Mozare3: Promoting contract farming to support small-scale farmers in Egypt

Egypt’s agricultural sector employs about 28% of the country’s workforce. Of those, the majority are small-scale farmers who are facing a challenging market context, marked by factors including expensive agriculture inputs, barriers to market access, and the detrimental impacts of climate change. With increasing gaps between supply and demand, farmers are unable to guarantee sales for their harvests, and many are falling into debt. Inflation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine has driven up land rents and the prices of daily necessities, further driving small-scale farmers away from their crops.

Mozare3 was founded in 2021 to support small-scale farmers across the agricultural value chain. Among its services, Mozare3 facilitates contract farming agreements, connecting smallholders to manufacturers inside and outside Egypt who turn raw materials into food products for sale domestically and internationally. Contract farming involves an advance agreement between farmers and buyers for the output of the harvest. To promote this, the company maintains AgriConnect, a “comprehensive digital operational platform” for contract farming, which allows participating food manufacturers to manage their supply chain online. The platform includes services for farmer selection and contracting, technical support, crop marketing, delivery, and scheduling. 

For farmers, the company leverages its stakeholder network to provide them with agricultural supplies and inputs, only charging farmers once the crop has been harvested. The company also provides farmers with technical support to increase their productivity and manage the usage of inputs. This assistance is delivered both in person through the presence of agricultural engineers or remotely. The Mozare3 mobile application allows farmers to sell crops instantly in a marketplace section, manage their transactions and contracts, request support, and access information on agricultural trends, technologies, and best practices. To facilitate financial transactions, Mozare3 offers multiple payment options, including the national postal service, bank transfers, and online payment services offered by telecommunications companies.  

Mozare3 has a notable impact in Egypt, having established partnerships with major banks and institutions. Among these, Mozare3 has signed an agreement with the National Bank of Egypt to provide low-cost financing to its participating farmers for the acquisition of supplies and inputs, irrigation, waste recycling, and more. In January, Mozare3 also partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation’s Prime Farms to facilitate knowledge exchange and the creation of green job opportunities. In creating such opportunities for smallholder farmers, Mozare3 is addressing a range of issues, from increasing the productivity of the agricultural sector in the face of climate-related uncertainties to ensuring the sustainability of farmers’ access to markets and opportunities.