全球视野 | 通过数字化手段帮助肯尼亚小农户：农业金融科技公司agriBORA是怎么做的？

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文章《A pioneer in digital agriculture/数字农业的先锋》发布在deutschland.de上，这是一家德国门户网站，由Fazit Communication GmbH 公司与德国联邦外交部合作提供服务。文章介绍了肯尼亚人基齐托·奥齐阿姆布在德国建立农业金融科技创业公司agriBORA的故事，并探讨了该公司如何通过数字化手段帮助肯尼亚小农户提高农业生产效率和收入，从而保障粮食安全，并强调了数字化和国际合作在解决农业问题中的重要性。

agriBora是一家扎根于德国和肯尼亚的农业金融科技公司。该公司开发了一个端到端的B2B2C互动和交易平台，将来自农业价值链不同部分的合作伙伴聚集在一起：原材料公司、农机公司、农产品经销商、聚合商、承购商、推广人员和农民。该平台提供基于位置的见解和量身定制的信息、能力建设、金融、市场联系、市场情报以及产品和服务咨询。agriBORA的其中一项业务是agriHUB。agriHUB是一个为小农户及其基层业务合作伙伴提供全面服务的实体中心，农民可以在这里获得高质量的第三方捆绑产品和服务。agriHUB也是一家一站式商店，中心管理者可以聚合需求，为农民提供有竞争力的第三方产品和服务，包括机械化、土壤测试、原材料、推广服务和产出市场。

另一方面，agriBORA还推出了agriWALLET和agriPOS解决方案。agriWALLET是一个面向农业领域的数字钱包，是一种移动金融工具，为农民提供一个商业账户，农民可以用它来储蓄、购买和赚取收入。agriPOS是为agriHUB中心经理量身定制的应用程序，通过有效的CRM和销售点功能增强了小型企业运营。agriBORA未来计划推出信用服务agriKOPA。该产品将推出一种信用记分卡，利用卫星数据和区块链技术提供更客观的贷款风险评估，以促进金融包容性，特别是使妇女和年轻人受益，同时推动农业社区的经济增长。

Is having your own garden one of life’s little pleasures? Kizito Odhiambo grins at the suggestion, as the idea of spending his weekends in a German allotment clearing weeds, planting fruit seeds and harvesting vegetable makes him laugh out loud. “No, no,” he says. “We did have our own garden, but I really don’t have green fingers.” 

拥有自己的花园，会是人生的一大乐趣吗？基齐托·奥齐阿姆布听到这个建议后，就笑了出来。因为一想到周末要在德国的一小片土地上清除杂草、播种果实种子和收获蔬菜，他就忍不住笑出声来。“不，不，”他说，“我们确实有自己的花园，但我真的没有园艺技能。”

That may surprise you, as the 33-year-old Kenyan has set up a fintech startup in the Rhine-Main region which is all about cultivating vegetables, crops and pulses on small plots. But it has very little to do with German allotments. The name of the digital platform is agriBORA, and it helps smallholders in Kenya to improve their harvests. 

这可能会让你感到惊讶，因为这位33岁的肯尼亚人在德国的莱茵-美因地区建立了一家金融科技初创公司，专注于在小块土地上种植蔬菜、农作物和豆类。但这与德国的花园关系不大。这家数字平台的名字叫agriBORA，它帮助肯尼亚的小农户提高收成。

Agriculture is a key factor in the Kenyan economy. Many people make their living as smallholders. The food they grow not only feeds their families but also provides a source of income. Their lives and the lives of their families depend on agriculture. However, climate change often causes harvests to fluctuate, putting farmers’ livelihoods at risk and threatening food security in Kenya. 

农业是肯尼亚经济的关键因素。许多肯尼亚人都是小农户，并以此谋生。他们种植的粮食不仅能养家糊口，还能提供收入来源。他们和他们家人的生活都依赖于农业。然而，气候变化经常会导致收成的波动，使农民的生计面临风险，并威胁到肯尼亚的粮食安全。

The name “agriBORA” is a combination of the Greek word “agros”, meaning “field” and the Swahili word “bora”, which means better. The startup is helping provide greater security in cultivating crops and protect people’s incomes. The startup connects smallholders via a platform and provides information and weather forecasts. This allows users to identify the best time to sow and harvest. To do this, agriBORA uses data from European Space Agency (ESA) satellites. The European Space Operations Centre is just down the road fro Kizito Odhiambo’s office in Darmstadt. “The ESA is a major funder of agriBORA,” Odhiambo says. “We’re already in our third funding round and we receive support from the European Space Agency. We also have backing from German investors.” 

“agriBORA”这个名字由希腊语“agros”（意为“田地”）和斯瓦希里语“bora”（意为“更好”）组合而成。这家初创公司正在帮助提高农作物种植的安全性，保护人们的收入。这家初创公司通过一个平台将小农户联系起来，并提供信息和天气预报。这使用户能够确定播种和收获的最佳时机。为此，agriBORA 利用欧洲航天局（ESA）卫星提供的数据。欧洲空间业务中心就在奥齐阿姆布在达姆施塔特的办公室附近。奥齐阿姆布说：“ESA是agriBORA 的主要资助方。我们已经进入了第三轮融资，并得到了欧洲航天局的支持。我们还得到了德国投资者的支持。”

The fact that he now works in agriculture continues to surprise Odhiambo. After finishing school in Kenya he decided to undertake a year’s voluntary service in an institution for children and young people with learning difficulties in North Germany. “The institution was happy to keep me on, but I had another plan,” he recalls. “I wanted to build cars and, since Germany is famous for its automotive industry, I decided to study engineering in Darmstadt.During his studies he had a part-time trainee job at the carmaker Opel. He sent some of his salary home to his mother in Kenya, who was building up her business as a smallholder near Lake Victoria. She used the money to buy seeds and fertiliser. 

他目前是在从事农业工作这件事，仍然让奥齐阿姆布自己感到惊讶。在肯尼亚完成学业后，他决定到德国北部一家为有学习困难的儿童和青少年服务的机构，从事一年的志愿服务。他回忆说：“这家机构很乐意让我继续工作下去，但我有另一个计划。我想制造汽车，因为德国以汽车工业闻名，所以我决定去达姆施塔特学习工程学。”在学习期间，他在汽车制造商欧宝公司做兼职实习生。他把一部分工资寄回给在肯尼亚的母亲。当时奥齐阿姆布的母亲是维多利亚湖附近的小农户，她用这笔钱购买了种子和化肥。 

“When I visited her I noticed how much she could improve and how much she could increase her profits. That was the engineer in me coming out,” he says.He realised that if his mother and other smallholders could access weather data, they could time their sowing and harvests accordingly. He also identified a business model. His idea was to provide information to smallholders via text message and charge a small fee for the service. “My mum liked the idea and we organised a meeting with other smallholders. One of them suddenly stood up and said she liked the idea, but she would never pay for information.” 

奥齐阿姆布说：“当我去看望她的时候，我注意到她可以改进的地方有很多，可以增加的利润也有很多。”奥齐阿姆布意识到，如果他的母亲和其他小农户能够获得气象数据，他们就可以相应地安排播种和收获的时间。奥齐阿姆布还找到了一种商业模式。他的想法是通过短信向小农户提供信息，并收取少量服务费。奥齐阿姆布说：“我妈妈很喜欢这个想法，于是我们组织了一次与其他小农户的会议。其中一个人突然站起来说，她喜欢这个想法，但她绝不会为信息付费。”

That smallholder needed the money to buy seeds, and she also really needed someone to take the harvest off her. “Her name was Clementine. Even today I am still grateful for her objection, as it sowed the seed of the business idea which emerged later,” Odhiambo says. “It’s about much more than reliable weather information. There must be structures for smallholders to connect with each other, such people who sell seeds or fertilisers, and especially people who will buyers for their harvests,” he explains. He also stresses that if you want to make a living from agriculture, you usually need a small amount of capital to get you started. However, he explains that banks are often reluctant to provide microcredits to smallholders. “One reason for that is because they lack information and details about the potential borrower,” Odhiambo says. 

那个小农户需要钱买种子，也非常需要有人来收购她的庄稼。奥齐阿姆布说：“她的名字叫克莱门汀。直到今天，我仍然很感激她的反对，因为这为我播下了后来出现的商业想法的种子。”奥齐阿姆布又解释道：“不仅仅是需要可靠的天气信息。还必须为小农户建立相互联系的结构，比如销售种子或肥料的人，特别是会收购他们收成的人。”他还强调，如果你想靠农业谋生，通常需要少量资金才能起步。然而，奥齐阿姆布解释说，银行往往不愿意向小农户提供小额贷款。他说：“其中一个原因是因为银行缺乏关于潜在借款人的信息和详细资料。”

He wants to use the agriBORA fintech platform to solve this problem. Odhiambo remembers George, a man who, like his mother, lives by Lake Victoria. “George wanted to open a shop to sell products for smallholders: tools, seeds, fertilisers and so on. But he lacked the start-up capital to furnish his shop and buy stock.”In cases like George’s, agriBORA provides loans worth €300. It allowed George to open his shop and now he uses agriBORA to let his customers know what he offers. Smallholders like Clementine buy from him, sowing their seeds when the weather is favourable. Then they harvest at a good time and sell their harvests to George, who in turn sells the produce in his shop. 

奥齐阿姆布希望利用agriBORA金融科技平台来解决这个问题。奥齐阿姆布还记得乔治，乔治和他母亲一样住在维多利亚湖边。奥齐阿姆布提到：“乔治想开一家商店，向小农户销售工具、种子、肥料等产品。但他缺乏启动资金来装修他的店铺并购买库存。”面对像乔治这样的情况，agriBORA提供了价值300欧元的贷款。乔治因此得以开店，现在他还利用agriBORA进行宣传，来让客户了解他的产品。像克莱门汀那样的小农户会向乔治购买种子，并在天气合适的时候播种。然后，小农户们会在合适的时间收获，并将收成卖给乔治，乔治再将这些产品放在他的店里出售。 

“People like George and Clementine can use our platform to record their purchases. This creates transparency and it can be important when taking out bigger loans from a bank,” Odhiambo explains. Over 12,000 people have registered on agriBORA so far, and 60% of them are women. 

奥齐阿姆布解释说：“像乔治和克莱门汀这样的人，可以使用我们的平台，来记录他们的消费。这可以提高透明度，而且这在向银行申请更大的贷款时非常重要。迄今为止，已有12000多人在agriBORA上注册，其中60%是女性。”

What started out as a business idea has grown into a small startup within a few years. agriBORA now employs 20 permanent staff in Germany and Kenya. Alongside Managing Director Kizito Odhiambo, four people work in Germany. “They are mainly involved in data management and the software. Our employees in Kenya primarily work in sales and business development,” Odhiambo explains. He lives in Germany with his wife and children and regularly travels to Kenya. “Culturally I move between two different worlds, and sometimes that isn’t all that easy. However, at work I can see that we mutually complement each other in our team, and I think there should be many more partnerships like ours on the level of businesses,” he says. He would like to see his business idea take root in other countries in Africa. “I firmly believe that Africa can feed itself. In fact, I think Africa can feed the world. The continent has everything it needs for that.” 

从一个商业想法开始，在几年的时间里，agriBORA已成长为一家小型初创公司。agriBORA现在在德国和肯尼亚雇用了20名全职员工。除总经理基齐托·奥齐阿姆布之外，另外还有四名员工在德国工作。奥齐阿姆布解释说：“他们主要从事数据管理和软件方面的工作。而我们在肯尼亚的员工主要从事销售和业务开发工作。”奥齐阿姆布与妻子和孩子住在德国，并定期前往肯尼亚。他说：“在文化上，我在两个不同的世界之间穿梭，有时这并不是那么的容易。不过，在工作中，我可以看到我们在团队中相互补充，我认为在企业层面上应该有更多像我们这样的合作关系。”奥齐阿姆布希望自己的创业想法能在非洲的其他国家生根发芽。他表示：“我坚信非洲可以养活自己。事实上，我认为非洲可以养活全世界。非洲大陆拥有养活世界所需的一切。” 

Odhiambo and his wife used to have an allotment in Darmstadt, but the family gave it up some time ago. “I’m not the kind of person who likes watching plants grow. I want to see technology everywhere, optimising everything. I want to see sensors, for example, which show the temperature and water demand,” he says. For Kizito Odhiambo, the joy of gardening comes from seeing other people’s crops flourish. 

奥齐阿姆布和他的妻子曾经在达姆施塔特有一个花园，但很久以前就放弃了。他说：“我不是那种喜欢看植物生长的人。我希望看到技术无处不在，优化一切。我想看到传感器，比如显示温度和水需求的传感器。”对于基齐托·奥齐阿姆布来说，园艺的乐趣在于看到别人的作物茁壮成长。