Every so often, churches and social halls in Homa Bay are transformed into farming classrooms.
In one such church, a white bedsheet has been pinned up where the altar would usually be, and a small projector sits on a plastic table, throwing a bright light onto the sheet.
Seated on low wooden benches are farmers: There are women in lesos, old men in caps and young mothers with babies strapped to their backs. Their eyes are fixed on the sheet.
Sometimes it is a wilted tomato plant with curled, yellowed leaves, and at other times it is a plant with green leaves and fresh fruit.
For years, the agricultural extension service in Homa Bay was a one-man operation.
The officer would stand up front and talk for two hours about spacing, fertiliser, and post-harvest handling.
Occasionally, an agricultural expert would demonstrate how to construct a raised nursery bed or mix soil and manure.
However, a farmer who had never seen this before would go home feeling confused.
This has now changed, with farmers now taking part in instructional learning sessions where they can ask questions and discuss ideas.
The National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (NAVCDP) is a Government of Kenya initiative funded by the World Bank. Its aim is to help smallholder farmers shift from subsistence to profitable, market-oriented agriculture. To this end, the project has purchased 40 projectors, tablets and power banks for farmers to use in modern farming lessons.
The digital agricultural resource kit is used to digitise field operations, map farms and capture agronomic data.
In this case, it is being used to provide training to farmers.
Henry Nzinga, the NAVCDP Coordinator in Homa Bay, says that each of the 40 wards has one kit.
"It is the duty of the ward agricultural officer to schedule how the kits will be used. They have to move from one location to another as they educate farmers," he says.
The tablets are preloaded with videos, pictures and other agricultural information.
In Homa Bay, the NAVCDP works with five value chains: rice, bananas, dairy products, coffee and cotton.
Farmers during the launch of the digital agricultural resource kit at the Governor's Park in Homa Bay town on September 24, 2026.
Photo credit: George Odiwuor | Nation Media Group
Nzinga says the information contained in the digital gadgets ranges from planting and weeding to fertiliser application and other practices.
"The tablet is connected to a projector which displays the information. All the farmers have to do is identify a hall where they can sit and watch the videos, after which the agricultural officer provides further explanation. They select a topic that they want to learn about before it is displayed on the wall," he says.
The same education was previously offered to farmers, but it was not effective.
Nzinga says that extension officers would use flipcharts to explain certain agricultural practices. The explanation was based on the officer's knowledge.
"The information they offered was standard. But some farmers were struggling to understand what was being said," he notes.
Now, the agricultural officers carry backpacks containing kits.
When teaching about conservation agriculture, for example, they play videos of farmers in other regions digging zai pits, rather than just describing the process.
When teaching about aflatoxin in maize, they show a clip of mouldy grains under a microscope, which the farmers instantly understand.
Firstly, it makes the abstract concrete. For example, telling a farmer to plant at "75 cm by 25 cm" can be confusing. However, showing a video with a marked string makes it obvious.
Research shows that we retain only about 10 per cent of what we read and 20 per cent of what we hear, but up to 80 per cent of what we see and do.
A diagram showing the damage caused by the fall armyworm stays in the mind longer than a lecture about it.
The new system of agricultural lessons also reduces cognitive load. A complex process such as making an organic pesticide from neem leaves is difficult to convey in words alone. A short video breaks it down into three steps. Less mental strain means more learning.
Mary Atieno, a 52-year-old farmer from Rangwe, can attest to this. For years, she lost her kale to pests.
"The officer used to tell us to spray," she says. "But last month, he showed us a video in our church. I saw how the woman mixed the chemicals. I went home and did the same, and now my kale is pest-free," she says.
Video also holds people's attention. In the past, farmers would doze off during barazas.
Nzinga says that, with the addition of emotion, sound and movement — such as a wilting crop, a bumper harvest or a farmer celebrating — no one sleeps now.
He says the Department of Agriculture has embraced the model, adding that, instead of printing more brochures, they are producing short videos for farmers.
"We realised that farmers are visual learners. When they see a fellow farmer succeeding in a video, they believe they can too," he says.
