The Opportunity
Smallholder farmers produce 80% of Africa's food but face significant challenges: unpredictable weather, limited access to agronomic advice, and inefficient use of inputs like water and fertilizer.
Precision agriculture—using technology to make farming more accurate and controlled—has been transformative in commercial farming. But can it work for smallholders farming plots of just 1-2 hectares?
Our Pilot Project
In 2023, we partnered with a cooperative of 10,000 coffee farmers in central Kenya to find out. Our goals were:
The Solution
Satellite Imagery Analysis
We process satellite imagery weekly to monitor:
Farmers receive alerts on their phones when action is needed.
IoT Sensors
We deployed weather stations and soil sensors across the region. One station serves approximately 100 farmers in a 5km radius.
Mobile Advisory App
Our USSD and Android app delivers personalized recommendations in Swahili:
Results After One Year
The results exceeded our expectations:
Key Learnings
Design for the Context
Trust Takes Time
Farmers were initially skeptical. Building trust required:
Data Quality Matters
Garbage in, garbage out. We invested heavily in:
Scaling Up
Based on this success, we're now expanding to:
The combination of satellite data, IoT sensors, and mobile delivery makes precision agriculture accessible and affordable for smallholder farmers. We're excited to see how far we can take it.