Farmio, an agritech that provides mobile greenhouse kits to farmers has secured funding from Standard Chartered Bank’s Women in Tech Financing Facility. Being implemented by Village Capital, the financing vehicle seeks to address the gender financing gap by providing catalytic capital to Standard Chartered Bank’s Women in Tech program alumni.
Founded in 2019, Farmio provides tech-enabled solutions for farmers interested in building sustainable and profitable agriculture businesses. Agriculture in Ghana is predominantly smallholder-based and rain-fed, with most farmers doing subsistence farming. These farmers struggle to build profitable agriculture businesses due to limited access to technical assistance, necessary inputs, and reliable markets. The situation is further exacerbated by the increasingly prevalent impacts of climate change, such as prolonged droughts and flooding, which further hinder agricultural productivity and sustainability.
How Farmio is helping farmers build sustainable and profitable farms?
Farmio leverages climate-smart farming principles to help farmers adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. The startup provides farmers inexpensive greenhouses made from upcycled materials with smart irrigation capabilities. It also offers comprehensive training on operating greenhouses and optimising outdoor fields with drip irrigation. Additionally, the company connects farmers with local agronomists who provide guidance and support in person or through the Farmio app.
What has been the impact so far?
By incorporating drip irrigation, Farmio helps farmers reduce their water usage by up to 70%. Where previously, farmers needed over 1000 litres of water over two days, they now use the same quantity over a 7 to 10-day period.
Since launching in 2019, the company has developed a network of 220 farmers throughout Ghana and sold their produce to 25 grocery aggregators and 430 retail consumers. Up to 74% of the farmers supported are women who are either directly farming or engaged in different agricultural jobs around production, supply, harvesting, and aggregation. The quality and quantity of produce have improved markedly, significantly increasing farmers’ earnings. Where farmers previously earned USD 0.4 per kilo, they now earn as high as USD 3 per kilo.
What will the investment be used for?
The investment from the Women in Tech facility opens new horizons for the startup’s growth and impact. They’ll use the funds to expand their demonstration farm and scale their technology to reach more farmers. The team anticipates expanding its farmer network from over 200 farmers to 5,000 farmers in the next few years as they continue to leverage technology to expand reach through their app.
