Photo credits: Young Africa Works This is the title of a blog post by Brian Bosire, founder of UjuziKilimo , an agricultural technology company that brings affordable precision farming to smallholder farmers in Kenya, faces the issue of technology adoption among smallholders in Kenya. Although the vast majority of the population in the country is young (60% of the population is under 30), the average age among farmers is 60. The article points out that at such an old age, farmers are much less likely to adopt new technologies for their farming practices. At the same time, young people are...
One of the main challenges for development of smallholder farmers' livelihoods is access to market information and financial services. Smallholder farmers are the most underserved group in the world by financial services, with women and youth at a particular disadvantage. Arifu is a platform that provides customer capability-building through mobile technology. The Kenya-based platform tests, refines, and hosts content developed by various educational organizations via SMS on mobile phones. Arifu has a team of digital learning experts who work with providers to design and develop behaviorally-...
KrishiSuchak is a WhatsApp-like app developed by Bangalore-based startup Nubesol Technologies to permit smallholders to message agricultural scientist to ask them for advice on their yields, thus eliminating spatial barriers between extension services. Farmers can send their queries either as text, a photo or a record of their voices to the extension officers. Farmers can now get advice via Krishi Shuchak from agronomists by sending only a picture of the damaged crop. The scientist then responds to the query by identifying the problem and then giving advice on the pests to use in order to...
