Digital Platforms for Linking Agriculture Investors with Smallholder Farmers in Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed digital platforms used to link agriculture investors with smallholder farmers in Nigeria. Content analysis and In-depth interviews were used for the study. Three digital platforms, namely ThriveAgric, EZ Farming and Farmcrowdy were purposively chosen for this study. Results showed that ThriveAgric is user friendly, EZ Farming and Farmcrowdy provide risk assessment scores for easy monitoring. Also, ThriveAgric uses Agricultural Operating System (AOS) to track farmers’ activities. EZ Farming uses social media platforms for adverts and campaign while Farmcrowdy innovatively used the platform to render advisory services to the farmers. ThriveAgric and Farmcrowdy invested in crop and livestock production while EZ Farming areas of investments were crop, livestock, fisheries, farm equipment and hydroponics. Smallholder farmers’ derived benefits were mainly observed in the aspect of reduction in post-harvest losses. Untimely delivery of agricultural inputs and cost of running the platforms were identified as major impediments to effective deployment of the platform by the farmers and operators of the platforms respectively. Cost sharing mechanism should be incorporated in the partnership to ensure sustainability and win-win situation. Also regular review of the initiative by all the stakeholders is strongly recommended.