Project Summary: Describe your contribution in one sentence

The FarmSmarter app is designed to help our planet’s 600 million smallholder farmers to profitably Achieve Net-zero Farming through location-specific, sustainable, climate-smart productivity advice.

What are the additional countries or territories of impact?

West Africa, Latin America, Indonesia

Challenge Focus: What topic does your project most directly relate to?

Creating inclusive pathways for people to contribute towards building a sustainable worldTurning data and information into stories that spark action around environmental issues Creating structures of support for regenerative solutions to today's climate challenges

Website URL(s) or social media handles

Instagram, Facebook @FarmSmarterApp Twitter @farmsmarterapp Website: http://farmsmarter.app

The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve?

Our planet’s 600 million Smallholders are key to future global food security as the population continues to grow. They face climate-change challenges and increased pressure to provide sustainably produced crops. This is intensified in Sub-Saharan Africa where smallholder communities, and particularly women farmers, face additional difficulties.

The barriers to accessing up-to-date, climate-smart, sustainable agricultural information have excluded many smallholders from managing their farms and soil sustainably. Traditional land ownership structures result in exclusion from accessing finance to implement current sustainable farming practices, enabling maintained or improved productivity. Inadequate regenerative agriculture education makes smallholders increasingly reliant on costly fertilisers and pesticides, which impact on the livelihoods of small farming communities, soil and biodiversity.  

The strength of local smallholder communities is undervalued in the quest for global sustainability and green changemaking, and a lack of communication channels for and between smallholder farmers hampers their progress in adopting and sharing effective sustainable farming practices.

Your connection and commitment: How close are you to the problem and/or the community impacted?

Smallholders in West Africa are a microcosm of these circumstances globally, and the FarmSmarter app project works directly with farming communities in Nigeria to identify these most pressing needs and continues to engage them in co-creating solutions to enabling these farmers as changemakers, instrumental to the sustainable agriculture revolution.

FarmSmarter founder, Paul Coker, has worked closely with farmers and Farming Associations in Nigeria, Ghana and Republic of Benin over the past 20 years. His late father was the president of Nigeria’s main farmers association (AFAN) until his death in 2019 and in working alongside his father, both managing a commercial farm and advising other farmers, Paul has witnessed the discrepancies in access to information, finance and technology for smallholders in West Africa compared with those in the Global North. These experiences were the catalyst for the FarmSmarter app concept as an accessible smartphone application designed for and in collaboration with farmers in the region.

Ongoing, regular extended periods of engagement with farming communities and agricultural researchers in West Africa, have enabled Paul to lead the FarmSmarter team in establishing valuable parameters for development of the FarmSmarter app. FarmSmarter is committed to encouraging local talent, our development team currently spans both UK and Nigeria, bringing local experiences to bear in the design and approach taken. The team is in daily contact with local farming communities and tester users to ensure that the farmers needs are being addressed.

Your approach: How are you enabling other people to identify as green changemakers? How are you influencing them to get involved in your initiative or care about the issue you are addressing?

Smallholders are the custodians of the largest proportion of agricultural land in Nigeria, with an estimated 25 million smallholdings (88% of all farms in the country).  The FarmSmarter app project is designed to engage and support these farmers in adopting sustainable, regenerative agriculture practices.  By providing easy to implement suggestions for improved sustainable farming to our farmer users, the smallholder community will be pushed to the forefront as Green Changemakers in the agriculture sector and food supply chain. We are conscious that farmers need to see increased profitability resulting from their efforts in adopting sustainable practices, and FarmSmarter aims to ensure their efforts are rewarded by giving access to new markets and realise enhanced value for their sustainably produced crops through sustainability accreditation.

Opportunities for knowledge transfer in climate-smart farming and crop production come through the highly illustrated information provided by FarmSmarter, enabling farmers to adopt sustainable practices incrementally and share their experiences in their communities. We are working with National farming associations to devise outreach and training events in smallholder communities as part of the roll-out activities for the FarmSmarter app. The information provided to users via the app will encourage sustainable agriculture and conservation farming techniques. Our digital community will be a forum for encouraging discussion, sharing ideas and comparing experiences of sustainable approaches to agriculture and crop production. The FarmSmarter platform will use storytelling techniques to engage and positively influence farmers from all educational backgrounds, extending the reach of sustainability messaging in farming communities.

Community involvement: How is your approach involving community participation, especially the historically marginalized groups?

In creating the FarmSmarter app our first point of contact was with farming communities in Nigeria.

We surveyed 340 smallholders across four states on their needs & concerns, of the 23% that were female, 51-75% of  household income came from farming. The Smallholder Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON) found 70% of agriculture workforce is female producing 60% of food consumed. 

Our survey identified a higher than expected access to smartphones & internet connection & we explored farmers' needs and sustainability awareness, e.g. only 4% of the respondents used composting, encouraged by FarmSmarter as a cost-effective & nature-based soil improvement process.

In co-designing the app with farmers, FarmSmarter continues close involvement of farming communities, liaising with farming associations to empower young & women farmers in advocating for change.  ‘FarmSmarter ambassadors’ will be appointed, based on experience & engagement, encouraging women as ambassadors for sustainable and regenerative farming, breaking down cultural barriers to information & celebrating local lost regen-farming traditions. 

Working with the All Farmers & Womens Farmers Associations in Nigeria, we address issues of inclusivity & gender bias in provision of climate-smart farming information, & encourage reduced carbon emissions through offering opportunities to share transportation & logistics.

 

 

Your Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions already out there? How is your approach original and innovative? We are particularly interested in solutions that use regenerative approaches.

Digital solutions for regenerative farming advice are often Eurocentric, requiring detailed information from users, not embracing indigenous knowledge, they are also costly. Other solutions available to smallholders rely on physical extension workers, agronomists or advisors. This limits the reach to remote communities. 

FarmSmarter innovations include:

New algorithms for farm mapping & providing sustainable crop & soil management advice based on site specific information gathered through the app.

Climate change issues addressed through promoting reintroduction of orphan crops etc.

Assessment & regeneration of farm soil health through farmer interactions with accessible climate-smart advice that can be incrementally applied by smallholders to achieve improvements in their sustainability and profitability.

Dissemination of up-to-date regenerative soil management techniques through handy tips & advice in the FarmSmarter app will help farmers to preserve soil health & improve nutrient levels in a nature-based way. (composting, intercropping, and minimal till techniques)

Accessibility considerations for less literate farmers are often overlooked by farming apps & online services. FarmSmarter uses clearly illustrated infographics to provide information and advice. Local language options will be offered.

Predictive algorithms assess weather & land conditions to help farmers plan irrigation & fertiliser application, reducing wasted resources, nutrient leaching & chemical run-off from fields.

Collecting information on land use & pest/disease spread will inform users of impending risks & threats to crop health.

Early AI crop disease identification accessible with or without internet connection will reduce unnecessary pesticide use & help protect pollinators and biodiversity.

Founding Story: Share a story about the "Aha!" moment that led the founder(s) to get started or the story of how you saw the potential for this to succeed.

While working with the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, our founder, Paul Coker, found that there were recurring themes to conversations with smallholder farmers & their representatives. Farmers complained about the inequalities in access to finance for them to grow their farming businesses. Secondly they were concerned about the difficulty in accessing the best farming information for their locale to combat increasingly poor yields.

Then the lightbulb moment came at a Gamechanging Agriculture conference in London 2019, where a discussion of the difficulties in identifying and locating farms for loan purposes highlighted a need for linking farmers & finance institutions through GPS mapping to de-risk loans & insurance. This led to the germination of FarmSmarter app as a concept: To connect small farmers with current climate-smart farming information & connecting them with the commercial marketplace & finance.

Leveraging the experience & connections gained over years of working closely with farmers in Nigeria, Paul successfully built a collaborative project with Universities in Nigeria & the UK to win Innovate UK agritech funding to develop the FarmSmarter proof of concept app.

Enthusiasm for the FarmSmarter concept has been overwhelming both from farmers & businesses, validating Paul's belief that farmers are ready to embrace mobile technology as a portal for information.

Impact: How has your project made a difference so far? How is it contributing to a zero-carbon world- where every person thrives, and nobody gets left behind?

In building the FarmSmarter app we have engaged, 340+ farmers in our factfinding survey, 150+ farmers as test users of the prototype application, 84 farmers in our farmers WhatsApp group, all of whom share ideas & feedback on their experiences.

We have established connections with farming associations, with memberships of over 250,000 in Paraguay & 10million in Nigeria.

The beta version of FarmSmarter will be tested by up to 750,000 smallholders in Nigeria, in association with Nigeria’s farming associations. Paraguay’s Ministry of agriculture has committed to engaging 15,000 famer testers.

Our enthusiastic testers are adopting sustainable farming techniques & introducing new concepts into their farming practices (rotational cropping, reduced chemical inputs & companion planting for disease prevention.) One said “This, our FarmSmarter app will supersede all other farming apps out there”. The potential success for FarmSmarter is massive, our testers span age and gender, we have encouraged families to use the app & feedback has informed future development plans. Our collaboration with the University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Nigeria has enabled farmers to attend training days to learn how the app works & its potential uses in the future, we invited fifty farmers to an event where they all experienced benefits of AI disease identification, crop propagation advice & field mapping.

What’s Next: What are your ideas for taking your project to the next level?

The Beta version of the FarmSmarter app is in development, building on feedback from test users.

FarmSmarter app aims to increase its reach across the global population of 600+ million smallholders over the next 5-10 years.

We are working on systems to facilitate desperately needed access to finance & sustainable inputs for smallholders.

Net zero emissions targets - Building interconnected digital co-operatives to reduce emissions in logistics. Developing this digital community enables logistics & farm inputs to be agglomerated, reducing the global emissions footprints of smallholders. 

Users will be awarded a sustainability rating based on their green actions, adding value to their product. 

Collaboration with NGOs & farming associations will encourage water conservation, sustainable land management & regenerative agriculture adoption, estimated to increase yields in Africa by 13% by 2040

Maintain a free-to-access service for smallholders, supported by commercial subscribers (inputs, logistics & finance sectors).  FarmSmarter will provide affordable information & solutions connecting farmers with ethical providers.

As the user base grows & FarmSmarter collects data, the AI disease ID model will strengthen and expand, the accuracy of disease spread predictions will improve & the data will help to produce suggestions to mitigate excess use of water, pesticides & artificial fertilizers.

Your team: What is the current composition of your team (types of roles, qualifications, full-time vs. part-time, board members, etc.), and how do you plan to evolve the team’s composition as the project grows?

Paul Coker (He/him) Founder Director & CEO, FarmSmarter Ltd, BSc Electrical Engineering, MSc Microelectronics. Expertise in digital technologies & business development in LMICs

Rebecca Cole-Coker, (She/her) Co-Founder & COO. Expertise in brand management, creative consultancy, UX/content generation, project management.

Academic collaborators:

Prof Liangxiu Han, (she/her), Manchester Metropolitan University. Responsible for development of prototype AI disease ID model.

Prof Akin Omotayo. Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria. Specialist in climate-friendly farming systems, leading team of agronomists and plant pathologists.

Advisors:

Dr David Purdy, Soil scientist specialising in regenerative soil management.

Alan Butler, Former international markets director Diageo.

Natural Resources Institute, Greenwich – Dr Lucie Buchi,

Development team: 3 FT developers (Nigeria), one PT consultant (UK).

Future hires: Marketing team, CTO and CFO

Operational Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure operational sustainability.

Initial research focussed on assessing the feasibility of FarmSmarter as a viable business model for growth. We identified a real need for information & services integrated in the ap. Our long-term development strategy supports smallholders & members of the wider environmentally aware agriculture industry.

By launching FarmSmarter in Nigeria, we can incrementally roll-out into other West African Countries. The Paraguay government offered support in collecting new crop disease data, translating & adapting content, this will enable scaling to include information pertinent to different agroecological zones as the user base grows.

Commercial collaborations with banks, funders & NGOs will enable broader distribution of finance.

A Freemium subscription model for smallholders will be supported by revenue from commercial subscriptions, ethical advertising & data services. As users become more successful, they can subscribe to additional services & marketing opportunities.

We are working with researchers to develop affordable soil & farm data collection tools to support smallholders in improving livelihoods through regenerative land management.

As the user base of  FarmSmarter grows, we will fund training of local extension workers in the target regions to encourage smallholders in applying sustainable farming practices & share the benefits of climate-smart farming. Good news travels fast!

VIDEO: Please share the link to a 1-minute YouTube video that answers the following “I identify as a Green Changemaker because...”. Ensure that your video does not exceed 60 seconds

https://youtu.be/EJLRxBcxIS8

Impact Model: While reviewing applications, we identified a need to better understand the impact models for the innovations that applied. How would you describe the activities you engage in and what outcomes and long-term impact do they lead to?

Activities.

•  AI crop disease identification to reduce crop loss.  
• FarmSmarter's GPS location to create digital farmer communities to share experiences &  build relationships with reputable, environmentally aware agribusinesses, finance & logistics providers.
• Land maps & site-specific farm information with weather information to predict & improve yields, harvest times, & reduce crop loss.  
•  Suitable crop suggestions for location, soil & climate, with effective crop rotation, to naturally improve soil health and productivity.

Stakeholders

• Smallholder farmers – Adopting sustainable farming & sharing the benefits of regenerative and nature-based agriculture.
• National Farming Associations – Linking FarmSmarter to association members & collaborating in outreach events & training for smallholder communities.
• Agribusinesses- selected providers of inputs to support smallholders in accessing the best products at the best prices.
• Finance providers – connections with smallholder communities to provide agri-finance & build thriving farm businesses.

Measurables

• Monthly active users
• Improvements in crop yield over time, registered in app
• Farmer forum evidence of adoption of regenerative farming
• Community events attendance
• Finance accessed by farmers

Long term impacts

• Increase in smallholder profitability & yields
• Healthier crops& farm produce
• Improved smallholder livelihoods
• Reduced use of artificial fertiliser & pesticides
• Improved soil condition & reduced run-off/erosion
• More resilient farms with improved biodiversity
• Greater farmer awareness of regenerative farming options & farming methods ie. no-till, agroforestry, organic production.
• Improved carbon capture & reduced emissions through use of ground cover planting & reduced fossil fuels
• Happy, successful sustainable farm enterprises.

Audience: Who are you most directly impacting through your work? Who is the target beneficiary? Please specify if the population you are reaching is underserved due to any of the following characteristics?

Geography Gender Age - Youth Socio-Economic Class Other (Please Specify)

If you chose the "Other" option, please specify

Low literacy levels

How are you activating green changemakers?

Engaging emotions: Communicating climate change in a way that resonates with individuals’ specific situations to trigger an emotional engagement Building Understanding: communicating complex science, data and / or systems theory surrounding climate change in an accessible way, tailored to the specific audience and context Making progress visible: identifying tangible metrics that help people understand how their contribution is part of a bigger whole Imagining new possibilities: leading group processes to help people see the possibilities and consequences of acting; innovating new products, business models, or ways of organising Helping make the case: helping people to show the business case for emission reduction, find profitable products, innovating new business models Walking alongside individuals: offering one-on-one coaching, mentoring and troubleshooting; providing sustained energy to shift the inertia of the system Creating a community: bringing together peers to share learnings, reinforce behaviours, and develop positive social norms; hosting gatherings where people see their work as part of a bigger whole Addressing competing demands: helping people meet other needs and priorities to give them the capacity to attend to climate action Creating accountability mechanisms: developing climate pledges and other means of holding individuals, organizations, and collectives accountable Building enabling structures: using contracts, financial mechanisms, and other tools to facilitate and encourage action

If you chose the "Other" option, please specify

 

Organization Type: Which organization type best describes how your work or initiative has been organized or registered?

For-Profit

Tell us briefly about how you have and/ or would like to engage partners or other changemakers to enhance your approach:

We work with committed researchers and changemakers to ensure that FarmSmarter shares best practices with smallholders.

We have worked with CHAP (Crop Health and Protection) to engage with advisors within CABI  & FCDO in exploring the potential for data sharing to improve the scope of information we can provide to farmers, business mentors to develop our ‘business-for-good’ model and social scientists to develop engagement strategies for farmers in the quest for sustainable farming adoption.

The Natural Resources Institute (Greenwich University) has collaborated to provide expertise in addressing soil fertility and climate change impact assessments for farmers. We will build on this resource to continually improve the information FarmSmarter provides to the community.

Nigeria’s Federal University of Agriculture has been instrumental in building crop propagation & disease information resources & collecting image data to build our AI disease ID model, created with our technology collaborator, Manchester Metropolitan University. We are collecting images to train the improved model.

Farming Associations in Nigeria have been the key connector between FarmSmarter & Farming communities, their enthusiasm & commitment will continue into & beyond commercialisation, with collaborative education outreach & support.

We aim to build new connections through Ashoka's network & partners.

Annual budget: Hint: What is the cost for your current operations every year (or most recent year)? This is expenditure for your project or organization. The reference currency is the U.S. dollar.

$100k - $250k

Winning Impact Potential: How would winning the Green Changemakers Challenge impact and leverage your work?

Winning the Green Changemakers Challenge will bring immense impact to FarmSmarter.

Financially, the prize will strengthen and accelerate the development of our Beta version for market launch in Nigeria, our Development Team can expand and work more effectively to commercially launch FarmSmarter. Our community outreach activities with farming associations can accelerate with additional funding to provide training resources.

The validation of our mission to support farmers and reform their agriculture practices through winning the challenge is invaluable. Association with Ashoka, HSBC and other Green Changemakers will give us insights and collaboration opportunities that can really help us make a difference to farmers environmental awareness. Our FarmSmarter ethos is led by the overarching goal to connect smallholders with the best climate-smart farming information. By working in concert with other solution providers through the Ashoka platform we can combine knowledge and community outreach efforts to become more effective in reaching our goal.

We will maximise the impact of being a Green Changemaker winner in marketing and PR opportunities to ensure this gives us, and the changemaker cause, the best public exposure in our primary target region of Nigeria and West Africa and the global reach of the Challenge and HSBC will be a fantastic boost to promoting FarmSmarter worldwide .

Skills Matching: If you win, you may have the opportunity to be matched with HSBC employees for skill-based mentorship. If matched, which of the following skills would you be most interested in receiving?

Accounting & Finance