Agri-Tech Solutions for Climate Resilience and Financial Inclusion of Smallholders in Kenya

The Agri-Tech Project worked to bolster smallholder farmers in Kenya facing challenges from unpredictable weather and inadequate financing for sustainable agricultural commercialisation.  The commercial partner developed digital platform solutions that could offer affordable digital climate-smart agro-extension advisory services (BioClimatica) to boost yields and productivity, and improving financial service providers’ climate-adjusted credit risk scoring to offer tailored financial products to farmers. At the core of the project was to test approaches that allowed the inclusion of small holder farmers through, amongst other things, support to strengthen farmer organisations, access to markets, and agro-inputs.

The project registered some early successes and amongst other the financial platform was approved by the Bank of Kenya to be put on the market. However, the initial roll-out of the two platforms was slow as the efforts required to calibration and contextualise from a Central American context to a Kenyan in terms of geography, crops, and language.

Regretfully, the key commercial partner had to withdraw from the project due to the adverse effects of COVID-19. Despite efforts, a replacement partner could not be secured, leading to the project’s closure after a four-month phase-out period.

Before its premature end, the project did manage to mobilise and build capacity of farmer groups that laid a foundation for achieving its development objectives. The project support to farmer groups included training on climate adaptation, access to agro-tech services, financial literacy, connection to financial service providers, and identification of market opportunities for export vegetables. These efforts led to increased production, sales, and responsible business conduct among stakeholders, with increased income opportunities for 931 farmers, including 474 women.