UJUZIKILIMO SOLUTIONS

Nairobi, Kenya

An Overview Of Our Solution

Lack of data and information for small scale farmers has resulted in farmers making wrong un-informed farming decisions on fertilizers, seeds and other inputs needed for maximum productivity. Unreliable information on weather, has contributed to losses due to the climate change. 70% of small holder farmers cannot afford to pay the existing providers who are located in cities leading to poor yields. UjuziKilimo offers instant soil testing and recommendations to the farmers. We continue to provide farmers with Additional information such as reminder on top dressing fertilizers, weather updates, and market availability of the produce, organic farming methods and disease monitoring updates a low-cost monthly subscription fee. We have developed a sensor based soil testing kit to analyze soil quality; reducing the soil testing time from 3 weeks to 5 minutes

Who is this solution impacting?

Community Type

Rural

Organization type

Corporation

Ecosystem (select all that apply)

Deserts

Forests

Grasslands

Population impacted

7000

Size of agricultural area

Target arable land 600,000,000 hectares in Africa

Production quantity

n/a

People employed

Describe your solution

UjuziKilimo is a for- profit social enterprise registered in Kenya, we offer instant soil testing and recommendations to the farmers. We continue to provide farmers with Additional information such as reminder on top dressing fertilizers, weather updates, and market availability of the produce, organic farming methods and disease monitoring updates among other relevant information is available for a low-cost monthly subscription fee. We have developed a sensor based soil testing kit to analyze soil quality; reducing the soil testing time from 3 weeks to 5 minutes. We have software used with the soil testing hardware to provide farmers with recommendations on suitable seeds, soil treatment methods, fertilization for optimum crop production, additional relevant agricultural information, and connection of farmers with suppliers of the necessary farm inputs and the average pricing of the inputs. The information is sent out to farmers via text messages. The device is available either for purchase for $150–200, or as a service that is priced at $20 per-use to make the technology more affordable. Through UjuziKilimo farmers are now able to know the correct crop and the exact amount of inputs resulting to increased production up to 45% currently. Our farmers have moved to high value crops i.e. passion fruits, cabbages instead of relying on the crops like maize, beans. Farmers who have followed our advice have been able to increase their annual income from $300 to $1200.

Describe your implementation

UjuziKilimo uses an innovative device to measure soil and farm characteristics, relay the information in real time through SMS to an online analysis center, and relay the information with the crop breed and other inputs required, pest control, markets, weather and other farm management tools to the farmer through his/her SMS or mobile application. The UjuziKilimo system encompasses an electronic device, which works In Synch with the farmer’s mobile phone. We have a central database that congregates real time agricultural information from research institutions, universities, market agencies and other stakeholders, and simplifies the information and relays it to the farmer again through his/her mobile phone. Famers get actionable and easy to understand information including the contacts of service providers within their location. We consistently hold 2 forum and fairs monthly in this region to sensitize farmers on need for soil testing. This we have done through working with county governments in the regions who give us access to a large pool of farmers at the forums. We are also partnering with organizations working with farmer’s i.e. 0ne Acre fund with a pool of 500,000 farmers. These organizations include our solution on top of what they are currently offering the farmers they are working with. Our major challenge initially was on congregating real time agricultural information. We had to manually enter the data into our database making the process really tedious and slow. We recently overcame the challenge by developing an algorithm that picks all the necessary data from research institutions, universities, market agencies and other stakeholders, and synchs it to our database, before we disseminate it to the farmers.

External connections

Currently we have partnered with Farmers Pride and Lenana Agrovets. These organizations are currently working with farmers in 6 counties in Kenya. They will be giving us access to more than 100,000 farmers in the next 2 years who will benefit from the soil testing and recommendations services from UjuziKilimo. These organizations will be involved in capacity building of the Agents and also marketing of the soil testing service to the farmers. Excess use of fertilizers has resulted to pollution of large water bodies which provide habitat for fish and marine life. Soil erosion resulting from over cultivation and poor farming methods has led to massive clearing of forest land to provide land for farming. UjuziKilimo is striving to ensure that farmers use the correct amount of fertilizer which will in turn reduce pollution in the habitats of fish and marine life; this directly benefits the fisheries. Through soil testing and offering recommendation farms that are currently not producing and have been deemed unfit for food production will be brought back to production. This will cut the reliance on deforestation to provide land for farming.

What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?

African soil is known to contain fewer essential nutrients and therefore has been lower quality than soil in other continents. This poor soil quality leads to decreased crop yields and under utilization of farm lands in Africa. 400,000,000 small scale farmers rely on traditional knowledge to inform their farming decisions. They are continuously using the same fertilizers each season and farming the same crops, resulting to declining productivity i.e. The average output of cereal crops in Africa is 12,650 Hg/Ha, whereas in United States is 73,404 Hg/Ha. The soil degradation is due to constant use of synthetic fertilizers without clear guidelines on the correct quantity and the one which is really required. Lack of data and information for farmers has resulted in farmers making un-informed farming decisions on fertilizers, seeds and other inputs they need to maximize their harvest. Unreliable information on weather, has contributed to losses due to the climate change.

Describe the context in which you are operating

Currently we are working with farmers from 4 counties. Muranga, Kiambu, Nyamira and Bungoma, with the access our partners will be providing we will be working with 100,000 small-scale farmers from this locations. These regions suffer most from hunger and food insecurity. With average families of between 6-8 children they are currently not producing enough to sustain the huge families the whole year. Averagely the farmers in this region have an annual income of $300-$450 which is not enough to give them a decent lifestyle. We will be involved doing soil tests for them and offering recommendations. We will also be sending follow up information to help them in production. Farmers from this regions have been worst affected by the lack of soil testing.
The productivity of these regions was very high in the last 10 years but farmers from these regions have seen diminishing returns from their farms. We also happen to come from these regions and have experienced firsthand the problems of productivity in our families. Starting from these regions therefore serves to prove our concept before we are able to scale it to all the other regions. This region also has a population of close to 3,000,000 million farmers. They will also serve to give us easy access to the farmers

How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?

Correct use of fertilizer quantities significantly reduces soil and water pollution while driving down the cost of production for the farmers. We have also encouraged use of inorganic manures that are environmental friendly reducing the use of synthetic fertilizers. UjuziKilimo will be providing direct employment to 500 youths and women in the next 3 years who work as our field agents offering soil testing as a service to the farmers in the villages. The productivity of the farms will increase by 30-45% producing enough food for farmers to feed their families and sell the surplus. Through the precise recommendations we provide, they will change to high value crops: i.e. from maize that take up to 8 months to mature to crops such as cabbages, carrots and cucumbers. Farmers who have 1 acre or less of land currently earning an annual income of less than $400form the farm will be able to increase their revenues to $2000 annually through switching to high value crops.

Language(s)

English, Swahili, Luhya, Gusii

Water

UjuziKilimo recommends irrigation during dry season to ensure that farmer is able to farm throughout the year thus ensuring use of water as an important resource. Though the use of the right quantity of fertilizers, soil erosion will not result in excess fertilizers getting into water bodies, this serves to reduce water pollution.

Food Security/Nutrition

The productivity of the farms will increase by 30-45% through the accurate and intelligent farming data. The farmers will be able to produce enough food to feed their families and sell the surplus. With enough food in the market, the food prices will be affordable to everyone and thus hunger and food insecurity will have been combated

Economic/Sustainable Development

Our recommendations ensure that farmers are able to achieve maximum productivity and returns from their farms. We have recommended our farmers to cultivate high value crops i.e. cabbages, cucumbers which take lesser time to grow and have higher returns. Our farmers have been able to increase their annual revenues from less than $300 to $2000. Increase in income results to better living conditions for the farmers at the bottom of the pyramid.

Climate

Dissemination of accurate weather and climate information to the farmers at the correct time will ensure that farmers are able to choose the crop breeds that are best suited for that area. Accurate use of nitrogenous fertilizers will ensure that no wastage occurs and hence companies producing such fertilizers will be producing the exact amounts. Recommendations on the proper method of application of fertilizers will ensure they are utilized by the crops instead of escaping to the atmosphere.

Sustainability

UjuziKilimo is a for- profit social enterprise when fully operational it will be generating revenues to cover the expenses and offer a return on its investors. Currently the company is 80% relying on grants and venture funding to fund the operations and manufacture of the soil testing kits. These funds are covering the initial costs of manufacturing 300 soil testing kits and run the company operations. The company is expected to break even in the next 8 months after which it will not require any grants to cover the operations. We will raise around of funding when we will be scaling our operations to all countries of east Africa in 2019.

Return on investment

UjuziKilimo won ASME Hardware innovation I-show in 2015 of $15,000, raised $10,000 in cash from Wadson Ventures and $50,000 from National Environment Fund (NETFUND). We used this to develop the initial prototypes and conducted field tests for 500 farmers. We used the information to refine the prototype and added more features to both the software and hardware. We currently have the final prototypes that are ready for manufacture. We are preparing all the required logistics, including reaching out to potential manufacturing partners, to enable us produce the hardware units that will be available in the market for purchase and use by the field agents by July 2017.

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How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?

Replication of UjuziKilimo will be easy as our system has been made to work worldwide through our cloud based approach to process information and send recommendations. We will need to change the sim-card in the hardware so that it can access the local networks. There will be no major changes in the software as it is able to work anywhere Funds will go to acquisition of soil testing kits in the new area depending on the number required. For 100 kits $30,000 will be required to effectively roll out. Network building and partnerships: Partners already working with farmers will be an important aspect. This will work to sensitize the farmers on soil testing and also provide the much needed access to the farmers at scale. Capacity building to implement the solution will be a need. This will involve training of the field agents on how to use the soil testing kits and on the maintenance and servicing. Farmers will be taught on the importance of soil testing and its need on the farms.

YouTube URL

https://www.sw.co.ke/innovation/how-ujuzikilimo-is-transforming-agriculture-in-…

Overview