Soil health and fertility innovation in Kenya: 5 observations from the past decade
Sharing Data and Intelligence from AgBase at the World Bank, KALRO and Thryve Innovation CoLab Getting Soil Up to Speed Event in Nairobi, Kenya
Kenya is home to the biggest Agtech ecosystem in Africa. It accounted for more than 50% of funding into Agtech ecosystems in Africa since 2014. Farm management services, agricultural marketplace and agricultural bioenergy and biomaterials have attracted the majority of funding.
Increasingly, governments, corporates, research organisations and funders are looking towards these innovations as part of their efforts to drive the adoption of more sustainable agricultural practices and how they can support agtech ecosystems to drive more innovative solutions. For example, improving the data around these agtech ecosystems, facilitating public-private partnerships (PPPs) and improving coordination across stakeholders.
This approach is already picking up speed for addressing concerns around soil fertility and soil health. But more is needed to help connect and accelerate the ecosystem towards better practices and policies.
In an effort to accelerate the data and startup ecosystem in Kenya to improve soil fertility and soil health in Kenya, the World Bank, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Thryve Innovation CoLab and Briter Bridges hosted an event "Getting Soil Up to Speed” on the back of the AU Africa Fertiliser and Soil Health Summit.
Drawing on data and intelligence from the recently launched Agbase initiative with Mercy Corps Agrifin, Briter presented on 5 key observations from the past decade on soil health and fertility innovation in Kenya. They included:
While deal flow into the wider Agtech ecosystem in Africa has declined over recent years, funding to innovators that either directly or indirectly contribute to soil health and soil fertility has remained stable and even on the rise in some markets.
More than 60% of funding has gone to innovators in Kenya where the majority are directly targeting soil health and soil fertility, with the top funded products addressing issues related to irrigation and water management, fertilizers and other farming inputs, as well as soil testing.
Agtech innovators addressing these soil health and soil fertility issues in Kenya have attracted bigger ticket sizes from a wider range of financing instruments that in the rest of Africa, reflecting a more mature ecosystem.
But over the last few years deal flow has slowed to soil health and soil fertility innovators in Kenya with ticket sizes getting smaller and more early stage innovators relying on grant funding, mirroring similar trends to the wider innovation ecosystem in Africa.
NGOs and public sector are increasingly active in the soil health and soil fertility ecosystem in Kenya and more actively looking to the private sector through public private partnerships to assist in accelerating and scaling the impact of these innovators.
AgBase is a business intelligence platform offering real-time data, market insights, and a centralised hub for information on agtech and foodtech across emerging markets. This initiative, backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and hosted by Briter Bridges in partnership with MercyCorps AgriFin, is dedicated to bolstering the knowledge framework essential for catalysing investments in digital and technology-driven solutions, with an underlying mission is to transform the lives of smallholder farmers and boost socio-economic growth.