It was a question from a rural farmer in Ghana that planted the seed of a new business in Lydia Konlan's head. "How do I find markets for my products?"
This led Lydia, a current Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) student to create FarmicleGrow (formerly Rural Agrihub), a business that uses demand data to understand customer and wholesale business needs that can be shared with rural farmers so they can successfully bring their products to market.
Lydia grew up in a rural farming community in Ghana. After studying agribusiness in Germany for her first master's degree, she returned to her home country determined to give back to her community.
She joined a non-governmental organization that supports rural farmers, and on a project with that team, a farmer approached her and mentioned that although he found there were lots of supports for improving his yield, there were few supports to help him find markets.
These are small-scale farmers, farming around 5–6 acres of land with a couple of options for selling their products. They can travel to a community market where individual customers purchase their produce, but they can also be approached by intermediary businesses that travel to farms to see what they have to offer. Up until now, understanding what crops to grow and sell was largely based on experience.
“I reflected on the conversation I had with this farmer and realized that understanding market demands and expanding their customer base needed to be addressed—not only in terms of increasing their profitability but also in terms of increasing their sense of business value. This would in turn help build strong, connected communities.”
FarmicleGrow is a digital market platform that shares market information, connecting farmers with customers. While free to use for farmers, businesses accessing farmers’ information pay either a subscription or transactional fee to FarmicleGrow for access to products.
Businesses save money by not having to travel to farmers while also obtaining easy access to information on product origin. And farmers gain an expanded customer base and access to high-demand product information.
“I reflected on the conversation I had with this farmer and realized that understanding market demands and expanding their customer base needed to be addressed—not only in terms of increasing their profitability but also in terms of increasing their sense of business value. This would in turn help build strong, connected communities.”
Growing in the MBET program
Lydia knew she had a great idea but also realized that she lacked some of the entrepreneurial experience to position her business to succeed. “I wanted a program that would give me practical knowledge and experience to help me grow my business.” This led her to apply to the MBET program.
Right away, she learned a great deal and implemented them into FarmicleGrow. “The program really helped me unpack where we were and where we wanted to go. I’ve learned how to make the business more innovative and implement technology into our business effectively. In just a few months, we’ve come a long way.”
And it’s not just the academics of the program that Lydia has benefited from so far. She’s also come a long way personally. "I am shy by nature, and presenting has always been something I didn’t enjoy, but the connections I’ve made and the community of the program have really given me confidence to be able to do this more confidently. This is an important skill I needed to improve, and now I’m ready for it. MBET gave me that skill.”