Nigeria has a lesson for us

World over there is the problem of more and more people migrating from rural places, leaving behind agriculture and coming to urban areas, putting more pressure on the already sagging infrastructure. This is naturally creating a lop-sided model of development. Mankind might make any kind of industrial progress but without agriculture, we are dead. What we need is to get more people back into farming, by making it more sustainable and have the ability to earn the farmer a decent income. If these two things are assured, who in their right mind would ever want to leave their homes and stay away from family?

And looks like Nigeria has found a great way to do this. Using technology, Nigeria has allowed an innovative form of crowdfunding; they call is crowdfarming. In this model, Nigerian sponsors are allowed to invest in farms which includes crops like include cassava, maize, rice and soya beans for between $260 and $790. In return, upon harvest, farm sponsors earn between 9% and 25% profit on their initial investment.

The agri-startup, Farmcrowdy, the most popular one, helps bridge the gap between the small farmers and the middle class living in cities, who provide the much needed capital. This funding helps farmers cultivate larger farmlands and crops while expanding at a faster pace. In one year’s time, it has managed to get some 1000 farm sponsors and built a network of over 3000 farmers. Farmcrowdy also helps secure purchase orders before harvest cycles.

Maybe we in India too can look at such a model and get more people back to farming?