Africa needs more young people in agribusiness – however, agriculture in Africa is unattractive and considered as low status occupation and not as a business. Smallholder farmers are grossly under-producing because they don’t believe that farming can improve their livelihoods.Through our physical ingrower projects we have seen the difference between high and low performing entrepreneurs. Small things make the difference, and these are usually related to the performance and effort of the entrepreneur.

Information about the physical ingrower model and background.

The scheme below shows the actual results achieved by our chicken entrepreneurs in Mozambique. In the average (base case scenario) the gross profit per chicken is approx. 61 MZM. If the performance of the producer drops with 10% (ex. added 10% mortality and 10% extra costs) the gross profit per chicken is halved. If performance drops with 20%, gross profit is negative, and the entrepreneur will lose money for each chicken produced. Agribusiness entrepreneurs in Africa are generally not aware of these figures. 

Low performance can for example occur due to too hot conditions because wall curtains have not been opened – or it gets too cold because curtains have not been closed during night. Many other situations can lead to loss in productivity – for example lack of water or feed for a few hours. Most important factors are in the control of the entrepreneurs. Such factors can easily give or loss on several percentage during a few hours. The result is too low income for entrepreneurs and with the effect that the business does not attract new entrepreneurs.

With the Ingrower Mobile the entrepreneur gets a constant overview of their performance and a tool to get the needed business mindset and daily discipline in the work. The first Ingrower Mobile is developed for chicken producers at our own project in Mozambique.