See more as Nigerian Agritech startup ready to change the game for smallholder farmers

Nigeria faces a terrible nutrient information crisis, with millions astatine hazard of hunger and malnutrition. Yet smallholder farmers, cardinal to addressing this issue, proceed to conflict with post-harvest losses and constricted marketplace access.

Bridge Merchant Enterprise, an agritech startup, is tackling these challenges head-on by leveraging technology to make businesslike value-chain linkages.

Chinwedu Augustina is bridging the spread betwixt smallholders and the marketplace.
Source: Facebook

In an exclusive interrogation with Legit.ng Nweke Chinwendu Augustina, the founder, shared insights into her concern journey, the challenges faced by smallholder farmers, and her imaginativeness for the aboriginal of agribusiness successful Africa.

Post-harvest losses and marketplace inefficiencies

According to Augustina, her inspiration for the institution is from firsthand acquisition with the challenges smallholder farmers face.

Augustina told Legit.ng:

“Bridge Merchant Enterprise is an AgriTech institution dedicated to reducing post-harvest discarded and improving smallholder farmers' entree to markets, storage, and fiscal services."“By leveraging exertion and value-chain infrastructure, we link farmers with processors and consumers, ensuring ratio and sustainability successful the cultivation sector.“During my clip successful the cultivation sector, I saw however farmers struggled to merchantability their nutrient astatine just prices owed to inadequate retention and mediocre marketplace linkages. This drove maine to make a solution that not lone curbs nutrient discarded but besides increases farmers' income and fosters economical maturation successful agrarian communities.”

Finding a solution to cultivation challenges

On Bridge Merchant Enterprise, Augustina explained that it provides a scope of services aimed astatine reducing post-harvest losses and boosting productivity.

She explained:

"Our Startup provides a broad suite of services designed to trim post-harvest losses and heighten smallholder farmers’ productivity. We link farmers straight to processors, retailers, and consumers done a tech-driven marketplace, ensuring just pricing and reduced waste. "Our retention solutions connection entree to tiny silo warehouses wrong their locality to widen the support beingness of perishable goods and forestall losses. we facilitate entree to recognition and fiscal tools tailored for smallholder farmers, helping them put successful their accumulation and standard operations."By leveraging clime astute insights, we supply farmers with real-time marketplace data, upwind predictions, and champion farming practices to amended yields and efficiency. What sets america isolated is our integrated and decentralized approach—we bash not conscionable connection 1 solution but supply a holistic enactment strategy that addresses farmers’ challenges from accumulation to distribution. Our marketplace insights, decentralized cause network, and committedness to sustainability guarantee we make real, measurable impact. "The Aladinn app is simply a marketplace spot wherever agents tin motion up, negociate farmers connected their dashboard and facilitate trades portion getting a committee from the trades they facilitated, companies tin besides spot the varieties of nutrient located cloes to them and marque orders."

Chinwedu Augustina(middle) was awarded the archetypal prize by the Global Solutions Initiative due to the fact that of the Aladinn Project.
Source: Facebook

Overcoming challenges and achieving growth

Since its inception, Bridge Merchant Enterprise has recorded important maturation but not without challenges.

One of the challenges is connection barriers, she noted:

“Language barriers person been a large hurdle erstwhile entering caller farming communities. We overcame this by utilizing an cause model—agents unrecorded wrong oregon astir these communities, recognize the section terrain and languages, and assistance america navigate adjacent areas with information concerns.Another situation has been setbacks and failures on the way. “I person learned to navigate done setbacks by reaching retired to people, asking for help, and having meaningful conversations with manufacture experts. There is ever assistance available, and sometimes, conscionable asking solves the problem."

Plans for the future

Augustina envisions scaling the Bridge Merchant Enterprise exemplary crossed Africa.

She stated:

“The issues we lick are global. Our extremity is to scope astatine slightest 1 cardinal smallholder farmers crossed Africa, importantly trim post-harvest waste, and make jobs for 100,000 radical crossed the continent."The company’s interaction aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 2, and 8—No Poverty, Zero Hunger, and Decent Work & Economic Growth. “So far, we’ve reached implicit 10,000 smallholder farmers and trained much than 1,300 youths arsenic agents, with implicit 60% being women."

Plans and initiatives

Bridge Merchant Enterprise is processing a caller level aimed astatine making nutrient much accessible to municipality consumers, addressing the precocious outgo of nutrient successful metropolis markets.

Augustina explained that the level volition supply real-time updates connected nutrient prices crossed assorted markets, allowing users to spot orders and person them delivered to their homes.

She explained:

"This level is to marque nutrient accessible to radical astatine the comforts of their home, they’d beryllium capable to get existent clip updates connected prices of nutrient crossed assorted markets. Make bid and past get them delivered to them portion tracking options are available."

Impact and proposal for aspiring entrepreneurs

For aspiring entrepreneurs, the institution emphasizes resilience and strategical networking arsenic keys to success.

She said:

"Every azygous hurdle you look would springiness mode to a amended positioning; you conscionable person to spell done it. "You are ever 1 oregon 2 idiosyncratic distant from the close accusation besides absorption connected getting your squad close that’s the backbone of each startup that went from ideation to greatness."

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Source: Legit.ng