myAgro
Model & Strategy
myAgro believes that it is incredibly important that poor people have a way to protect and save their wealth in order to move out of poverty. Small-scale farmers, who make up the majority of the world’s poor, are also the most likely to lack access to a savings account.
myAgro enables farmers in West Africa to save for fertilizer, seed and training packages on layaway through a mobile-based platform and a network of vendor partners. By training farmers on labor-saving techniques, myAgro makes it possible for farmers to plant more land, with increasing productivity. Using this system, farmers increase their yields 50-100% and use the increased harvest to connect to markets, or feed their families year-round.
Over time, myAgro’s impact goal is to help farmers more than double their farm income to exceed $1,000 annually.
Anushka has worked in rural Africa since mid-2008, helping to increase market access for small-scale farmers. From her on-the-ground experience working with farmers, she learned about the lack of savings options for small-scale farmers and set out to create a model that would reach remote and hard-to-serve farmers.
Anushka previously created and led Kiva’s Fellows Program in 2007. She joined One Acre Fund in 2008 in Bungoma, Kenya and created many of the operations and back office structures to scale the program 50x in three years. Anushka is a 2011 Rainer Arnhold Fellow, 2012 Echoing Green Fellow and 2014 Pop!Tech Fellow.
IMPACT
myAgro reached 240 farmers in 2012 and expects to reach nearly 30,000 in 2017.
In just 3 years, myAgro has grown its budget by 567% and the beneficiaries by 1240%, while halving the donor subsidy required to lift a farmer out of poverty from $320 to $152.
