“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” – Nolan Bushnell.
The above quote is the case of Dr. Ayoade Oyedotun who decided to create Afrimash, an online platform for farmers to buy agricultural items most especially poultry and fish farmers.
Afrimash is an Agritech startup that help farmers and agro-processors access seedlings, equipment, tools, additives and other good quality inputs to help maintain and improve their productivity on the field. The emerging e-commerce platform was founded in April, 2016 by Ayo Oyedotun, a trained Vet Doctor who since then has been positioned to help people succeed in the innovative agribusiness with the use of technology. Since inception, the platform has served as a marketplace for agricultural items, information and product for farmers and buyers to shop conveniently for quality items to enhance the quality of supply and the success of their businesses In a chat with Tech Gist Africa, Dr Ayoade talks about his platform, challenges facing Agritech in Africa and the future of Agritech in Africa. Read his insightful answers to our questions below:
TGA: Tell us About Afrimash
Oyedotun: Afriash is an online shopping site for farmers, to buy agricultural items most especially poultry and fish farmers. We partner with major suppliers of agricultural items so that farmers can be able to get these items at cheap rates and they can access our platform anywhere they are in Nigeria.
Also See: Kenya’s Agritech Start-up, Selina Wamucii Gets $100, 000 From Expo 2020 Dubai
TGA: What inspired you to start Afrimash?
Oyedotun: Couples of years ago, I started a poultry farm and for the next three years I struggled with getting quality input for my farm. By the third year of my farming; I was frustrated, so I shut down my farm and put all my efforts into creating a solution for farmers to get input easily anywhere they may be in Nigeria.
TGA: Why Does Afrimash Only Focus on Delivery of Livestock?
Oyedotun: Agriculture is a very big space and it also requires professional support, so in order not to compromise the quality of the service and product that we supply customers, we decided to narrow down our focus on livestock. But as our size grows and as we have more professionals in our team we are definitely going to expand into crops also.
TGA: What is Your Long-term Goal for Afrimash?
Oyedotun: Our long goal for Afrimash is to be able to raise productivity of farmers in all of Africa to as much as 80 or 90 percent from less than 40 percent as it is right now.
TGA: What Are the Challenges Facing Agritech In Africa?
Oyedotun: I think I am going to pick it from the angle of E-commerce especially for agriculture; one of our challenges is the logistics of moving Agricultural items. While transporting perishable products, there is a possibility that they can perish on the way. So, we need logistics companies who can provide specialized transport for agricultural items. Generally, Agric tech is gradually gaining ground in Nigeria and in many parts of the world. We are just growing, so most of us in Agric tech are testing and feeling the pulse of the market to know what to do as we don’t have plenty of existing models to follow.
TGA: What is the Future of Agritech in Africa?
Oyedotun: Like I said earlier, technology is the future of Agriculture. Technology is an enabler, so in the future, everything in Agriculture will be controlled by technology and I believe that this is the only way that farmers productivity can rise, this is the only way that we can reduce drudgery on the farm because farming requires a lot of mechanical inputs. But with technology we will be able to eliminate human inputs and then we can achieve a lot more productivity for poultry, where I am, we can eliminate the risk of bacteria infections, we can eliminate risk of fomite, we can eliminate several other risks with technology.
Dr. Ayoade and his team at Afrimash will be attending Meet The Farmers Conference (MTFC) our Agri Value Chain Development Conference which will hold across four African Countries and in Dubai, UAE with the focus on The Future of Agribusiness.
Thank you for featuring Afrimash.