With the looming food scarcity in the country, an Agricpreneur, Lady Davina Stevens, the Chief Executive Officer of Farm Drop has mapped out plans on how to assist Nigerians overcome this and also ensure that Nigerians eat unadulterated food......See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>
In an interview, she explained that when she came to Nigeria, all she thought about was how to help people and, supporting farmers was the way to achieve that.
According to Davina, “We discovered that a lot of farmers farm, and cannot distribute and those that distribute are cheated along the line by middlemen. So we decided to come up with a farm to table concept; what that means is that, for a farmer who registers with us, gets the opportunity of having customers buy directly from them, therefore cutting off the middleman.
“This assures the customer of the authenticity of the products, especially with the rate at which food items and produce are been adulterated.
“We also teach and encourage women and youths on the importance of farming, letting them know that you don’t necessarily need a farm, as one can farm in bags and even bowls for simple things like spices.
“How we achieve this is that, we teach things like; acropolis, agropolis, vertical farming, in the workshops that we conduct in different states.
The Boss of Farm Drop disclosed that “We call ourselves Agricpreneurs. We do everything agriculture, from the marketing, which has to do with getting the produce from the farm to the table, to teaching people how to farm.
“We also teach food preservation, which is one of the most difficult things, especially for small farmers as a lot of food items get lost between the market and home. But the most important thing we do, is that we support local farmers in everything they do, from planting to fertilizer, soil management, modern techniques and the marketing of their produce. So, we created this App called farmdrop, which is available for download, for both android and iOS users, and it enables the farmers display their farm produce and makes it easy for customers to buy such products, with authenticity guaranteed.
Speaking on how she started, Davina said, “It truly has not been easy. Farmdrop Nigeria is a subsidiary of Farmdrop Africa, which is also owned by me and is registered in the United Kingdom. But I will say, that we are getting there. We have a very good social media team on board working tirelessly to ensure that we get there.
Asked if she has made any contact with the government, especially the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, she said, “Not yet, our plan was to get it up and running before looking for partnership. We are using Abuja as the pilot scheme, to show what we have achieved and, the reaction and interaction with various farmers and customers, before we can begin to seek for partnership, to roll it out into other states
“I have not gone that way yet, but recently, I have contacted some State Governors, where I have put up a 15 day workshop, to train people on food security in different senatorial zones. So we are basically asking them, to give us 1,000 small scale farmers and stakeholders like youths and even government officers that would want to learn farming, and give them a 5-day intensive workshop on store management, vertical farming and the distribution of their crops, either within the country, Africa and even the diaspora as the food market is huge, with a lot of money in there, especially as the foreign exchange is quite high.
Comparing the Farmdrop Africa with Farmdrop Nigeria in terms of response, she said; “It is pretty difficult to start a business like this in Nigeria, it has been much easier with Farmdrop Africa
She further disclosed that the App is available for download in the Apple Store and for Android for farmers who are interested in showcasing their produce, “And it is of different types; the vendor (for those who want to sell) and the customer (those interested in purchasing).
Speaking in how she creates awareness, she stated that, “We have a team for the Social Media awareness and we also have other plans on getting the word out and for the farmers, we have a leg team of about 19 persons, who go out there and bring people on board.
“And for places where most of the farmers do not own mobile phones, we form them into a cooperative, and make any of them with a phone the leader of the cooperative, so when anything is needed, the leader is contacted.