YARA INTERNATIONAL, a Norwegian chemical company, whose largest business area is the production of nitrogen fertilizer, has invested in the Kenya-based agricultural marketplace Apollo Agriculture to expand its presence in the African country. Apollo Agriculture raised $30 million in investments from a consortium of investors led by the SoftBank Vision Fund and Yara Growth Ventures that is part of Norwegian producer of mineral fertilizers Yara International. Apollo Agriculture was established in 2015 and plays an important role in African agriculture, especially in Kenya. The company provides farmers with crop protection products, mineral fertilizers and agricultural machinery. “We believe there is a huge opportunity for growers in Africa to provide advanced agricultural services,” said Erkki Aaltonen, Managing Director of Yara Growth Ventures. Yara produces a wide range of mineral fertilizers and sells them all over the world. The African market is one of the strategic ones for the company.
AG-FARM, a Dubai based agrochemical startup, intends to enter the Indian market and become the country’s first supplier of plant protection products exclusively on electronic trading platforms. The idea of its creators is to sell them at the lowest possible prices and connect pesticide producers and farmers. ‘AgFarm’ was founded by Vaman Alawadhi, a 21-year-old entrepreneur with a burning passion to craft his own niche in the agro input sector, and with his partner Sandeep Chauhan. Their vision is to turn AgFarm into the first agrochemical company whose products, which includes herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and plant growth regulators, will only be available on e-commerce platforms at never-before attractive prices. When asked about the reason behind taking the risk of skipping the traditional path of over-the-counter selling altogether and selling the products on digital platforms only, Vaman Alawadhi, the Director of AgFarm, said: “It is high time to modernize the agricultural sector in India in every possible way to ensure food quality, food safety and cost competitiveness. Today, when we are on the verge of adopting modern technologies such as IoT, AI/ML and agri-drones in farming, we should also adopt and promote digital buying and selling of agro inputs to break the vicious circle of mediators and give the dealers, retailers and farmers direct access to manufacturers, leading to fair prices and authentic products for them.”
ELICIT PLANT, a French agro-biotech company, intends to introduce its BoM-A Fit Soja biostimulant to the Brazilian market this year. BoM-A Fit Soja is based on the use of phytosterols that help soybean plants cope with the lack of water in the soil. Elicit Plant plans to establish close business cooperation with farmers and agricultural enterprises in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná and Mato Grosso, then extend its operations to the entire Brazil. “We offer a solution to cope with the lack of moisture in the ground,” said Jean-François Déchant, president and co-founder of Elicit Plant. The secrets of BoM-A Fit Soja are not disclosed but Elicit Plant recently received a €16 million grant to accelerate its research into new biostimulants. Elicit Plant was founded in 2017 with the ambition to become a sustainability transition champion in agriculture and respond to the global challenge of water stress in crops. Based in Charente, France, the firm has about thirty employees across its headquarters and precision farm and its Brazilian branch in Sao Paulo.
