NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Impact Terra, the Myanmar based agriculture and fintech social enterprise, today announced that it has secured nearly USD 3.0 million in funding to lead the digitization of smallholder farming. Its support includes a grant from the Geodata for Agriculture and Water (‘G4AW’) facility and a grant from venture philanthropy organization Leap201.

Through the Golden Paddy mobile application platform, Impact Terra offers personalized advice and services to smallholder farmers, aimed at improving their productivity, market access and financial inclusion. The rapidly increasing smartphone penetration enables Golden Paddy to reach and engage millions of smallholder farmers in Myanmar and South-East Asia. Farmers are empowered to make their own decisions and can access real-time information and advice.

The Netherlands Space Office (NSO), through its Geodata for Agriculture and Water (‘G4AW’) Facility, recently confirmed its support for the Smart Agriculture Myanmar (‘SAM’) project. SAM aims to utilize satellite-based insights to improve Golden Paddy’s farmer advice and stimulate microfinance initiatives through credit risk assessments. Impact Terra leads the project in collaboration with Satelligence, financial services advisory firm Financial Access and the Centre for Economic and Social Development. The globally renowned agriculture research institute Wageningen University & Research complements the consortium.

“The SAM project focuses on bringing real-time and personalized crop timing, pest management and irrigation advice to smallholders, enabling them to significantly reduce crop loss. We will further develop our existing services and make those available to millions of farmers in Myanmar and other South-East Asian countries” – said Erwin Sikma, Founder and CEO of Impact Terra

In parallel Impact Terra received support from Leap201 for its On-Demand Advice (ODA) project. The project focuses on integrating image recognition into the Golden Paddy app thereby enabling farmers to early identify pests and diseases. As this service is available on Golden Paddy’s existing platform the farmer can also access information on what type of (organic) methods to use and where to find various products.

“We are excited to partner with Impact Terra, as we see immense potential to improve the livelihoods of the 20 million smallholder farmers in Myanmar through access to timely and relevant agronomic advice,” said Michael Lien, LEAP201 Founder and Board Chairman. “We look forward to deepening our learning and engagement with Impact Terra through this project.”

A full description of all projects can be found on Impact Terra’s website, https://www.impactterra.com/.  

Photo courtesy of Global Water Forum.