Digitising small-scale farming

Despite the huge number of innovations targeted at the agricultural sector, many Kenyan small-scale producers still practice the old ways of farming, with the State Department for Crop Development estimating that only 30 percent of the country’s agricultural sector is mechanised.

Many times, digital products do not take off as quickly as they would have been expected to, because they are developed in towns such as Nairobi, without much understanding about the challenges or opportunities farmers grapple with in the rural areas.

Innovations around the agricultural sector are also very fragmented, making it difficult for farmers to adopt the required solutions for various phases of planting, including soil preparation, seed sowing, harvesting, and marketing.

“All the different service providers in the value chain have created different USSD codes for farmers to access their products. We ask a lot from farmers to cram all these codes,” says Collins Marita, Technical Director and Strategic Learning at Mercy Corps AgriFin.

Similarly, if a farmer were using a smartphone, it would not make sense for them to download all the different apps, and indeed, their phone would probably not have the speed or capacity to download them all anyway.

It is for this reason that Mercy Corps AgriFin, a programme that works closely with innovators was started in 2012, to ensure that products are developed with the needs of farmers in mind, as developing products that do not resonate with the market could not only stifle farmers' growth of farmers but that of the innovators as well.

“Many of the organisations we support in the digital agricultural space get stuck at the innovation stage. We are seeing very few transitioning into a space where they are sustainable and able to scale,” said Grace Njoroge, Technical Director, Programmes at Mercy Corps AgriFin.

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Initially started in Zimbabwe and Indonesia as AgriFin mobile, the programme has been providing technical assistance to innovators, enabling them to design products that address the needs of farmers.

For instance, AgriFin has developed SPROUT, a platform where stakeholders can access content that is designed to build small-scale producers’ skills. Through SPROUT, these farmers can also access accurate and localised information on issues such as climate or any other major occurrence that may impact their practice.

“The meteorological department gives the weather forecast but in a general sense, yet if we are to look at Kiambu county for instance, a farmer in Kijabe may experience rains while in Thika it could be very hot,” said Ms Njoroge.

Similarly, when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, farmers at the grassroots needed information tailored to concerns they had such as whether sharing farm equipment could result in contracting the disease.

“However, most platforms provided preventative information in a general sense, exposing small-scale producers to risks of coming into contact with the virus,” she explained.

The programme also supports its partners in developing products that factor in the needs of women and youth, who account for the majority of smallholder farmers in Kenya.

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“If for instance, our partner does training, we would urge them to consider the timing. If they put the training too early in the morning, then they would probably exclude women since that is the time they are preparing breakfast or their kids for school,” Ms Njoroge said.

Having already reached 4.6 million farmers across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, the current iteration of the programme, which was started in 2021, has a target of reaching 5 million small-scale producers by 2025, when it is scheduled to complete.

The programme has been able to scale and iterate with the support of integral funding, the private sector, and government partners that are driven by the goal of advancing innovation, learning, and impact.

“Our funding partners have provided the flexible capital needed for AgriFin to evolve our areas of innovation focus, enabling us to pivot with our partners and stay relevant and responsive to emerging farmer needs,” posed Marita.

Compared to other markets in Africa, Collins notes that Kenya’s digital ecosystem is more mature, presenting a golden opportunity for mechanisation of agriculture.

However, he admits that the fragmentation of service providers is something that needs to be addressed, to make it easier for farmers to access digital solutions. 

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“What we are doing is we are encouraging our partners to come together and form a bundle so that it is easier for farmers to access services. A farmer can go to one platform and access input services, advisory, credit, and insurance, among others,” said Marita. 

Since its inception, AgriFin has brokered business partnerships that have led to the effective bundling of several services, working with partners like DigiFarm, DigiCow Africa, and Apollo Agriculture among others in the private sector and KALRO in the public sector. 

“If it is a fintech company, they cannot just give loans. Before they do that, they need insurance to cover the loan against various risks and make customers understand what would happen if they don’t pay back, how often they need to repay, what are the interest rates, to minimise the rate of default,” says Grace.

To date, the programme has partnered with more than 150 organisations including mobile network operators, financial institutions, farmer networks, technology innovators, agriculture value chain players, government, and other key stakeholders.

With access to the right tools, Collins says that small-scale producers can build the resilience they need against climate and emergency shocks and continue to feed their communities while growing their earnings.

To achieve this however, he points out that deeper collaboration is required between various stakeholders in the industry, as there is still room to strengthen digital ecosystems across the country.

“We do not seek to journey alone. We seek innovation and funding partners who share our vision of farmers prospering in an interconnected digital world, empowered by digital solutions and inclusive ecosystems,” said Marita.