Farmers play a central role in food security in Africa and entrepreneurs like Kizito Odhiambo are increasing their yields with his Kenyan startup, agriBORA. Leveraging Earth Observation (EO) data and Digital Earth Africa tools in its innovative products, the company digitizes transactions between smallholder farmers and agri-merchants and derisks the cultivation of agricultural products.
Small-scale farmers need vital information to market their products, assess risks, and ensure sustainability, risk mitigation and financial security. Many farmers, however, struggle to understand or see the value of technology in providing this information, making it difficult for them to prioritise paying for such solutions.
Undertaking a barrier-breaking initiative is crucial due to the massive market potential of tech-enabled extensions in Africa's informal markets, which represent 50% of the continent's GDP and 83% of its employment. There is a critical need to address food security, as over 50% of household spending in Africa is on food. Moreover, sub-Saharan Africa experiences a significant 37% food wastage from producer to retail, primarily due to inefficiencies in transport and storage.
AgriBORA addresses these challenges by working closely with local agri-merchants in West Kenya, known as agriHUBS, to digitize transactions and provide essential tools and insights through its agriPOS mobile application. AgriHUBS, digitally and financially enabled agro-dealers, use the agriPOS software to sell seeds, fertilizers, agrochemicals and storage solutions to smallholder farmers while also aggregating harvested crops as AgriBORA agents. By digitizing informal transactions and offering services such as inventory management, customer management, sales transaction recording, and business performance tracking, AgriBORA helps farmers understand the value of technology.
Leveraging AI and Earth Observation (EO) technologies
AgriBORA provides sustainable farm-to-region insights, including crop life cycle monitoring, crop yield estimation, sales intelligence, and automated e-extension services. Initially, AgriBORA developed a small in-house data cube, but maintaining it was expensive and time-consuming. As a result, they transitioned to using solely Digital Earth Africa data in 2022. The Digital Earth Africa tools utilised include Sentinel data, which provides optical satellite imagery with a 10-day revisit time, enabling the monitoring of changes in the field effectively. Weather data from CHIRPS in yield prediction models, along with computational environments that allow for the running of algorithms and analyze data in an analysis-ready setting.
According to Kizito, “Digital Earth Africa has been instrumental in our journey, providing essential support that has significantly benefited our initiative. Their provision of analysis-ready data, computational resources, and technical training has been invaluable. The Digital Earth Africa sandbox environment has enabled us to develop our products more effectively, helping smallholder farmers in Kenya access finance and output markets. We are grateful for their support and look forward to continued collaboration and success in empowering Africa's startups and entrepreneurs.”
In addition to yield information, AgriBORA empowers financial service providers (FSPs) to offer smart, risk-adjusted lending, aiding in farm credit risk assessment, targeted lead generation, earmarked disbursement and continuous portfolio monitoring. Through digital commodity trading, certified storage facilities, commodity traceability and premium pricing for farmers, AgriBORA democratizes fair market access and reduces post-harvest losses.
AgriBORA has built strong relationships with key ecosystem partners, including the European Space Agency, the Kenya National Federation of Farmers, and various county governments in Kenya. The company has also collaborated with partners such as GIZ, ESA, AWS, DEG, Rabo Foundation, the World Bank, and the World Food Programme, receiving support for platform development, working capital, and customer acquisition. They have also benefited from accelerators, incubators, and grant programs, including the SAIS Investment Readiness Programme, GrowthAfrica, and TechTribe.
Future plans
AgriBORA’s future plans include the establishment of a lending pool where individuals and institutions can lend to agriHUBS and businesses. By leveraging credit recommendation service and blockchain-driven smart contracts, they seek to build more trust in the ecosystem, ensuring secure and transparent lending processes. This initiative will empower farmers, facilitate access to essential resources, and promote sustainable agricultural growth.
The use of technology to derisk many of the processes that happen between harvest and market is ground-breaking, and then to build better financial decision making tools on the top of that is well suited to the digital age.
About Kizito Odhiamabo
Kizito is the Founder & CEO of agriBORA. He holds a BSc. in Electrical Engineering & Information Technology from Germany's Technische Universität Darmstadt and a Certified Public Accounts certificate from Strathmore University, Kenya. His acclaimed innovation at agriBORA, driving data-driven smallholder agriculture, garnered global recognition and backing from prestigious bodies like the European Space Agency (ESA), Viva Tech and European Commission's Satellite Programme Copernicus.
Kizito was the winner of the Africa Earth Observation Challenge 2022 aimed at African space-tech start-ups and entrepreneurs using EO data and other digital technologies in their solutions.