#BellaNaijaMCM Emeka Nwachinemere is Tackling Food Insecurity & Increasing Farmers’ Yields with Kitovu & eFarms

Several studies have shown that with the way the world is going, in about a decade, the world will experience massive food deficiency if something is not done and done fast.

Technology is changing the way we live and we leverage it to solve agricultural challenges of the 21st Century.

#BellaNaijaMCM this week Emeka Nwachinemere is the founder of Kitovu, an online platform that helps rural and remote smallholder farmers triple their crop yields and sell their produce by linking them to manufacturers, produce buyers, as well as input buyers.

The platform uses an app and USSD Gateway cross-linked to a web portal and links the farmer’s location to a soil database to determine the soil types found on a particular farm. Using that information, plus the crop type, it can determine the fertiliser the farmer should use.

Kitovu has been proven to boost a farmer’s yield by 300%. Farmers can buy high-quality fertilisers or seedlings through the app, or use it to sell their produce. If a farmer can’t afford to buy the fertilisers or seedlings, they can pay Kitovu with their produce after harvest.

The app is free for farmers, but suppliers and produce buyers pay to use the platform. Kitovu takes a 5% commission on sales made through the platform. The app is aimed at farmers who can’t afford soil tests, but want increased yields, a reduction in post-harvest losses and increased income.

Emeka is also the founder of eFarms (Reg. as FoodBank), a platform providing financial linkage between farm investors and small holder farmers; and empowering passionate youths with the practical skills and knowledge in building sustainable agribusinesses.

eFarms crowdsources for funds to run a farm, promising investors a 16.5% ROI. It also empowers farmers with the right tools and technical know-how to boost yield.

In 2017, Emeka won the Ideas for Action competition for youths on financing for development, organised by the World Bank Group in collaboration with the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research.

The same year, Emeka was a finalist in the Royal Academy for Engineering Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.

We celebrate Emeka for building a platform that solves a social problem, while making money for small holder farms and investors who are primarily youths.