The Legume Solution: How Good Nature Agro Triples Farmer Incomes in Zambia
- yanabijoor
- Jul 1
- 4 min read
What is the problem? There are approximately 1.6 million small-scale farmers in Zambia, and they grow maize on small plots of land. However, maize farming is not an effective means of lifting people out of poverty, as it depletes soil, fetches low market prices, and forces farmers to depend on a single crop in a country whose climate has become increasingly unpredictable. The earnings of an average smallholder maize farmer are $113 per hectare. At the same time, international buyers of high-value legumes such as soybeans, groundnuts, beans, and cowpeas cannot find reliable suppliers in Zambia. Farmers do not cultivate appropriate varieties, lack seeds, and have no relationship with the processing company that pays premium prices.
What is the solution?
Good Nature Agro teaches smallholder farmers to replace maize farming with high-value legumes by providing certified seeds, funding, technical expertise, and guaranteeing a market for their produce. Legumes replenish soil nitrogen and are more climate-resilient than maize, adding an environmental benefit. The organization operates across the entire legume value chain, from seed breeding to processing. The firm has two revenue streams. The first revenue stream is Good Nature Seed, which sells special legume seeds to farmers. The second revenue stream is the Good Nature Source, which offers farmers contracts to grow special varieties of legumes for food processors and agribusiness firms. Good Nature Agro enables farmers to get higher incomes and access to healthier soil and buyers get reliable supply.
What is the business model? Good Nature Agro is a for-profit social enterprise with two revenue sources. Around 95% of revenues come from the sale of legume seeds through Good Nature Seed, and the other part of revenues is generated by Source – the company that purchases legumes from contracted farmers and sells them to processors and exporters. In relation to Source, the company enters into supply contracts with buyers specifying particular varieties of legumes, and next, the company contracts with smallholder farmers to produce those varieties. Thus, speculative agriculture is turned into contract farming, and smallholders’ incomes become predictable. Reportedly the company has been profitable since 2016.
How is it funded? Good Nature Agro was founded in 2014 by three people: Carl Jensen, Sunday Silungwe, and Kellan Hays. Carl is a fifth-generation farmer from America who was introduced to Sunday Silungwe, who is a citizen of Zambia, in an agricultural design lab organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Good Nature Agro is based in Chipata, Zambia. In October 2020, Good Nature Agro raised a $2.1 million Series A round of financing led by Goodwell Investments, with FINCA Ventures and Global Partnerships. In 2025, it closed an $8.5 million Series B financing led by OikoCredit International.
Why is it innovative?
Most agricultural development initiatives in Africa focus on improving one element of the farming process at a time – improved seed quality, training, or better market access. Good Nature Agro addresses all aspects of the value chain simultaneously. First, it breeds its own seeds that suit the smallholder environment. Second, the company places skilled trainers for farmer groups of 40. Third, the company offers loans repayable in seeds after harvest, and locks in contracts with processors before farmers even plant. Fourth, the company ensures that contracts with processors are signed before farmers plant anything. Last but not least, the company uses an application called Smallholdr to track the income of farmers and helps farmers set and monitor concrete financial goals like sending children to school.
What is the impact?
As of 2025, the company is working with 15,000 smallholder farmers. The company has grown the average income of the farmers it works with from $113 per hectare to $357 per hectare. The Farmers in the Good Nature Agro network earn 3 to 4 times more than they would from cash crops like maize on the same land. Zambia farmers now export to Malawi, South Africa, Botswana, and Europe. The company is aiming for a 50% female registration rate among new farmers, and 43% of the Company trainers are women.
What needs to improve? Zambia’s legume market size is $39 million. However, the company captures only a small share of the market. Scaling beyond Zambia to other Southern African countries requires substantial investment and specialized agronomic knowledge for each country involved. The firm itself must also make some tough choices regarding its scaling. The founder of the company has made it clear that advisory services to farmers on a one-on-one basis play an important role in the business, but this model becomes more and more difficult and costly as the number of farmers that the company serves rises above 15,000 and even harder at the 60,000+ farmer mark, which is the company's stated growth target. The biggest issue facing the company is climate change risk. Although legumes are more resilient than maize, legumes remain vulnerable to erratic rainfall patterns in Zambia.
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