Are you fascinated by the business of Agriculture but do not possess the grit, luxury of time or know-how to get the ‘dirty work’ done on the farm? FarmCrowdy (now Crowdyvest) is a platform that allows users engage in the process and business of Agriculture from their phones, laptops or anywhere in the world…without actually stepping on a farmland or grabbing a hoe.
FarmCrowdy: History and About
Established in September 2016, FarmCrowdy prides itself as Nigeria’s First Digital Agricultural Investment platform and is looking to become the foremost digital agricultural platform in the whole of Africa.
FarmCrowdy has been actively operating in Nigeria for two (2) years and during that 24-months period, the company has managed to empower about 8,000 farmers across 10 states in the country.
Also, with over 17,000 farms units cultivated, more than a million broiler birds reared, and over 2,500 unique local and international farm sponsors, FarmCrowdy has received more than 20 awards, local as well as international awards and recognition.
FarmCrowdy is a startup that facilitates food production, food security as well as its sustainability by empowering farmers. This, it does by availing the farmers with equipment and tools needed on the farm (improved seed varieties, training on using modern farm techniques and mechanized tools) as well as off the farm (marketing of harvested produce).
Basically, FarmCrowdy is an agri-tech platform that allows the average Nigerian (or any individual at all) be called a “farmer” by sponsoring ‘real/actual’ farmers to handle the real work while also simultaneously helping the farmers focus on cultivating produces and breeding livestock.
How does FarmCrowdy get this done?
Working with farmers
FarmCrowdy boasts of a clear-cut but effective farmers selection process which is preceded by a project pre-incubation period of 2-3 months. The company’s farmer’s integration process is as follows:
- Crop and Land Selection: this involves the identification of crops to be cultivated. The result of this stage depends on certain factors like farming season, availability of land etc.
- Identifying Farmers: To pick the farmers to work with, FarmCrowdy works with farmers’ association and/or community leaders rather than approaching farmers individually. FarmCrowdy says it does this to “keep things organized.”
- Provision of Inputs: FarmCrowdy then proceeds to supply farm inputs to selected farmers. Also, the firm provides training and tools in addition to assigning technical field specialists to each farm for assistance and supervision.
- Offtake of harvests: This is where FarmCrowdy helps the farmers sell their harvest after the cultivation or breeding period is over. FarmCrowdy does this to ensure that the produce are sold for what they are worth and not a penny less. Thereby ensuring that maximum profit is made.
Working with Sponsors
Looking to make some money (as profits) from Agriculture on FarmCrowdy, you have to sponsor certain farms or farmers on the firm’s ‘Farm Marketplace’ which the company called ‘FarmShop‘. Called the Sponsor’s Integration Process, the following are the stages involved in sponsoring a farm(er) on FarmCrowdy:
- Registration/Signing up: Before you can get anything done as a (potential) sponsor on FarmCrowdy, you have to be a registered member. you can sign up either through the website or mobile app which is currently available for iOS and Android smartphones.
- Farm Selection: This involves going through the Farmshop (as mentioned above) and picking the farm would love to sponsor. When you click on a farm you want to sponsor, the sponsorship/contract period, expected return on investment (in %), harvest period, available units to be sponsored, and pretty much all details you need to know about the farm are made available.
- Sponsorship: After successfully making payments to sponsor a farm, FarmCrowdy uses your funds to make provisions like farm input, technical support, training, farm and farm produce insurance, marketing assistance and logistics etc.
- Tracking: Either through the app or web, you can keep track of activities on the farm you sponsored as FarmCrowdy will provide pictorial materials in the form of images, texts, and videos to your dashboard. Interestingly, you can also put in a request to visit the sponsored farm.
- Harvest and Payment: Upon completion of a successful farming cycle, FarmCrowdy pays sponsors their initial sponsorship (to an electronic wallet on the dashboard) in addition to the return on investment. Sponsors can either choose to transfer their profits to their bank accounts after a successful farming cycle or further reinvest the proceeding in sponsoring another farm.
Additional Information / Caveat
- Sponsors do not own the farm; you are only entitled to proceeds of produce harvested on the farmland for the farming cycle you sponsored.
- In the case of physical farm visits, a request must be submitted within (at least) 14 prior to preferred visit date.
- Sponsorship fund as well return on investment will be unavailable and inaccessible till the farming cycle is over. According to FarmCrowdy,
You agree that by sponsoring a farm, your contribution is tied and unavailable for the entire duration of the farming cycle and neither Farmcrowdy nor the farmers can or will refund your contribution until the successful completion of a farming cycle
You can read more about sponsorship terms and agreement on the platform.
With Humility, Hunger, Integrity, and Excellence as some of the firm’s core values, FarmCrowdy is a brilliant, engaging and fun platform to get involved in Agriculture and make money while at it. Still have unanswered questions, drop them in the comments box or check out FarmCrowdy’s FAQs page to learn more about the company’s services.
