Agroop

Idea

Introduction

Currently many of the shortcomings observed in the farming sector are due to the lack of a universal tool which allows farmers to manage their activities in an integrated, collaborative and informed way. Agroop is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform aimed at the farming sector whose main goal is to provide 4 complementary solutions to the shortcomings mentioned above:

1st Solution - Agroop Operational:
Operational management tool that would allow farmers to manage and monitor their field operations while in constant cooperation with their respective associations. 2nd Solution - Agroop Social:
A social network just for the farming sector whose main goal is to promote the creation of synergies among its users.3rd Solution - Agroop Academy:
A network whose main goal is to facilitate the access to educational information in an inclusive way.4th Solution - Agroop Commercial:
E-commerce component of the project which would allow the buying and selling of farming produce.

Intended impact

The farming market, just like the world itself, is ever more globalised - which we think makes projects like Agroop fundamental to help farming agents broaden their horizons, identify opportunities outside their geographic location and help to increase the competitiveness of their activities on an international level. Agroop aims to enable its users to manage their businesses in an integrated manner more efficiently by reducing costs, cutting the time it takes to download and access information between agents and partners, increasing the quantity and quality of their production, helping to create synergies with other producers, helping to promote their products online, streamlining yearly bookkeeping, allowing online learning and training and also contributing to the increase of exported food products.The team believes that changing to a digital tool, as opposed to using pen and paper when it comes to farming procedures, will help minimize the risks of losing information since everything can be saved in the cloud in real time and with total mobility (mobile or tablet).In addition, the producers are not the only ones that could benefit from using Agroop.At the moment, if a Producers’ Association wishes to have access to the activities carried out by its members it could either call each and every one of them and request that information or it has to dispatch a member of staff to their respective locations.Both of these situations are considered far from ideal, by calling the information provided is not all kept on record whilst personal visits are unproductive due to the time it takes to visit each farm and the travel costs involved.With Agroop, a Producers’ Association would be able to access, in real time, current and past information as well as reduce the time and cost of unnecessary and excessive travel.

Substantial accomplishments to date

From the beginning Agroop incorporated the views of its prospective users to better develop the platform. Research conducted on location allowed better understanding of the whole farming process; surveys were conducted among farmers under 45 years old; the target’s profile was outlined based on the information obtained on social media and an analysis of the competition, statistics and other relevant information provided by trustworthy sources.Working with the resources available and with the support of two farming consultants we designed the layout and mock-up of Agroop Operational.Thanks to the publicity gained in the mainstream Portuguese media Agroop’s newsletter reached 500 subscribers, more than 1000 “likes” on Facebook, received requests for quotes and corporate interest from the second largest Portuguese telecom company and also from a Norwegian governmental institution.(Negotiations with both parties are still under way).At the moment, the team are developing the prototype.

Monetisation strategy

In this first stage, the team intends to monetize the project by selling Agroop Operational monthly subscriptions (software as a service).In the medium term, we intend to generate income from marketing Agroop Social, charging for accessing certain content on Agroop Academy and taking a fee from the transactions made on Agroop Commercial.At the present time, we are also creating a magazine which is intended to attract sponsorship and publicity.

Use of proceeds

The money raised will mainly go to speed up the development process of the prototype for Agroop Operational, namely to hire a full-time senior developer for the team.The money will also help to develop digital marketing campaigns with the potential to go viral as well as to implement other marketing strategies such as Google Adwords and Facebook Ads.-