Our why - SANEWOPA

The Challenge

Learn more about the overlooked and underserved population that SANEWOPA seeks to serve

For many years, much of the agriculture development focus in Sub-Saharan Africa has been on smallholder farmers.

However, agriculture development in Africa is changing and we are seeing an emerging class of farmers as described by the consulting firm, McKinsey.

“….there is a rising class of emergent farmers who often reside in cities, acquired their land later in life, and are relatively well educated. These farmers are typically already using inputs, have good access to market, and can influence agricultural policies in their countries. However, these farmers often fall into “a missing middle” and can have trouble obtaining access to loans or more sophisticated services to meet their needs.”

Researchers from Maastricht School of Management further highlight the trend of a new class of emergent farmers known as “telephone farmers” who are characterized as:

Typically working part time in farming but main livelihood is in other sectors (thus able to diversify and reduce risk).
Their operations are mostly at a mid-scale level; they are not large enough to qualify as commercial farming, nor are they smallholders.
They are commercially oriented and are in agriculture to make money.
They have greater access to resources including finances and technology.
They are more likely to create opportunities for employment compared to smallholder farmers and can drive investments to rural areas leading to greater infrastructure development.

Despite their enormous potential, they face challenges due to being remote and in securing expertise for farm management. Other challenges include a lack of recognition by government and donors as a significant driving force for agriculture development, market access and climatic shocks.

The researchers argue that development efforts have for too long focused on the smallholder farmer in Africa without much success yet “telephone farmers” present greater potential for commercialization, increased productivity, and food security.

The Opportunity

Learn more about the potential working professionals who practise farming as a side-business have to transform agriculture development in Africa

Both the McKinsey report and the research from Maastrich highlight the emergence of a new breed of agripreneurs in Africa who are investing in farming as a side business. Although it has some challenges, the trend of side-hustle farming presents an opportunity to accelerate agriculture commercialization on the Continent.

Important to note is that the new breed of emerging agriprenuers is not a monolith. Side hustle farmers come in all shapes and sizes and may be differentiated by:

The scale at which they farm and the level of investment they have poured into their farming operations. Some are running fairly small operations in peri-urban areas while others have large chunks of land in the rural countryside.
Their motivation and what they want to achieve from farming. Some may do it as a hobyy while others aim to grow their farm into a commercial operations that becomes their main source of income in future.
The level of experience and expertise they have in farming whereby some have little to no background while others have solid experience and a knowledge base in agriculture.

Where you fall on the spectrum above determines the potential for of commercialization. While not all side hustle farmers will be viable commercial farmers, those holding the greatest potential will need support from various stakeholders to become successful.

The need to support emerging agripreneurs provides an opportunity to help them in various areas including:

Capacity building - to meet their learning needs in technical and business aspects of farming, help them learn from each other and create tools and resources that will help them become more efficient.
Building economies of scale - bringing them together so that they can gain better access to input and output markets and leverage their collective strength to shape demand and supply of services such financing, aggregation, transport and warehousing.
Advocacy - ensuring they have a sit at the table when it comes to formulation of policies that affect them. This is especially important when it comes to the climate change agenda.

It is also important to keep in mind that farming is inherently risky. To succeed, emerging agripreneurs will need to look beyond farming simply as a way to make money. Successful agripreneurship requires a long-term vision and commitment to balancing the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of their investments.

Our Mandate

Learn more about the issues that SANEWOPA seeks to address and the vision and mission that drives our work

SANEWOPA seeks to transform agriculture development in Sub-Saharan Africa by helping commercially viable side-hustle farmers grow their farming enterprise into sustainable businesses.

Side hustle farmers have been often overlooked and under-served in traditional agriculture development programming. We are here to change that. We are here to drive transformational change in agriculture development in Africa from an approach that is overly focused on smallholder farmers to one that includes and values the potential of working professionals who farm commercially on the side.

While it is understandable that most side hustle farmers get into farming to make money, taking into account environmental and social sustainability is equally critical. SANEWOPA seeks to help commercially viable side-hustle farmers embrace a long-term vision and commitment towards sustainable farming as the foundation of their investment strategy.

Lastly, SANEWOPA seeks to enhance locally-led development. We believe in empowering those who are most affected by the problem to solve it rather than solving it for them. Our model should and will underscore this fact.

Our Vision

To realize sustainable commercialization of the agriculture sector in sub-Saharan Africa through inclusive growth of medium scale commercial farming enterprises.

Our Mission

To equip Africa’s working professionals who invest in commercial farming with the knowledge, skills, tools, linkages and resources needed to advance sustainable agripreneurship.

SUSTAINABLE AGRIPRENUERSHIP NETWORK FOR WORKING PROFESSIONALS IN AFRICA

The Challenge

The Opportunity

Our Mandate

Our Vision

Our Mission

SUSTAINABLE AGRIPRENUERSHIP NETWORK
FOR WORKING PROFESSIONALS IN AFRICA