{"id":86725,"date":"2021-10-12T01:25:04","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T08:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.phildev.org\/?p=86725"},"modified":"2021-10-14T07:19:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T14:19:48","slug":"mayani-transforming-livelihood-smallholders-farmers-through-agritech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.phildev.org\/2021\/10\/12\/mayani-transforming-livelihood-smallholders-farmers-through-agritech\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayani: Transforming the Livelihood of Smallholder Farmers through Agri-Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row row_height_percent=”0″ override_padding=”yes” h_padding=”2″ top_padding=”2″ bottom_padding=”4″ overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ column_width_percent=”100″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”623094″]<\/p>\n

by Samantha Chico<\/h6>\n

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Mayani<\/strong><\/a> is an innovative agri-tech social enterprise that consolidates fresh produce from farmers and distribute them to individual and institutional buyers through its online platform. Through this, Mayani can streamline the value-chain, and improve the farmers\u2019 income by at least 30%.\u00a0 For farmers like Felix \u201cKa-Felix\u201d Bunong, Mayani provides stability in their livelihood. Aside from the competitive pricing they enjoy, Mayani provides them a guaranteed market for their produce, avoiding spoilage and wastage. It also gives them a sense of pride knowing that their produce is consumed by reputable establishments such as Caramia and Amici restaurants.<\/p>\n

The presence of social enterprises such as Mayani helps alleviate the situation of farmers by giving them more opportunities to tap markets commonly beyond their reach, enabling them to have an increased income. They also provide capacity-building opportunities to farmers on promoting good agricultural practices to help them produce and maintain quality harvests to meet customer standards. In the case of the Macaangay Farmers Association, an association composed of 33 smallholder farmers in Lian, Batangas and a community partner of Mayani, their partnership has been providing not only improved but stable income to the farmers to-date.<\/p>\n

Engaging more than 12,000 smallholder farmers, and big institutional buyers like Amici, Caramia, and Shell, Mayani came in the Social Impact Accelerator<\/strong><\/a> (SIA) as one of the more mature enterprises among the six social enterprises in the cohort.\u00a0 SIA is the Innovation for Social Impact Partnership\u2019s (ISIP) accelerator program that aims to assist selected social enterprises to improve their investment-readiness and scale up their businesses and impact.<\/p>\n

In the three months under the SIA program, Mayani was provided with mentorship, learning sessions, and access to financial management consultancy to address their identified and expressed needs on the areas of networking, fundraising, community engagement, and financial infrastructure.<\/p>\n

According to JT Solis, Mayani\u2019s Co-Founder and CEO, SIA has been helpful in the enterprise\u2019s fundraising efforts as their mentors Eric Manlunas, Managing Partner at Wavemaker Partners, and Simon Bakker, President and CEO of Kennemer Foods, provided them invaluable and actionable pieces of advice. These revolved on structuring Mayani\u2019s fundraising rounds, and in determining the best terms for their business and stakeholders. In the words of JT, Mayani would not have gained access to the wisdom and advise, unreachable for a start-up of their level, if not for the SIA mentoring sessions. At the time of the SIA, Mayani was undergoing the seed round wherein they have received investment from AgFunder, and a seed grant from the Asian Development Bank.[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner limit_content=””][vc_column_inner column_width_percent=”100″ align_horizontal=”align_center” gutter_size=”3″ overlay_alpha=”50″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ shift_y_down=”0″ z_index=”0″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ width=”1\/1″ uncode_shortcode_id=”159282″][vc_custom_heading text_size=”h4″ css_animation=”left-t-right” uncode_shortcode_id=”148517″]The SIA strengthened the impact DNA of Mayani and developed their intentionality to drive, monitor, and articulate impact.[\/vc_custom_heading][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”212002″]\"\"

Acting on this newfound knowledge, Mayani implemented the SUPER (Supplemental Employment and Reintegration) Program wherein Mayani has a preferential option to employ at-risk youth, housewives, senior citizens, and persons-with-disability for the packing and delivering of their goods for their events such as the Grand Bagsakan and the National Food Fair. These are done in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). Through the SUPER program, they provided inclusive employment to 227 people.\u00a0 They also benchmarked with Bellweather, one of the biggest coffee enterprises in the US, in articulating new metrics for impact measurement through the Verifiable Living Income (VLI). Mayani incorporated VLI in their impact mapping activities. The enterprise also plans to release a sustainability report at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

One of the activities Mayani underwent in the SIA was the workshop and mentoring session on their Impact Value Chain (IVC), under the guidance of the Business Call to Action<\/strong><\/a>. Through these interventions, Mayani was able to streamline their IVC and focus their efforts to contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2, 10, 12 and 17.<\/p>\n

In the future, Mayani plans to explore opportunities in cold chain business in the agro-fishery sphere.<\/p>\n

Mayani has been making waves in the Philippine agri-tech space and experiencing hypergrowth in the past year due to its founders\u2019 vision and grit to achieve greater heights. Through ISIP\u2019s SIA program, Mayani is now also able to apply the same passion and energy to achieve more meaningful impact to its partner communities.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_height_percent=”0″ override_padding=”yes” h_padding=”2″ top_padding=”5″ bottom_padding=”5″ overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ column_width_percent=”100″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″][vc_column column_width_use_pixel=”yes” align_horizontal=”align_center” gutter_size=”3″ overlay_alpha=”50″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ shift_y_down=”0″ z_index=”0″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ width=”1\/1″ column_width_pixel=”600″][uncode_author_profile user_id=”8″ avatar=”custom” custom_avatar=”86647″ avatar_position=”top” avatar_size=”160″ avatar_border=”yes” author_name_linked=”” heading_semantic=”h3″ uncode_shortcode_id=”645071″][vc_row_inner limit_content=””][vc_column_inner column_width_percent=”100″ align_horizontal=”align_center” gutter_size=”3″ overlay_alpha=”50″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ shift_y_down=”0″ z_index=”0″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ width=”1\/1″ uncode_shortcode_id=”192684″][uncode_socials size=”lead”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_section][vc_row row_height_percent=”0″ override_padding=”yes” h_padding=”0″ top_padding=”0″ bottom_padding=”0″ back_color=”color-105898″ overlay_alpha=”100″ equal_height=”yes” gutter_size=”0″ column_width_percent=”100″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ position_horizontal=”left” position_vertical=”middle” gutter_size=”2″ override_padding=”yes” column_padding=”2″ style=”dark” overlay_alpha=”100″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ shift_y_down=”0″ z_index=”0″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ zoom_width=”0″ zoom_height=”0″ width=”1\/3″][vc_custom_heading heading_semantic=”h4″ text_size=”h4″ text_weight=”600″ text_space=”” sub_reduced=”yes” text_uppercase=””]Contact Us[\/vc_custom_heading][vc_column_text text_lead=”yes”]If you have any questions about our organization, our scholarships, or our programs, Send us a note, we’d love to hear from you.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ gutter_size=”2″ override_padding=”yes” column_padding=”5″ overlay_alpha=”50″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ shift_y_down=”0″ z_index=”0″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ zoom_width=”0″ zoom_height=”0″ width=”2\/3″]\n

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