Launching a Data Sharing Network in Kenya

12 September 2023, Kenya – Along with The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), we are proud to announce the launch of the Kenya Agriculture Data Sharing Platform (KADP), powered by FarmStack, an innovative data exchange platform designed to revolutionize the agricultural sector’s collaboration and innovation. Originally supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Ethiopia, we are excited to work with KALRO to expand it to Kenya. 

The agricultural sector faces many challenges that prevent the effective use of collected data. Private organizations do not want to share their data, local and national government agencies do not have access to comprehensive and accurate data to inform policy priorities and allocate subsidies, and farmers often do not have control or ownership over their own data.  This is where KADP comes in, as it aims to drive positive change and create prosperous farming communities in Kenya. 

As a digital public good that empowers organizations across the agricultural landscape to seamlessly share, integrate, and leverage valuable data for the greater good, KADP offers more customized services to farmers, fosters collaboration, enhances data accessibility and promotes sustainable agricultural practices. The establishment of this platform will reduce the barriers to organizations (government, private sector, and NGOs) to share data by providing the tools to do this securely with data usage controls and in line with the Kenya Data Protection Act and KALRO data sharing framework. When agricultural service providers are able to access insights from farmer data, farmers receive better services that are more tailored for the farmer organizations and farmers themselves.

Through this partnership, we aim to utilize KALRO’s estimated 4.8 million agricultural data to provide customized advisories adjusted according to weather forecasting from Tomorrow.io, KMD, and other partners. One of the ways FarmStack is already being used is by enabling better advisory services delivered by SMS by tailoring messages to farmers’ locations, crop/livestock mix, and sending them directly to their phones. As more service providers share their data, this will allow for improved financial and market services, as well as the targeting of government programs such as input subsidies that can help farmers. 

By leveraging the data-sharing features of FarmStack, our hope is that organizations can leverage data in ways that were previously not possible. We are excited about the promises of this novel approach to drive innovation, informed decision-making, and sustainable growth in the agricultural sector in Kenya.