Irri-Hub Ke

Africa is estimated to have more than 33 million small-scale farmers, which generate around 70% of the continent's food supply but sadly, they currently employ traditional agricultural methods. According to the FAO, these practices have led to severe soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and intensified the effects of climate change, ultimately threatening global food security and environmental sustainability. Most of these methods rely heavily on rain-fed agriculture and excessive use of chemical inputs, which reduces the land's natural resilience to climate variability and change.

Majority of these farmers the lack access to smart irrigation tools, which are crucial for moving away from unreliable rain-fed systems. Additionally, they often lack accurate weather forecasting tools essential for effective seasonal planning and are not sufficiently informed about good regenerative farming practices that can restore soil health and boost productivity. Even with the farmers that have access to all of the above, affordability of these solutions is another nightmare to them hence a pressing need for innovative financing options to help these farmers adopt sustainable practices and technologies that enhance their resilience to climate change.

As a result of these challenges, productivity on these farms is significantly lower, with yields over 50% below the global average, leading to annual earnings for African farmers of only between $600 and $1,000. If current trends continue, Africa is projected to spend up to $110 billion on food imports by 2030, despite possessing 65% of the world's arable land, as reported by the African Development Bank (AfDB). Furthermore, these communities continue experiencing intense effects of climate change as a result of adopting poor farming practices.

We have developed an innovative platform that equips farmers with access to climate-smart irrigation technologies and knowledge of regenerative agricultural practices through IoT-enabled sensors. This initiative is bolstered by an innovative financing model that supports farmers in becoming more resilient to climate change.

Our solution includes the deployment of solar-powered drip irrigation systems that reduce dependence on unpredictable rain-fed agriculture and eliminate the need for conventional diesel or petrol pumps, significantly reducing carbon emissions. Additionally, the platform provides farmers with vital information on sustainable farming techniques such as minimal soil disturbance, crop rotation, and intercropping, which are essential for sequestering carbon in the soil and reducing greenhouse gas emissions through regenerative farming. To facilitate these advancements, we offer an innovative lease-to-own financing model that makes it easier for farmers to acquire and implement these critical irrigation products.

Furthermore, our integrated IoT sensors continuously collect data on key soil parameters such as temperature, moisture, humidity, pH, and essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. This data is processed by our cloud-based analytics platform, which converts it into actionable recommendations delivered directly to farmers through SMS and mobile alerts. This enables optimal resource utilization, significantly reducing the amount of water and chemicals required for crop cultivation.

Our integrated approach not only safeguards soil health and biodiversity and enhances climate resilience but also significantly reduces input costs for farmers by up to 50%, and decreases water usage by 60%, while simultaneously increasing their income by an average of 33%

Our solutions seeks to serve smallholder farmers in developing countries staring with 8.5 million smallholder farmers in Kenya who own less than 2 hectares of land and primarily derive their livelihoods from agriculture but constantly face challenges with low productivity, vulnerability to climate change, and limited access to knowledge and resources in becoming resilient. 90% of these small holder farmers are women and youth who are the backbone of our local food systems.

Our solution targets this population by providing a one stop shop that gives them access to climate smart farming products, rich information and innovative financing in helping them maximize productivity as they become more resilient to climate change. They get impacted in several ways:

- Increased productivity - Our farmers having access to solar enabled drip irrigation help them be in production throughout the entire year without depending on rain-fed agriculture, crippling their productivity annually.
- Increase income - With our farmers equipped with the right tools, knowledge and financing, they are better positioned to plant short term high value crops like tomatoes and onions which generate higher income resulting to 33% income increase annually.
- Reduce input costs - Equipping our farmers with IoT sensors help them to minimize the use of inputs like water usage and chemicals by 50% addressing challenges of water scarcity faced by many farmers across the continent.
- Improved livelihood - Our farmers make a decent earning from smart farming. This leaves them with enough money to reinvest in their farms, pay their loans, and invest in the children’s education.
- Improved access to knowledge - Giving our farmers a platform to embrace and practice regenerative practices like minimum tillage, crop rotation and inter-cropping timetables and various mulching techniques broaden their knowledge towards protecting our soils and restoring threatened biodiversity.
- Improved food production - Our solution provides a holistic approach that gives our farmers an upper hand of smartly producing food in a more sustainable way with less resources throughout the entire year contributing massively towards food security.

Our team is led by Eric Bosire, who was raised in a farming community dominated by sugarcane cultivation. These farmers, surrounded by limited options, resources, and knowledge, planted sugarcane repeatedly without rotation, leading to soil depletion and declining yields. This cycle of single-crop dependency and reliance on rainfall exposed them to significant financial risks whenever the rains failed. Similarly, our co-founder Sheila witnessed the struggles of maize farmers who faced comparable challenges in trying to sustain their livelihoods.

Our team possesses a profound understanding of the challenges faced by smallholder farmers in Kenya, including limited access to essential products, knowledge, and financing, which often leaves them vulnerable. We recognize the importance of community-based learning in Kenya and deliberately include members from various tribes. This diversity ensures that when we visit farmers to introduce innovative agricultural practices, we can communicate in their local languages, fostering better relationships and understanding.

Moreover, we collaborate with partners like seed companies, fertilizer companies, and pesticide companies during our training sessions to provide farmers with comprehensive learning opportunities. Our team includes experienced agronomists, engineers, sales and marketing professionals, and field agents, all dedicated to delivering innovative and effective solutions tailored to the specific needs of Kenyan smallholder farmers. This approach not only enhances their agricultural practices but also builds resilience and improves their economic outcomes.

We are currently in the pilot phase, having already launched our product and now serving five counties in Kenya: Machakos, Kajiado, Makueni, Kiambu, and Uasin Gishu. To date, we have directly assisted 3,860 farmers and indirectly impacted 16,245 people through our products and services. Our portfolio includes five key products: solar pumps, drip irrigation systems, rainwater harvesting systems, vertical gardens, and IoT sensors. Additionally, we offer several services including agronomist consultations, training, and installation services. To support and accelerate our growth, we have successfully raised $180,000 in debt capital.

We are applying to Solve because we are confident that Irri-Hub Ke's innovative holistic approach can profoundly impact the lives of smallholder farmers in Kenya and Africa at large. This opportunity to join Solve is pivotal, as it allows us to engage with a network of peers and organizations focused on addressing significant global challenges. 
Since we are very confident that our solution is very timely and it is what every single farmers needs, we hope to partner with Solve in not only helping gain access to vital additional funding and resources that will help us extend our services to a greater number of smallholder farmers but also benefit from tailored support and mentorship that will enhance our business model, confirm our impact, and help us establish crucial partnerships.

Furthermore, integrating into this diverse social impact community will provide critical insights into overcoming the cultural and market challenges unique to our operation in Kenya. Interaction with experts across the fields of agriculture, technology, and social entrepreneurship will deepen our understanding of the specific needs and obstacles faced by smallholder farmers in developing areas, thereby improving our capacity to develop targeted solutions.

Being selected to participate in Solve would provide us with the essential resources, funding, and support needed to scale our operations and make a substantial difference in the lives of smallholder farmers across developing regions. We are enthusiastic about joining this network and collaborating with other passionate and innovative groups committed to solving some of the world’s most pressing issues.

Our solution is innovative in its holistic approach to addressing the challenges faced by smallholder farmers in Africa through the integration of IoT-enabled drip irrigation systems, regenerative farming techniques, and weather intelligence tools, all supported by accessible financing options. This combination not only tackles the technical aspects of sustainable agriculture but also addresses the climate change complexity and excessive carbon footprint from bad farming practices.

1. IoT-Enabled Drip Irrigation: By incorporating Internet of Things (IoT) technology into drip irrigation, our solution allows farmers to monitor and control water usage efficiently, optimizing water consumption based on real-time data. This precise irrigation minimizes waste and enhances crop yields, directly addressing the inefficiencies of traditional rain-fed agriculture.

2. Regenerative Farming Techniques: We integrate regenerative agriculture principles to improve and restore soil health, increase biodiversity, and sequester carbon, turning agriculture into a solution for environmental degradation. Our training programs in regenerative techniques reduce dependency on chemical inputs, foster biodiversity, and build ecological resilience.

3. Weather Intelligence: Leveraging advanced meteorological data, our platform provides farmers with actionable insights to make informed decisions about planting and harvesting times, significantly reducing the risk of crop failure due to adverse weather conditions.

4. Innovative Financing Options: Understanding the financial constraints typical among smallholder farmers, we offer innovative lease to own financing models which are facilitated by partnerships with local financial institutions. This ensures that even the most resource-limited farmers can access our technology.

Our theory of change

If we build a resilient farming community by providing small holder farmers with access to innovative solar powered irrigation inputs, access to capital, access to data driven information and structured markets for their produce, then small holder farmers will have sustainable food production systems with strengthened local knowledge leading to reduced carbon footprint, reduced poverty, inequalities, and Increased capacity to adapt to unpredictable weather patterns 

Inputs
- Innovative solar enabled Irrigation tools
- Mobile platform for accessing information and knowledge around regenerative farming practices
- Innovative financing for the products
- Structured markets for their produce

Activities
- Supply of IoT enabled Irrigation equipment to farmers
- Installation of irrigation equipment
- Training of farmers on the use of precision agriculture techniques
- Provide access to credit facilities based on historical data.
- Connect farmers to markets for their produce

Outputs
- Improved access to inputs
- Improved access to information
- Improved access to markets
- Improved access to financing

Outcomes
- Better food production and consumption.
- Improved food security and nutrition for communities
- Increased income and improved livelihoods for smallholder farmers
- High quality greens jobs

Impact
- Climate adaptation and mitigation

- Reduced carbon footprint

- Reduced poverty and inequality

Our impact goals for next year:

- Establish a distributorship network with 20 agro-dealer shops spread across the country in order to provide last mile delivery of our smart farming solutions. This will enable us reduce our turn around time and reach as many farmers as possible.

- Establish partnership with 2 micro-finance institutions that are passionate with servicing farmers in designing financing packages for scaling farmers that are beyond our financing capacity using historical data in ensuring our solutions are not only accessible but affordable to small holder farmers.

Our impact goals for the next five years

- Expand our reach from the 5 counties we work in to additional 5 counties namely Kisumu, Busia, Homabay, Migori, Busia targeting to reach 20,000 smallholder farmers with our innovative climate smart farming solutions. We will partner with our existing partners to and existing customers to expand to those regions.

- Establish strategic partnerships with NGOs and government agencies that run agriculture related programs to design projects that target smallholder farmers with the aim of improving their productivity and income.
- Expand to Tanzania and Zambia market targeting at least 40,000 small holder farmers adversely affected by climate change with the help of strategic partners that we have built relationships with.

Our solution uses an android application where farmers access different products, services, information and financing options. Our mobile application leverages on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms. Our IoT sensors are solar enabled that collect data on farm conditions such as soil temperature, soil PH, soil humidity, soil EC, soil nitrogen, phosphorus and pottasium. The data is transmitted to our cloud based platform for analysis and processing. The data analyses is then provided to farmers as recommendations via SMS or mobile app notifications and they recommend a farmer to trigger an action. The platform is also equipped with unique features like Irritokens which are tokens farmers earn with every purchase they make via the platform and they can always redeem that on their next purchase or on agro-dealer shops we work with or even refer a friend using that token.

Full time - 15 employees

Part time - 4 employees

5 years

At Irri-Hub Ke, we are dedicated to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusivity throughout our organization. We understand that diverse perspectives are essential for addressing complex issues, and we actively embrace a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and ideas. Our governance reflects this commitment: our board consists of five members, including three women and two men, maintaining a balanced representation of gender equity. Similarly, our management team equally comprises men and women, ensuring gender parity in our operations.

Our dynamic team includes 15 full-time professionals from various disciplines—ranging from sales and marketing executives to designers, communication experts, field technicians, data engineers, android developers, and backend developers. Notably, 99% of our team members are residents of Kenya, where our solutions are implemented, and are people of color, underscoring our commitment to local engagement and representation.

We are continuously striving to enhance gender balance within our team and to guarantee that our solutions are accessible and advantageous to all farmers, irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, or economic background. Our development process is grounded in human-centered design principles, which involve interactive participation with diverse stakeholders to ensure that their distinct needs and viewpoints shape our initiatives. By collaborating closely with local partners and community members, we ensure our solutions are meticulously adapted to meet specific local needs and overcome relevant challenges.

At Irri-Hub Ke, we provide the following products:

Solar powered Drip Irrigation kits that generate 60% of our revenue.
Rain water harvesting systems that generate 30% of our revenue.
IoT devices that generate 10% of our revenue through a subscription model.

These are the services we provide:
Installation service for all our products which generate 10% of our revenue
Agronomy Training services to our farmers which generate 8% of our revenue

Our business model is based on two main business models: B2C and B2B. In the B2C model, we directly sell our products and services to farmers, who will pay for the use of our solutions. The B2B model involves partnerships where organizations like NGOs and farmer co-operative groups that purchase our products on behalf of the small holder farmers they serve. B2C contributes 60% of total revenues while B2B contributes 40% of our total revenues.

Our solution provides smallholder farmers with a complete end-to-end solution that helps them solve their need to increase their yields, reduce their input costs, and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Our strategy for achieving financial sustainability employs a multifaceted approach, encompassing direct sales of our products and services as well as securing grants and donations from philanthropic organizations, impact investors, and government bodies. Our primary revenue will be generated through our diverse range of products and services. Additionally, we aim to attract funding from organizations and investors who are committed to empowering smallholder farmers and advancing climate-smart agricultural practices.

We are also pursuing government contracts and partnerships that could offer steady revenue streams, further bolstering our financial foundation. As part of our expansion strategy, we have already secured commitments from two investors. This infusion of capital will support the acquisition of inventory, the hiring of new team members, and our expansion into new markets.
Moreover, we are constantly innovating our product offerings to complement our existing solutions and enhance our market presence. In collaboration with other agricultural organizations, we have developed bundled products tailored specifically for farmers. For example, our recent "Onion Value Pack," created in partnership with Onion Doctor Limited, provides onion farmers with a comprehensive solution that includes seedlings, a solar irrigation package, and agronomic support, all accessible through our mobile application.

Looking forward, we plan to establish more partnerships like these, which have already demonstrated promising early results, to continue driving our growth and expanding our impact.

Our plan to achieve financial sustainability has been successful so far, as we have received grants worth over $350,000 from organizations such as Global center of Adaptation, African Development Bank and Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). These grants have enabled us to implement projects such as the smart drip irrigation systems, acquired enough inventory and hired new staff members enabling us gain traction in the market. In addition to grants, we have received support from investors such as Opes Fund, Offgrid finance and Kenya Climate Innovation Center who have provided us with access to valuable networks, mentorship, and resources that have helped us to grow our business. Since inception, our revenues have reached $785,980, which has helped us to continue investing in our solutions, improving our technology, and expanding our reach to more smallholder farmers in Kenya and the neighboring region.