Inspiration
There are two significant issues facing developing economies: access to finance for small-scale farmers and the per-acre yield of these farmers, which is well below the global average. Why is this a big problem? Up to 25% of developing countries' GDP depends on small-scale farming. I have worked in finance in the UK, Malaysia, and the Middle East. I've had projects in developing countries and seen this A LOT. To address this, I partnered with my friend, who started as a small-scale farmer in Pakistan and cofounded Bagh-e.
What it does
It is an app-based solution that gives Shariah-compliant digital financing to small-scale farmers and gives them a bespoke schedule of best practices to ensure optimal yield.
How we built it
We partnered with a software company
Challenges we ran into
Finding people with the right talent and skill sets. Working specifically with small-scale farmers and their eco-system
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are part of the Harvard Innovation Labs. We have partnered with a global seed/fertilizer/pesticide company called Syngenta. We have developed the entire system/back-end and app. We will be launching the pilot by Q1 2025. We have a great set of advisors from Pakistan and abroad. In Pakistan, most notably, we have the CEO of Netsol, Ayub Ghuari as our partner. We have partnered with a Pakistani/Chinese mobile phone manufacturer to develop the world's first phone for farmers.
What we learned
Working in developing countries has its own challenges and you have to be prepared for the unexpected.
What's next for Bagh-e
We are launching our pilot next. From there, we will incorporate more features, including automating the financing process using AI and a proprietary credit rating mechanism. We want to evolve into the world's first Shariah compliant digital agri bank
Built With
- apis
- flutter
- postgresql
- react
- we-are-using-flutter
- we-are-using-react-js.-and-for-mobile
