Digital Farmer Services in Kenya: The Farmer Perspective

Approximately 500 million small farms, each under two hectares, produce a third of the world’s food supply. These farms, often in remote areas, are highly vulnerable to frequent climate shocks. Digital solutions, such as mobile technologies, offer these farmers access to vital information and markets without the need for in-person interactions.

In low- and middle-income countries, nearly 1,400 digital agriculture solutions, used by around 50 million farmers, cover 10% of smallholder farming households. Despite this growth, current metrics focus on supply-side data, like app downloads, which don’t fully capture the impact on farmers.
To address the lack of demand-side data, we partnered with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, to develop a farmer-centric methodology. This report summarizes insights from 1,484 Kenyan farmers during the 2023-24 agricultural season.

Top Insights

1 in 5 Kenyan farmers use digital tools to access farm inputs or equipment.

These tools were mainly used for ordering, paying, and seeking recommendations for farming inputs. 59% of farmers accessed these services directly on their mobile phones, while the others either received help from a digitized agent or used both methods.

Most Kenyan farmers do not use digital solutions to sell their produce.

68% of the farmers we spoke to sold their produce, but only 8% used digital solutions to do so. The low adoption of digital market services is primarily due to their limited reach: only 12% of non-users are aware of these services, and just 10% have access to them.

Few farmers use insurance or credit for their farms, both digitally and non-digitally.

17% of farmers used some form of insurance or credit services, but just 9% accessed these services digitally, meaning they registered, purchased, or made payments via mobile phone or through digitized agents.

Farmers using digital advisory services do not use them consistently throughout the season.

Among farmers using digital services during the 2023-24 masika season, 3 in 5 use only one type of digital solution, and different farmers access these services at various points in the season. For information and advisory services, 46% accessed them at least once in the season, but no more than 31% did so in any single survey round.