In October 2021, Afrimash was announced as one of the 32 winners of the USAID/Nigeria COVID-19 Food Security Challenge. As a mid-stage company within the agricultural value chain, Afrimash is partnering with USAID as part of Feed The Future Initiative to help farmers and other stakeholders enhance food production in Nigeria.
Despite the existing challenges with meeting food demands, the pandemic has significantly contributed to the disruptions within the agricultural value chain. Several policies adopted to contain the spread of the virus limited farmers’ access to viable inputs for food production. These disruptions and their impacts, especially on the livelihoods of vulnerable farmers, brought about the need to ensure that farm inputs get to farmers where and when they need them.
Small- and medium-sized farmers play an important role in Nigeria’s overall food value chain. Therefore, Afrimash aims to provide these farmers more efficient access to farm inputs through the agent network to boost agricultural productivity, increase their income and create more jobs in the agribusiness value chain. Our focus over the last few years has been to build a solution that works and this new funding will enable us to improve our reach and social impact.
Afrimash has built an easy to use digital platform that provides a one-stop-shop for agricultural items. Using just their mobile phones, farmers can access a variety of inputs, make secure payments and enjoy swift delivery nationwide. They can also get reliable technical support from our professionals for better productivity on their farms.
As more farmers adopt digital solutions, our key objective for the USAID Food Security Challenge is to reach multiple farmers in their locality who are unable to access farm inputs due to a lack of reliable internet service or digital literacy. These farmers can source for any farm items they need through our trained field agents – who will be placing their orders using an SMS-based mobile application and other channels – across the eleven Feed the Future focus states in Nigeria: Kaduna, Kebbi, Niger, Delta, Ebonyi, Cross River, Benue, Borno, Gombe, Adamawa, and the Yobe State.
Securing the USAID funds to support food security in Nigeria is a milestone for Afrimash in making agriculture convenient for everyone.
