Eradicate food insecurity in the world by empowering our youths to join Agribusiness.

INTRODUCTION.

Food insecurity and unemployment are major causes of poverty in Africa. We have therefore come up with an idea where we want to eradicate poverty by neutralizing unemployment and food insecurity through agribusiness.

PROBLEM.

In Africa, one of the most teething problems is food insecurity. This is caused by a combination of various factors. Some of the factors are discussed further below:

• I.Extreme Weather and Drought.
• II.Pests and Plants Diseases and other agricultural problems.

Lack of sufficient rainfall and extreme weather conditions which in most cases result in failed harvests or poor harvests leading to food scarcity and eventually high priceof available food in the market.

In Africa, many poor and failed harvests are caused by pests and diseases which attack plantsunexpectedly. Ifproper action are not taken this leads to great loss of harvest which in turn affectsthe level of food production.

IV Soil infertility.

Certain factor such as continous cropping on a particular land year to year, ignorance of the sufficient amount of fertiliser needed by the soil and inability of farmers to carry out necessary soil analysis affects soil fertilityhence reduces crop yield.

V Rapid Urbanization.

Mostyoung people view farming as adirty job. This makes them turn towards searching for white collar jobs after graduation. This leaves farming for lesser number who may be unable to produce sufficient food for the ever increasing population.

VI Lack of Capital.

Agriculture is capital intensive and this may hinder small scale farmers from increasing production. The cost of production includes but is not limited to land acquisation, buying of seeds and fertilizer etc. Many interested personsturn back due to these cost and this brings about low agricultural production hence food insecurity.

Our Solution.

Having examined the major problems causing food insecurity in Africa, we have come up with a fully packaged solution to solve the crisis.

This solution will involve setting up a web based application which shall be used to register interested farmers who have viable land that can support agriculture. We shall act as agents who will manage the farmers land for a given period of time contract while educating and pre-funding the whole process with our own funds. However the total operating cost will be deducted after a complete season produce is sold which will also be done by us.

The web based app will have three sections, the portal which will have a place where the farmer can log in and see all the progress made including costs incurred, sales made, profits made and educative tutorials on farming. The second section will have our own portal where we shall be posting progress on all enlisted farmers. The web app will also help us store records on every farmer on board for easier retrieval through cloud hosting.

The My One-Farm solution works this way. Having on board an agronomist, sales and marketing experts, we shall offer services to enlisted existing farmers. Once a farmer registers with us, the following steps shall be taken:

• We shall survey the land they have submitted to us, analyze the soil on their behalf to determine the nutrients and if it has any infection or pests and offer appropriate solutions.
• Determine according to the weather in the said area and the season the most likely crop to be grown in that area,
• We shall survey the area and come up with the best source of water harvesting so as to come up with an appropriate watering method and install it on behalf of the farmer.
• After this using our expenses we prepare the land on behalf of the farmers, offer seeds and oversee the planting process with no costs to the farmer. These costs will later be deducted later on with no interests after successful sale of the produce.
• After the planting is all done the farmer now is trained on how to take care of the plants and also submitting reports on the crops on timely basis to ensure they are well looked after.
• After growth of the plants we shall market the produce and the sales made all the costs of production will be deducted from the sales and also a 10% of the total profit made. The process will be repeated only until the farmer is well equipped to manage the farm on his or her own or after the expiry of the contract signed.

GOALS.

• In the first six months we plan to start our project with 100 farmers. This will involve various agribusiness methods which include but not limited to poultry keeping, dairy farming, farm produce especially horticulture produce.
• We shall give a sample case study of poultry keeping in Kenya. The total cost of keeping and raising for 6 weeks to maturity of 300 broilers is $1000. While mature 1.5kg of chicken will go for $3 hence (300*1.5*3) = $1350.
• In the above case we shall deduct the operating cost which will be done in faces then also deduct 10% of the total profit made.
• Therefore in the first 6 months we shall require $50000 of funding to run smoothly as with time we will be able to recover most of the money as we continue selling the goods produced.

RESULTS & FUTURE GROWTH.

• Using our model we shall be able to convince many young farmers to involve themselves in farming especially those who see it as a dirty job as they role will be supervising, this will lead to increased food production hence fighting food insecurity.
• With the use of soil sampling technology, good use of water by use of appropriate irrigation models shall ensure even during dry spells there is enough food production.
• Those who lack funds to start profitable farming shall hugely benefit as they will be able to join us with a low fee and we shall fund the whole project for the specified years, they will in turn earn profits.
• Use of improved farming methods will greatly increase food production hence lead to food security in Africa.
• Our model will not only improve food security but will also create employment to youths hence eradicating poverty.