to farm on a commercial scale with everyday people and investors who are willing to sponsor farm expansions in order to increase food production and promote job creation.
Link: https://payfarmer.com/ - PorkMoney: We are the leading pig farming enterprise in West Africa. Our objective is welcoming financial partnership from any interested persons around the world. Partners’ funds sponsor the purchase and breeding of pigs till maturation.
Link: https://www.porkmoney.com/ - Thrive Agric: Gives you the opportunity to fund a farm, empower farmers, learn practical agricultural tips and share in the harvest.
Link: https://www.thriveagric.com/
No matter how little, I encourage you to start today and watch that seed grow! Happy investing!!
DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional or an investment guru and simply wrote this post for fun; as such, I am not liable for any loss. Please note that I am not sponsored by, affiliated to, nor do I represent any of the companies listed above . Readers are advised to conduct further research before making ANY investment.
- Thank you for reading! Was this post helpful? Please leave a comment below with any feedback and please let me know if there are any Agri-Tech companies I left off the list that we really need to keep our eyes on! :) **
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