Jiva Ag: Digital support for smallholder farmers

Smallholder farming supports vibrant local economies, making it vital to eliminate hunger globally. As we explore digital solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we share the perspective of Jiva CEO Ram Mahadevan.

Tell us about your digital solution to accelerate progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Jiva is on a mission to improve the livelihoods of 500 million smallholder farmers. We do this through providing four key services to farmers:

• We sell high-quality agricultural inputs.
• We provide credit facilities to farmers to purchase inputs from Jiva.
• Embracing the power of artificial intelligence (AI), we provide AI-driven agronomy advisory.
• And we purchase harvest output directly from farmers at fair market prices.

We deliver our services through an integrated ecosystem of farmers, village-level entrepreneurs (Sahabat Jiva), and agri-retailers, whom we support through digital applications and sophisticated back-end systems.

Which organization or group is behind this digital solution?

Jiva is an independent entity backed by Olam Group’s Nupo Ventures, one of the world’s largest agricultural commodity traders, which works with over 5 million farmers in over 30 countries worldwide.
Jiva began as a corporate venture between Olam and BCG Digital Ventures (now BCG X) in 2020 in Indonesia. Additionally, we launched a separate product in India called AgriCentral.

How can your digital solution help put the SDGs back on track?

Today, an estimated 500 million smallholder farmers produce up to 70 per cent of the world’s food. Yet 90 per cent of smallholders earn less than the living income standard, and 70 per cent live beneath the poverty line. To further compound this, a staggering 80 per cent of smallholders suffer from food insecurity. The smallholder agricultural supply chain is broken.
In its current state, smallholder farming makes for an unprofitable and unappealing career prospect for rural communities, and they are starting to leave farming behind. When the world’s major food producers cannot feed themselves and are no longer producing food, it’s a recipe for a food security disaster. By helping smallholders earn more, we can address poverty as well as global food security.

Which SDGs does your project aim to address, and why?

Jiva’s farmer services platform tackles two key SDGs, alleviating hunger (Goal 2) and reducing poverty (Goal 1). Through our solution, we engage directly with one of the world’s most critical yet neglected communities – smallholder farmers.
By improving the earning capacity of smallholder farmers and simultaneously teaching them more effective, efficient, and sustainable farming methods, we can lift millions out of poverty, increase yields, and ensure there is a next generation of smallholder farmers.
At the same time, we are improving their current earning capacity by providing better access to markets, materials, financing, and advisory.

What are the greatest challenges or risks you have faced in rolling out your digital solution for the SDGs?

There are two key barriers to rolling out socio-economic development solutions – including digital solutions – to rural communities:

• Restricted access to digital tools and understanding.
• Distrust of outsiders and, ultimately, fear of the new.

Along our journey, we have discovered that some things need to be reinforced by a physical network. Doing this with an exclusively digital approach would be incredibly difficult. Device quality is low, there are connectivity issues, tech literacy is low, and there’s scepticism about new products.

All these factors stand as barriers. By blending physical and digital offerings, we have overcome these barriers.

What are the advantages of joining forces with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other partners to advance digital solutions for the SDGs?

These organisations are at the forefront of tackling SDGs as goals and related targets, and they have unparalleled experience in working amongst the most impacted communities. By working alongside them, and leveraging their thought leadership and expertise, solution providers such as Jiva can avoid disruptions or stoppages, supercharge our product and service offerings, and maximise our impact.

Jiva CEO Ram Mahadevan presented this solution focused on smallholder farmers during the SDG Digital event at UN Headquarters on 17 September.

Jiva is featured as a digital solution for SDG2 (zero hunger) in the SDG Digital Acceleration Agenda, prepared by ITU and UNDP with knowledge partner Boston Consulting Group and support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Credit photos: Jiva

(Updated 18/09/2023)