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MyAgro Farms PerformanceReport Apr 2012
By the numbers 342 Farmers saving with us
$5,400 USD value of farmer savings to date. We’re on track to leverage over $12,000 of small-scale farmer savings to help them improve their harvests and get out of poverty, permanently.
1200 Savings cards sold
50% of customer adoption in 2 out of the 3 villages where we work
3Village Vendor Partners
150 # of control/test farmers we will survey this May as part of our rigourous evaluation processs
1myAgro operated store in a market center.
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It’s been an incredible six months since myAgro launched in Mali, West Africa and I am delighted to share our progress in our first 6-month report. In this report, we’ll share updates from our various programs as well as more background on Mali and myAgro’s unique and innovating savings model for small-scale farmers.
It’s hard to describe the amazing momentum of support behind myAgro’s model. What’s most exciting for the myAgro team is that small-scale farmers, like Maritou Samake, are the ones leading the way.
Maritou is a farmer in Sanambele village who registered with us in December to plant a half-hectare of peanuts. After listening to a training on how to access markets led by myAgro’s Business Associate, Maritou returned to the meeting with her husband and 200 pounds of peanuts to sell. Marietou sold her peanuts, and then promptly turned to the village vendor (a myAgro partner) and bought a savings card of 10,000 CFA (~$20) towards her $48 savings goal. Marietou inspired her neighbors and the myAgro team by demonstrating the effectiveness and power of being able to save right at harvest time for inputs of next year. Not suprisingly several others followed Maritou’s example.
To date, we’ve enrolled 342 farmers in our maize, sorghum and peanuts program who in total, have saved over 25% towards their savings goal in preperation for planting this rainy season.
It’s clear that small-scale farmers see the benefits of having a safe way to make committed savings towards fertilizer and seed for the rainy season. Even in the days following Mali’s recent coup, farmers continued to make saving payments via SMS. At such an uncertain time politically, it is even more critical that there are persistent ways for small-scale farmers to invest in their farms and contribute to the food security of the country. Instead of raising millions in food aid, which is unsustainable and often counter productive, myAgro believes that we can be a catalyst and help farmers use their own capital more effectively to increase their income, season after season.
Our pilot is testing several unique and innovative components to help small-scale farmers get out poverty, permanently: 1) Savings-led Finance: Farmers can choose fertilizer and certified seed packages (maize, sorghum and peanut) and then make flexible savings payments towards their planting package throughout the year.
2) Local Network: We partner with village stores that have an existing customer base and infrastructure to collect savings payments from farmers. This helps us grow our customer numbers more effectively in rural, hard to reach areas. We track savings payments using a simple SMS technology that mirrors the way people by minutes for the phone in developing countries.
3) Increased Productivity: We then train farmers on modern planting techniques to increase their harvests on larger tracts of land. We support farmers to plant more efficiently by providing them with a small labor loan to either rent an ox and plow or buy a local seeding machine, which will result in more growing more food per hectare.4) Improved Market Access We negotiate contracts with large-scale buyers in the capital to connect rural farmers to the growing urban market and incentivize farmers to use a part of their profits to start saving immediately for next year’s planting.
Anushka Ratnayake, Founder and Director
Women’s Peanut Program 100+ women enrolled in 3 villages 50% of women joined myAgro $25 average savings goal 42% saved to date towards goal
Women in Mali Women in Mali face a number of barriers – lack of access to land, low literacy levels and less access to formal education. The average women has roughly X years of schooling,6.4 children and cultivates a small piece of land to grow vegetables.
Our women’s program logo, the baobob, represents strength, creativity and endurance - all adjectives that aptly describe the amazing women in the myAgro program!
We hope to grow our peanut program from 3villages to 20 in the next year.
Men’s Cereals Program200+ men enrolledAverage $100 savings goal 35% progress to date Growing on average 1 HA of Maize
Farmer’s RadiomyAgro has a weekly radio program that reaches 2 entire communes (~80 villages) which helps us build legitamacy in the eyes of farmers. As one farmer told us “I heard about your program on the radio and now I believe you! If you tell everyone the same thing you told me, it means a lot!” Our programs are a mix of farmer interviews, trainings and call-ins with prominent people in the agricultural sector. Here, the mayor gets interviewed – he became a member afterwards!
SMS Payments1200 savings payments to dateOn track to collect $12,000 in
program revenue Transparent database
Q: What do you wish for your farm this year?
“To grow more revenue with myAgro! With myAgro and
rains, I will have a great harvest!”
- Seydou Coulibaly, Karako Village
Help myAgro grow as well!
Your donation will help us develop our pilot program further, increase our reach and impact with farmers and help increase food security at a critical time in Mali’s history!
To help myAgro grow more, donate securely via our fiscal sponsor, Trust for Conservation Innovation:
Or email [email protected] for more information.
Thanks to our supporters, funders and volunteers for all of their help to grow
myAgro!
