myAgro

Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

Status update — August 31, 2017

After 4 years of collaboration, Kiva and myAgro have decided to end their partnership. myAgro's loans have had an excellent repayment on Kiva, however myAgro's business model is such that the partnership will be operationally challenging to scale. Lender funds have been critical in allowing myAgro to build a credit history that the organization is now leveraging to gain access to working capital that's a better fit with its operational model. Kiva thanks myAgro for its collaboration over the years and continued dedication to supporting Malian farmers in gaining access to affordable inputs and equipment. 

Partner description:

myAgro is a startup nonprofit organization in West Africa that enables farmers to purchase high-quality agricultural inputs (certified seeds and fertilizer) on layaway through an SMS-based platform and a network of local vendors. myAgro helps farmers to increase their crop yields by using modern planting techniques and providing access to simple agricultural machines that can make their work more effective and more profitable.

Mali is one of the world's poorest 15 countries. Small-scale farmers make up 70% of its population, and the majority are among the world's poorest 2 billion people. Like in many other countries in Africa, farmers in Mali own tracts of land which they use to grow enough to eat. Their harvest yields are often low (1 ton per hectare) due to low quality inputs and poor planting techniques. As a result, small-scale farmers in Africa harvest a third as much as their counterparts in South Africa and Latin America.

myAgro targets small-scale farmers who have trouble feeding their families throughout the year and are trapped in a cycle of poverty due to consistently poor harvest yields. Kiva lenders’ funds are used to help these farmers afford more effective seeding machines through loans with low interest rates so that they can increase their yields and improve their quality of life.

A unique lending approach:

myAgro uses the microdosing fertilizer method (using a bottle cap of fertilizer per seed hole) pioneered by ICRISAT, an agricultural research organization that helps farmers save money on inputs and enables them to increase their harvests by an average of 100%. In the past, this method had a low rate of adoption because it requires a lot of time and backbreaking labor. For example, one hectare of maize contains 33,000 seed holes.

Now, the new seeding machines enable farmers to drop fertilizer and seeds at the same time at the correct distance and depth, enabling farmers to use this important technique in a tenth of the time. This adds up to over $100 in savings per hectare for input costs and approximately $240 per hectare in saved labor costs each year.

myAgro also provides technical training for farmers and market access for their goods to enable them to sell extra produce at a higher profit margin.

The organization has received multiple awards for its innovative mobile savings model, including competitive social entrepreneurship awards from Rainer Arnhold, Echoing Green and the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation.