Wami Agro
Bridging the grains supply chain gap
The following SDG impact is applicable to Wami Agro:
Rice is the 3rd most imported product in Ghana and the country is the 20th largest importer of rice in the world, to the tune of averagely $391M. Local rice farmers are unable to satisfy the existing demand. Majority of the cereal and grain small including but not limited to unstable and unpredictable weather conditions, inadequate farming resources; ranging from seeds to machinery, lack of finance, pest infestation and post-harvest losses due to the lack of a ready market.
Wami Agro, an AgTech, lessens the burden on these farmers by marrying technology with agriculture to help solve the challenges faced by these small holder farmers. It provides Agric Input Credit in the form of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and farm mechanization services to the smallholder farmers on a deferred payment basis. This one act eliminates a number of issues and paves way for the small holder farmers to go about their business.
Concurrently, Wami Agro provides an access-to-market service which connects smallholder farmers to ready markets by aggregating from the smallholder farmers and selling to institutional and bulk buyers. This together with the provision of input credit creates an enabling environment for the over 10,000 small holder farmers within Wami Agro’s network.
In addition to the funding support, Wami Agro also provides technical assistance to the smallholder farmers. This includes training on climate-friendly farming practices, education on precision farming and farm waste reduction techniques. This translates into the growth of the smallholder farmers’ businesses, improved livelihood of these farmers, reduction in inequality and employment, increased food security, enhanced actions towards attaining zero food waste and increased business climate resilience.
Wangara’s investment will enable Wami Agro to provide smallholder farmers in the grains value chains with training, input credit and access to markets. The investment would create 25 direct jobs and support about 15,500 smallholder farmers over the next five years while improving farm yields by about 30%.