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Two award-winning social enterprises joined forces to turn this vision into reality: eKutir and Fairtrasa. eKutir pioneers technological solutions for marginalized communities. Fairtrasa develops subsistence farmers into agro-entrepreneurs, and connects them to international organic and fairtrade markets.
Together, our two companies have worked with smallholders in the fields for a combined 20 years, achieving transformative breakthroughs with technological and social innovation.
On the surface, Blooom is an elegantly
simple, lightweight smartphone app
— at its core, it is a series of algorithms on the cutting edge of agricultural technology, powered by the cloud.
Pre-harvest modules include
Post-harvest modules include
Blooom algorithms operate at an unprecedented depth, enabling smallholders to do precision agriculture on the smallest plot of land, anywhere in the world.
Instead of storing rigid blocks of information for a select number of crops, Blooom can understand the needs of any plant based on its DNA. This means that the platform works with every crop in every climate.
To support farmers with best fit and best practice advice, the platform compares crop DNA information against the following variables:
In order to reach illiterate farmers, we train trusted members of the local community to serve as mentors, information hubs and market links for farmers. We call them Blooom entrepreneurs.
They provide timely best fit and best practice advice based on our platform, and serve as contact points for farmers with buyers and input vendors.
This not only helps farmers, but creates a new class of jobs in rural communities for those who are better educated and tech savvy.
Blooom’s comprehensive risk assessment and credit scoring generates reliable data on smallholders. This enables farmers, many of them for the first time, to get insurance and credit, and start on a path of growth.
Blooom makes an exhaustive assessment of the risks that farmers face. Our evaluation, combined with each farm’s detailed transaction history, provides the necessary information for insurers and micro-loan providers to extend finance options to smallholders — a constituency that, up to this point, has mostly been unable to access financial services.
Farmers need to have a deep trust in change in order to embrace it. They are only going to switch to new crops and practices if they are convinced that they’ll be better off in the end.
Blooom combines soil data, plot size, input costs and food market forecasts to calculate ROI for each available crop before planting. This reduces the age-old unpredictability associated with farming, and helps farmers commit to the platform’s recommendations.
The platform provides cooperatives and companies a continuous flow of data on the progress of each farmer in their network, enabling them to optimize their sourcing and minimize food waste.
The comprehensive assessment that Blooom provides for farmers, combined with the records of all subsequent transactions, enable philanthropies and impact investors to trace impact in real time, down to the individual level.
Most smallholders around the world depend on intermediaries, who can exploit them by buying at significantly suppressed prices. Blooom helps solve this problem.
Through the app, farmers can sell directly to local buyers and retailers. Once they comply with export standards, they can also tap into the markets of North America and Europe, including organic and fairtrade premium markets.
We connect all the stakeholders who add value to the
food supply chain, and make their jobs easier.
This is the only way to create a solution that can scale exponentially,
and address the mounting challenges of our food system in time.
The UN warns that resource-intensive
industrial farming alone cannot meet that demand.
Its productivity is already plateauing, while it is causing
Industrial farming has helped feed the world in the past, but at an unsustainable cost. Environmental, social and health crises are compelling us to find a better solution for the future. Fortunately, it’s in front of our eyes.
Small farms employ more people, and are better able to utilize biodiversity. This is why, when they use the right practices and tools, their productivity is proven to surpass that of industrial farming.
Compared with industrial farming, they also
The UN has conducted a global overview, and found that smallholders using sustainable best practices can increase their yields by 79% on average, and in large areas can double food production within a decade or less.
Despite their potential, most smallholders today are unable to
increase their productivity, and are trapped in a
vicious cycle of poverty. They lack
Blooom changes all of this.
Our platform addresses the systemic causes of smallholder poverty, and turns small farms into thriving, sustainable businesses.
Instead of building from scratch and duplicating resources, we use technology to strengthen existing infrastructures, and make everyone’s job easier. We aid and co-create.
If you see yourself in the list below, Blooom can also work for you — click to see how.
Are you working with a large number of farmers? Blooom can not only strengthen the sustainability of your supply chains and increase your impact on SDGs, but can also make your job more seamless and effective:
Are you in the business of sustainable agriculture already? Have you ever thought about how you could improve yields and incomes for the communities that you’re working with, as well as for yourself?
If you comply with our professional and ethical standards, we will grant you the right to use our platform and build your own Blooom entrepreneur network.
Are you a bank or an insurance company? We are well-aware of the challenges in extending credit and insurance to farmers that lack financial records.
With Blooom, we are filling the gaps with reliable data, opening a new market for your business. Our experience with smallholders is also at your service to help create tailored financial services that provide fair and meaningful support for farmers.
Blooom can help impact-focused foundations and NGOs to create lasting change in more lives. We help our partners achieve sustainable impact at a low cost.
Blooom makes every dollar contribute to permanent, systemic change. Instead of giving temporary relief, we help farmers become independent agro-entrepreneurs. Our work relies on our proven three-tier farmer development model. Only Tier I farmers require charitable support. When they graduate to Tier II, their incomes are already sufficient to sustain them on their path to growth, and philanthropic capital is freed up to impact more lives.
We offer unprecedented tools not only to create, but also to measure impact. Blooom enables our partners to track the change that they produce in real-time, down to the level of the individual farmer.
If you’d like to learn more, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
We offer tangible returns on social and environmental impact (for details, see our impact, or our offer for philanthropies in the left-hand column), and are focused on exponential business growth.
To see how Blooom can reward investors with a compelling return, please get in touch.
Are you buying and selling agricultural produce? Regardless of whether you operate in local or international markets, Blooom can help you source sustainably grown, fresh produce at a competitive price.
With us, you buy directly from farmers. This not only gives you better prices, but also leaves rural communities better off. Furthermore, the platform enables you to plan your sourcing ahead of time. Blooom helps farmers schedule harvests according to your timetable, and provide consistently fresh produce.
Since we keep track of inputs and farming practices on every square-feet of land, when you use Blooom, you know exactly what you are buying. We guarantee sustainable methods and healthy food for everyone, and if you’re an international buyer, we ensure that export standards are consistently met.
We are keen to support governments that seek to improve the health, environment and economic outlook of rural communities.
Through partnerships with public institutions, our low-cost tool can impact large segments of the population. Our platform is designed to help smallholders onto a path of sustainable growth, allowing initial government support to be gradually phased out — leaving bloooming agro-businesses in its place.
The platform substantially improves food security in both rural and urban areas, as well as the sustainability of local farming ecosystems.
In addition, our platform increases the quantity, quality and usability of the data that can inform decision-making for agricultural development. We are able to assist public institutions in formulating policies that are conducive for economic growth, and increase the sustainability and health of rural communities. We also pro-actively support governments in their progress towards Sustainable Development Goals.
After smallholders and the environment, consumers are our most important beneficiaries.
Blooom increases access to fresh, nutrient-rich, healthy produce at affordable prices. At the same time, the transparency and traceability of our supply chains guarantee that when you buy from Blooom-enabled farmers, you contribute to both environmental sustainability and systemic, positive social change.
More information on the easiest way to buy from bloooming smallholders is coming soon.
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New York, NY 10010
we@blooom.farm
© 2018 E&F Global PBC
We’ve united two award-winning global social enterprises to create Blooom.
Both companies have been widely acclaimed for pioneering work in their fields.
eKutir has led the way in developing data-driven, networked technologies to solve complex societal challenges. They are known for co-designing solutions with isolated and marginalized communities. Their approach has made them effective in addressing intractable issues that other technological solutions before them had been unable to resolve.
Fairtrasa has created a unique, three-tier model that is successfully transforming subsistence farmers into independent, export-qualified agro-entrepreneurs. The company has turned the typically philanthropic activity of farmer development into a $70 million per year social business, building a worldwide export network for sustainable smallholder produce.
Together, the two companies have impacted the lives of over a 100,000 farmers in Asia and Latin-America.
We’d like to thank the following organizations for their unwavering support.
© Blooom International AG
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we@blooom.farm
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