HOW GOOD NATURE AGRO IS TURNING SMALLHOLDER FARMERS INTO A SCALABLE ENGINE FOR GROWTH
1. For readers who may be learning about Good Nature Agro for the first time, how would you explain in simple terms what your company does, who you serve, and the core problem you are solving in the agricultural ecosystem?
Good Nature Agro is a for-profit social enterprise that works with small-scale farmers. We work with the mission to move small-scale farmers from poverty and into the middle class. We move farmers from poverty into the middle class through the reliable training, facilitation and production of legume seeds and grain. We have created a seed brand that grows and sources high quality certified seed from small-scale farmers. We have also created a reliable grain growing and sourcing model that works with small-scale farmers in an outgrower model. We serve the poorest of the poor farmers. They are classified as small-scale because they have small parcels of land. They work and live in very rural hard to access and unbanked areas. Agriculture is one of their biggest means of survival. The problem we are solving stems from 3 core areas that have resulted in small-scale farmer poverty becoming one of the most visible in Zambia and most of Africa. Farmers do not have adequate and sometimes up-to-date farming methods for the crops that they grow. Farmers do not have access to long-lasting or adequate income, lessening their ability to buy their seeds and inputs for the next seasons. Unreliable markets for the crop they grow. They are limited to selling to the Government, or briefcase buyers. Both options are available but come at a cost. One may take very long to pay and another can pay very fast but very little. We have answered all these problems with matching solutions. We train farmers with the most modern and up-to-date farming methods. We have introduced an extension that aids training, from relying on the Government extension model of one extension officer for every 5,000 farmers, we now have 1 for every 40 farmers. This enhances training, learning and quality of service. We offer small-scale farmers loans for seeds and inputs. For every kilogram they get from us they pay back 2.5 kilograms of their produce. Crop is our form of cash from them to us. This lessens the burden of them paying us with cash. We are the market for their excess produce. We buy this at a premium no other markets offer. This is what we clean and sell. Seed is cleaned, graded, certified and sold to agro dealers, farmer organisations, and even the government. Grain is cleaned, graded and sold to processors and aggregators.
2. When you first began building Good Nature Agro, what convinced you that smallholder farmers represented an opportunity rather than a constraint?
I grew up in a farming area, I knew exactly what farming meant for the farmers. One crop grown in a season could easily be the difference between hunger and wealth. I have always believed that problems are solutions being sought; some have instant solutions, others take a lot of patience and planning. In this case, farmers live and look for the best livelihoods, they have everything to prove but a lot more to live for. We specialise in helping them reach their household goals sustainably. We make sure their incomes are increased, their soils are regenerated, their nutrition is assured and a lot more. When they reach their goals, our model also makes sense and we then reach our goals too.
3. Good Nature Agro operates across the full legume value chain, from seed breeding and farmer training to input financing, aggregation, processing, and export. Most agribusinesses focus on one part of the chain. What convinced you that owning the entire value chain was necessary to truly move farmers from poverty toward economic stability, and how do you avoid the risk of trying to do too much?
We have seen a lot of models around agriculture that are brick and mortar. They only move one step in the value chain. They either buy and sell, grow and sell, or process and sell. All these matter and are very cardinal to the agriculture ecosystem. However they are not always sustainable. At GNA, we realised early on that being present at every point of the value chain helps us capitalise on the full benefit of the process. We need a market for what the farmers grow. We go to the market first - these are aggregators, processors and resellers that need thousands of tons of legumes on an annual basis. We aggregate their specific legume needs, quantities, timelines and even quality standards. This then led us to work backwards from assessing our country catalogue. And if the catalogue does not have the grain wanted by the market, we then breed. This then emphasised the very important need for breeders or breeding from us. This stage releases a handful of seeds that need to be multiplied down the chain to thousands of tons. Once we have bred the first few kilograms of the required variety, it needs multiplication. We multiply the seed in stages, with our commercial farm, over 5,000 seed farmers, and lastly with over 30,000 customers who not only buy, but register into our outgrower programme — they grow the seed and multiply it as grain. Note that seed can be multiplied whilst grain can only be processed into an end product, oil, peanut butter, stock feed etc. At each and every point especially with the farmer outgrowers, we provide tailored extensions to make sure we have quality seed or grain for the market. Lastly in the chain, we buy back the grain from the outgrower farmers and supply the grain to the end market that requires it. Buying back thousands of tons of grain from the outgrower customers assures them of a sustainable income and a reliable quality supply of grain for the market. This then also assures GNA of a good end-to-end revenue from the process.
4. When you started, many believed smallholder farmers were too fragmented, too risky, or too unproductive to build a scalable business around. A decade later, you've proven otherwise. What did early skeptics misunderstand and what has working directly with more than 20,000 farmers taught you about building sustainable agricultural systems?
We did not build a new system; in fact we innovated a broken system. Small-scale farmers in Zambia alone provide for over 60% of the needed food. In other words they feed the country. However, they are bundled as 'farmers' and hardly celebrated. Their homes are in constant poverty, their families seem to be in perpetual poverty and they are at the receiving end of a number of programmes that sometimes only exacerbate the poverty. The government has tried so hard to help farmer productivity through provision of extension officers, input subsidies and even some grain markets. This is not only true in Zambia but the picture is very similar in most of Africa. Growing up around the farmers, we have learnt to understand that within the 'farmers' there are families, friends and everyone trying to make a better tomorrow. We respect their efforts and would like to enhance that and also complement the government's efforts as a private sector firm. We have created trust and this is what really keeps a model like ours sustainable. Growing with over 30,000 farmers requires it. It requires a closer extension for farmers, from having a ratio of one extension officer to 5,000 farmers offered by the government. We lessen that to 40 farmers per extension officer. From allowing farmers to wait on the input subsidy, we provide seed and inputs on loan; they pay back in grain and not cash on a 1kg of seed to 2.5kgs of grain ratio. Lastly we buy back grain from the farmer at a 20%–35% premium. This assures farmers of a sustainable presence, growth in their livelihoods and growth in their incomes. Over the last 12 years of our existence, this process has built trust — trust from the farmers to grow and supply to us and also trust for us to supply our end markets with what they need. Once trust is built, it builds reliability which then grows the model and impact.
5. Good Nature Agro has been profitable since 2016, a rare achievement for a social enterprise at scale while also raising equity and grant capital from impact investors. How do you balance commercial discipline with patient capital expectations, and have there been moments when these two logics came into conflict?
More than anything, belief in the model and what we can do has helped us maneuver tough times and capital needs. Our model is heavily reliant on relationships and one of the most reliable relationships we have built is with the impact investment community. They have understood our annual capital needs and also come through at various growth points to meet our opex, capex and a lot of ambitious growth needs. There have been a number of times when logic does not align. A very clear example that has happened a few times is when capital needs do not align with disbursement timelines. The seasonality of farming does not always align with investor timelines and sometimes this can really falter plans and deadlines. However, one of our values as a business allows us to capitalise on strengths like communication and innovation. This helps us to be agile around problems and create solutions for problematic changes that may occur.
6. What does success look like for the farmers working within the Good Nature Agro network, not just in terms of income, but in terms of livelihood stability, productivity, and long-term opportunity?
Farmers are our biggest impact. Being at the forefront of seeing the change in their lives really humbles me. Besides earning an average net income of $777 on a hectare of legumes, up from earning $113 on their past crops, farmers' lives have changed. They are affording amenities that they could not before — Education, Health, and a host of life-changing household investments. It is not strange for farmers to name their first cow 'Good Nature' after purchasing it from the proceeds of farming. We can arguably be the firm that has allowed the most farmers to own their first motorbikes. The mobility in these communities was previously limited to bicycles and walking. Parents have invested in school-going children and some of the children have gone through tertiary education and even gotten employed by us. They have built very sustainable infrastructure for their homes and are investing in other businesses to increase their streams of income. One of the unique opportunities we have created is the ability for farmers to be credit worthy. Previously banks and financial institutions looked at farmers as unbankable and risky. Our model creates a credit score which then opens up opportunities for the farmers to access loans and capital for further investments. This has pulled in other partners like mechanisation firms to look at loaning small-scale farming equipment. This opens up a whole new opportunity for farmer productivity.
7. If you could change one structural element in Zambia's or Africa's agricultural ecosystem to unlock faster growth for smallholder farmers, what would that be and why?
I think a borderless food and agricultural trade across Africa is my dream. Africa can easily feed itself and eventually feed the world. Our agrarian potential is far more sustainable than minerals and oils. We have places that can specialise in a form of agriculture and feed the rest. For example, Zambia can easily supply Botswana reliably with the legumes it needs. Botswana can easily supply all the meat and dairy that Zambia needs. All this can span across all other countries and allow seamless trade to occur.
8. You have invested in digital platforms, seed breeding labs, and modern export infrastructure. In practical terms, where is technology genuinely creating value for farmers and buyers, and where have you learned that simplicity works better than sophistication?
Technology has revolutionised our agriculture. It has allowed us to reach our producers, our extension and our markets. The biggest value we have learned or earned is that technology does not work in isolation — it needs a process to be understood and tried in its most manual sense before it is automated. We work with over 30,000 farmers, over 220 employees, in three countries. This requires reliable information at one's fingertips. Technology has allowed us to instantly aggregate needs from customers, trace the quantities and allow our farmers to be identified for better credit.
9. Over the past decade, how has your leadership philosophy evolved as Good Nature Agro grew from a small founding team into a company supporting thousands of farming families?
We started out as 3 founders in 2014. We now have 220 uniquely talented individuals on staff. This has proved to me that we win in teams. We have a very stable culture that allows anyone on staff to be able to make very helpful recommendations to the business. This allows us to grow innovative parts of the business and serve the mission to the farmers effectively. Each hub, farmer group and farmer gets very tailored attention to make sure they win. They are trained, they are provided with information on crops and we make sure they are paid effectively. It is no longer about the founding team — we are now letting others find purpose and fulfillment in making small-scale farmers thrive.
10. Good Nature Agro recently celebrated its 10-year milestone. If you look ahead to 2034, another decade from now, what does true success look like for the company, its farmers, and Zambia's agricultural ecosystem?
True success for me looks like this: small-scale farmers are taken as equals in the agriculture process. They are respected for their production, paid well for their crops and they are trusted for credit worthiness. On the other side of the scale, Good Nature Agro is already becoming the most reliable source of legume seeds and grains around Southern Africa. With Malawi and South Africa already active sites for sales and even production, we want to incorporate more countries. With active R&D, we are already looking at diversifying crop options — an addition of cereal and more oil cash crops has already begun. We are already leading the charge for organic grain needs; in a few years, we will be exporting reliable quantities from the continent into the world. This ability to feed the world is also directly helping us grow the farmers, which in turn grows the business and impact.
To learn more visit: https://goodnatureagro.com/
