Thrive Agric

Based on available resources, there should be enough food for everyone in the world but the major food producers; smallholder farmers tend to be food insecure themselves — growing and earning just enough income to make it to the next harvest.

In Nigeria, more than 80 percent of farmers are engaged in small-scale farming. Despite the abundance of arable land, Nigerian smallholder farmers face several challenges that hinder their productivity and livelihoods. These include poor access to funds and credit, a lack of knowledge of agricultural best practice, and limited market access.

Thrive Agric is a technology-driven agricultural company based in Nigeria, aiming at ensuring food security and solving three major problems smallholder farmers face — by linking them to capital, data-driven best practices, and access to local and global markets for their commodities.

Thrive Agric helps smallholder farmers obtain the most suitable, sufficient and quality farm inputs, and provides them with data-driven and tech-enabled insights and guidance on new and improved farming methods to increase their productivity. Upon harvest, Thrive Agric also connects farmers with local and global markets that offer premium prices for their commodities.

The Thrive Agric pilot project was successfully implemented under the WFP Sprint Programme in four local government areas of Adamawa State, Nigeria; including Demsa, Mubi South, Fufure, and Song.

The project enabled collaboration between Thrive Agric, the Adamawa State Ministry of Agriculture, and other government extension agents and non-governmental stakeholders. Between June 2020 and December 2020, Thrive Agric facilitated the sale of 6,400 metric tonnes of high-quality grains from 11,250 smallholder farmers in Adamawa State, exceeding the pilot target by 30 percent. Crucially, the premium prices attached to crops allowed smallholder farmers to improve their incomes by up to 25 percent.