Dipo Olowookere
For more than decades, numerous challenges have consistently plagued the operations of smallholder farmers on the African continent; from poor financing to stringent policies, haphazard regulation, climatic changes and obsolete technology, these challenges often create a stifled environment for the functionality of local farmers playing in the Agricultural value chain.
As such, farm productivity, efficiency, and profitability has been grossly irregular, most times, at a decline.
The aftermath of this irregularity is already negative, and could grow worse if it isn’t remedied timely, especially considering that the African population, which is expected to grow spontaneously by 2050 will have more mouths to feed, when in contrast, local food production is yet to circulate the present population.
All of these sum up to what propelled Charles Ogbaoku, alongside his formidable team; Kingley Ebere (COO), Patrick Emezieonyeije (Business Operations) and the rest of the team, to champion the course of remedying the situation via Peatuce.
Founded on February 1, 2018, Peatuce is set to improve the local food trade within and across Africa by increasing efficiency, service quality and enhancing profitability for farmers, suppliers and buyers.
Peatuce was created out of three major concerns; the ageing profile of local farmers, poor financial livelihood of smallholder farmers, and the continuous increase in global population. The latter is a stronger motivational factor for the team because, according to the United Nations, the world’s population will grow from today’s 7.5 billion to nearly 10 billion in 2050. As such, the demand for local food produce will be on the increase, and Africa would have to worry about feeding 1.5 billion people by 2030 and 2 billion by 2050, when in contrast, the continent currently depends largely on external aids and imports to cater for its 1.2 billion inhabitants. But here’s Peatuce, building a possible solution.
“We believe in a future where local farmers play a large role in feeding our communities, and we are working to making that a reality. We are focusing on emerging markets with a target of over 20,000 local farmers on our platform in 2018.”
Operating out of Nigeria, Peatuce has had remarkable milestones since inception — with more in the pipeline. Despite being a recent bird in the agricultural value chain, the platform has gone from launching the business operation, to sourcing and distributing for buyers, suppliers, local farmers, and creating presence in two Nigerian states. Peatuce now has over 500 local farmers, who are relying on it to facilitate their farming operations, expedite distribution and supply chain, as well as help enhance productivity of farm produce.
To further facilitate efficiency in its operations, Peatuce intends to leverage modern technology in no time.
“The problem is, the local produce trade has remained under-served by technology, we intend changing that narrative,” Kingsley, the COO says.
According to the team, Peatuce will tokenise its operation by implementing blockchain, a decentralised sourcing platform, accessible on the mobile app and web, later this year.
