Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
FarmNow Nigeria, an agro-allied service poised to connect stakeholders and formulate tech-driven collaborative solutions along the agricultural value chain, has launched a new service called FarmNow Direct.
The new offering is a one-stop farm store that brings the best mix of 100 per cent fresh agro-products, processed and unprocessed, perishable and non-perishable from the farms directly to consumers’ doorstep as freshly and as naturally as possible.
The service, which is available nationwide, promotes sustainability and sufficiency by playing its part to reduce food loss and food waste through smart innovative ways.
According to the company, this can be a more effective and cost-saving strategy for a developing economy like Nigeria at this time.
Speaking at a launch event, the Chief Executive Officer of FarmNow, Mr Samson Odegbami, stated that, “One of the extreme challenges that Africa faces, particularly Nigeria, is that of feeding its growing population amidst other persistent issues.
“Consequently, this makes hunger, undernutrition and food insecurity prevalent across the continent despite government support for agriculture and the food business sector.
“The boost in agricultural activities in Nigeria promises a relief to these problems, however, each year the country loses and wastes a substantial portion of its total food production to issues peculiar to food production too.”
Nigeria records an annual loss of $9 billion (about N3.5 trillion) to post-harvest waste in Nigeria as documented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
According to Mr Odegbami, “This waste is almost a quarter of the country’s annual budget. Some of the grains, vegetables, tubers and fruits being wasted include tomatoes, orange, cashew, onions, beans, wheat, cassava, and even yam.”
With its new service, FarmNow Direct’s smart farm store with online and offline outfits is addressing the prevailing huge loss of food and resources going into its production by adopting state-of-the-art storage technologies, and preservative packaging of perishable and non-perishable foods sourced from a wide network of farmers throughout the agriculture supply chain.
In addition to this, FarmNow Direct has been launched with the introduction of modern shopping culture among a new generation of fancy shoppers and eaters by enhancing the transfer of fresh farm produce such as tomatoes, eggs, garri, chicken, etc, from the farms directly to urban businesses and doorsteps.
These farm produce are available on-demand at affordable rates, and are delivered on scheduled delivery days straight to the comfort of the consumer’s home or can also be picked at any of their strategic pickup points.
Speaking to the new eating culture, the Business Manager of FarmNow, Mrs Evelyn Oloyede said, “Undoubtedly, for as long as life exists, the demand for food will remain on the rise globally due to exponential population growth. No matter how little one’s income is, food will always own a share of it, and even if a time comes where there’s no food to buy, people will grow their food to eat in a bid to survive.
“We have used our innovative investments in agricultural technology, and sustainable interventions along the agricultural supply chain to reduce food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition by creating this smart farm store.”
Since its inception, FarmNow has been driving green impact with over 6000 community members, cultivated over 9,000 acres of farmland, processed over 500,000 broiler birds, processed over 10,000 tonnes of cassava tuber, with over 5,000 smallholders farmers in its network.
It is led by Mr Odegbami and headquartered in Megamound building, Ibara Housing, Abeokuta with other offices in Omole Phase 1 and Abuja.
