myAgro

Helping smallholder farmers save their way out of poverty

Overview

myAgro is a not for profit social enterprise that works in rural Mali to help farmers get out of poverty. Mali is one of the poorest and fastest growing countries in the world. Over 70% of the population works in agriculture. but Mali still has to import 20 40% of its grain. If Malian farmers had the right inputs Mali could feed itself and a host of farmer families could climb out of abject poverty. A big part of the problem is that farm cash flow is very uneven and it is hard to save. myAgro farmers can save for inputs throughout the year when they have money towards fertilizer seed and training. Farmers can buy planting cards at their local village store when they have money much like they buy mobile phone airtime cards. The vendor sends an SMS to myAgro which puts the money in their account to redeem for seeds and fertilizer at the beginning of the planting season. At harvest time myAgro will offer technical training and small loans to help farmers improve labor productivity to buy a local seeding machine or to rent an ox and plow and connect farmers to urban markets. myAgro will help farmers sell their surplus harvests and incentivize farmers to use part of their profits to start saving immediately for next season.