Building an Ecosystem that Grows Farmers’ Incomes by 25%

How we developed a new profit-for-purpose agtech venture designed to transform livelihoods for smallholder farmers

More than 500 million smallholder farmers grow 70% of the world’s food, yet they’re among the poorest people on the planet. The result? A never-ending cycle of poverty for those who contribute so much to global health but get so little in return.

In 2020, BCG brought BCG X to partner with Olam, a major multinational food and agribusiness company, to launch a profit-for-purpose venture called Jiva, which is dedicated to improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in rural agricultural economies.

The venture took a unique and differentiated approach to provide smallholder farmers with an integrated set of services:

• A credit facility that allows farmers to take advances for high-quality agricultural inputs that are repaid via harvest at the end of the cycle 
• An e-commerce store that gives farmers a place to purchase high-quality supplies, which are then delivered to the farmers at no extra charge 
• An advisory engine powered by machine learning that delivers relevant, personalized advice to help farmers grow healthier, more productive crops sustainably 
• An app that gives farmers the ability to sell their products directly—which also allows farmers to arrange the pickup of their harvest, cross-check prices, and see cost breakdowns 

In 2022, the startup achieved 300% year-over-year growth, earned a market share of 20% to 25% in key operating areas, and reached more than 70,000 farmers. Most farmers who have used Jiva have increased their crop yields by up to 40% and their incomes by as much as 25%. Ultimately, as Jiva builds trust with farmers, the company will be able to provide more digital advisory services that use machine learning to help increase yields and profits further.

Our Role

Building off BCG’s established functional and sector expertise in emerging technologies, agribusiness, business building, and innovation, BCG X validated, incubated, and commercialized the venture. We conducted thousands of hours of expert and in-field interviews in Africa, Indonesia, and India to assess farmer pain points and unmet needs—and establish areas where we could help optimize operations, increase yields, and grow incomes.

We then built Jiva by defining a business model, setting up on-the-ground operations, defining an organization structure, supporting recruiting efforts, and designing an infrastructure that could be scaled for global impact. Finally, we developed the go-to-market model and launched the venture.

TECHNOLOGIES
Machine Learning

CONTACT
Beth Viner, X. Ventures

Contact the BCG X Team