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Kenya: Kenyan Farmers Tap Apps to Ride Out Covid-19 and Climate Storm
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 30 June 2021
Digital services are helping small-scale farmers weather financial losses and adapt to climate shifts - but experts say the tech migration is leaving many behind Read more »
Kenyan Farmers Tap Into Apps to Work Smarter
DigiFarm, a free service from telecoms giant Safaricom, was launched in 2017 - but the bulk of its current 1.4 million users signed up after the pandemic hit, said Elizabeth Mudogo, customer experience lead at DigiFarm. After ordering through the app, farmers receive SMS notifications when their goods are ready for collection at a local depot - the company has nearly 30 in Bomet alone - and they can obtain store credit and be eligible for discounts.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Kenyan company Twiga Foods has seen a jump in the number of farmers using its digital platform Soko Yetu (Our Market) to reach customers without going through expensive brokers. According to the firm's Chief Technology Officer, Caine Wanjau, Twiga, which launched in 2014, "harvests and buys produce from its member farms, then takes the goods to collection centres for processing and packaging."
A report by consultancy McKinsey indicates that farmers across sub-Saharan Africa are using more than 400 apps and digital platforms for everything from accessing financial services and planting advice to supply-chain management.
According to Kenya government figures, there are about 4.5 million small-scale farmers in Kenya and their collective output accounts for more than 60% of the country's food, writes Wesley Langat for Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Ann Waithera orders new produce through the Twiga mobile app for her general store on the outskirts of Nairobi.
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Kenya: Tana Pastoralists Start Growing Pasture to Avert Clashes With Farmers
Nation, 24 June 2021
Before one of the worst droughts ravaged arid and semi-arid areas of the country in 2016, Komora Igiro had 77cows. Read more »
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Kenya: Coffee Farmers Turn to Single Stem Pruning to Increase Production
Capital FM, 22 June 2021
A group of coffee farmers from Nyeri county are adopting a new method of coffee farming which they hope will increase their production and earnings. Read more »
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Kenya: Dairy Farmers Adopt Biogas to Cut Costs
Nation, 15 June 2021
The well-lit milking house parlour allows Thomas Kamau's 10 cows to feed even at night. The more the animals feed, Mr Kamau says, the higher the milk production. Read more »
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Kenya: NYS Premier Farm to Become a Technical Agricultural Institution
Nation, 29 May 2021
The National Youth Service (NYS) Tumaini Unit in Nyandarua County will soon be turned into a technical and vocational agricultural training institution, according to the NYS… Read more »
InFocus
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Keen on promoting open seed source system, international research organisations have been searching for and carrying out research on seeds that enhance food and nutritional ... Read more »
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The long-awaited Tea Bill has been passed by the national assembly. the bill will also see the revival of the Tea Board of Kenya which will help regulate the sector and market the ... Read more »
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Young people are often missing from leadership positions because of they lack experience, but members of Natiira Ateni Self Help group in Kenya's Turkana County changed this ... Read more »
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Smallholder tea farmers in southwestern Kenya are reportedly finally getting recognition after the government recently revised laws governing the subsector. They are now getting ... Read more »
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The Turkana area of northern Kenya, a county bordering South Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia, is known as the cradle of humanity and for Lake Turkana, the largest desert lake in the ... Read more »
