iProcure, a prominent data-driven African agricultural input supply company, has made the announcement that it will be expanding its operations into Tanzania by partnering with the Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA).
FtMA is a coalition of governmental and private entities with the mission of boosting the economic well-being of smallholder farmers, thereby enhancing their ability to withstand adverse conditions and concurrently enhancing the commercial viability of the entire value chain.
This is accomplished through FtMA’s support of a network of last-mile service providers known as Farmer Service Centres (FSCs).
These FSCs act as key service hubs that provide access to demand-driven services such as affordable financing, handling and storage solutions, as well as timely market connections.
This assists producers in making the transition from having a surplus or the potential for a surplus to commercial farming. Because of the cooperation between iProcure and FtMA, more than 125,000 Tanzanian farmers will have better access to a wider range of supplies and services.
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Traditional agricultural supply chains in East Africa have been completely transformed as a result of iProcure’s development of its very own distribution infrastructure, which connects large agricultural input suppliers to local agro-dealers directly by means of its unique distribution technology system. iProcure ensures the availability, quality, and delivery of essential agricultural inputs such as fertilisers and seeds while delivering cost savings.
This is accomplished by eliminating the multiple levels of middlemen that are present in the traditional agricultural supply chain.
In addition, it provides technology-driven insights on supply levels and price. In return, agro dealers are able to supply the products that farmers who rely on them require at the precise moment that the farmers require them.
In addition to sourcing and delivering supplies to more than one million farmers, iProcure’s software and data management solutions digitise the businesses of agro-dealers and offer priceless data insights into regional agricultural input demand, price sensitivity, and creditworthiness.
iProcure also provides supply to over one million farmers. With the use of this newfound knowledge, iProcure has expanded its Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) services to more than 1,500 agro-dealers.
125,000 farmers in rural Tanzania have access to FtMA’s platform, which enables them to receive last-mile service delivery and structured market access through their network of 295 Farmer Service Centres, which are dispersed throughout six regions.
Market access, farm inputs, financing, mechanization, advice services, and insurance are some of the services that are provided by this company.
iProcure will implement its supply-chain tracking technology and business management software solutions to one hundred Tanzania agro-dealers as part of this collaboration in order to improve both the operational efficiency and supply traceability of the Tanzanian agro-dealers’ businesses.
By November 2023, the collaboration anticipates having deployed iProcure solutions to a total of one hundred FtMA Farmer Service Centres.
“iProcure has had its sights set on Tanzania and this partnership with FtMA presents the perfect opportunity to roll out our technology to an established network of agro-dealers. FtMA shares our vision of digitizing agriculture, helping farmers, and improving supply chains, so we are excited to enter this new market alongside them,” said Niraj Varia, CEO of iProcure.
“FtMA is excited about the partnership with IProcure in Tanzania. At our core, FtMA seeks to bridge the gap between service delivery and market access at the first ajd last mile. Digitalizing the work of our Farmer Service Centers is key to bridging this gap, and we are looking forward to seeing how our FSCs and farmers will benefit from this new partnership,” remarked Mads Lofvall, Managing Director of FtMA.
About iProcure
iProcure is the top tech and data-driven agricultural inputs supply firm in Africa. The company streamlines the delivery of essential agricultural supplies to over one million African farmers.
By constructing critical distribution infrastructure and distribution technology systems, which allow for the acquisition of items directly from large suppliers, and then supplying these agri-inputs to more than 5,000 local agro-dealers in Kenya and Uganda, we are able to achieve our mission.
iProcure not only helps farmers and agrodealers save money, but it also guarantees the availability, quality, and delivery of essential inputs like seeds and fertiliser. The order fill rate for iProcure is 94% across the board for all orders submitted by agro-retailers.
By guaranteeing that farmers can plant their crops on time and yield more crops while using less land, iProcure is cutting the cost of food production for smallholder commercial farmers and lessening the climatic effect of agriculture in Kenya and Uganda. This is happening as a result of iProcure’s efforts to ensure that farmers can plant their crops on time.
Farm to Market Alliance: A Brief Introduction
Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) has the mission to empower African farmers to boost their yields, incomes, and resilience, as well as to improve the continent’s overall food security, by facilitating the development of sustainable food systems through the strengthening of markets.
This will be accomplished through the creation of a commercial environment that is inclusive and empowering throughout the food value chains, which will be supported by regulations that are suitable and investments in both hard and soft infrastructures.
Since 2016, FtMA has been able to successfully involve over 426,000 farmers in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia, which has benefited over 1.4 million households. Additionally, FtMA has built a network of over 1,700 Farmer Service Centres (FSCs) that serve as trustworthy bridges to farming communities.
