From 2015 to 2019, nearly two hundred thousand small-scale farming households in Kenya were provided with up-to-date information on the weather and their crops. These farmers participated in the CROPMON (Crop Monitoring Kenya) project, which aimed to use satellite imagery and other data to develop an information service that would enable farmers to better adapt to climate change, use water, fertiliser and pesticides more efficiently, and increase their crop yields and incomes. The project received support from the Geodata for Agriculture and Water Facility (G4AW), a Ministry of Foreign Affairs grant programme implemented by the Netherlands Space Office (NSO).
The project consisted of a public-private partnership of Dutch and Kenyan companies and a Kenyan government organisation. As a satellite data provider, NEO was one of the partner organisations in the consortium. NEO was also actively involved in developing and assuring the quality of the crop advice that farmers received by SMS on their mobile phones, as well as in rolling out the service to tens of thousands of farmers. By the end of the project, crop growth was monitored weekly for more than thirty-five thousand individual plots. These farmers grew coffee, maize, wheat, sugarcane and grass for livestock. Another one hundred and sixty thousand farmers received weekly local weather forecasts.
Despite these wonderful results, the information services developed within the CROPMON project unfortunately did not manage to become sustainable through a successful business case. Throughout 2020, however, the project partners stayed in touch and together sought opportunities to take the next step towards improved information services for small-scale farmers in Kenya.
This opportunity has now presented itself in the form of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's 'Smart Farming Innovations for Small-Scale Producers' grand challenge. Former CROPMON partners NEO, Weather Impact and Equity Group Foundation have teamed up and submitted a project proposal to this Gates Foundation call along with Equity Bank, Finserve Africa Limited and Equity Insurance Agency. If awarded this project, these companies will work together to build on the information and advisory services already developed and also expand them further to include financial services such as agricultural credit and insurance. And is this a platform where farmers can connect with suppliers of agricultural inputs (seed, fertiliser, etc.) and buyers for their crop yields. In the long run, this should help millions of small-scale farmers build a better livelihood and thus help secure global food security.
