Seed Up Africa

Seed Up Africa is a social enterprise based in Kenya, equipping millions of farmers with mobile financial tools to access climate change-resilient agricultural inputs.

Seed Up Africa (Seed Up) is an agriculture fintech company that makes hybrid seeds and climate change-resilient inputs accessible to smallholder farmers in Kenya who otherwise could not afford them. Seed Up engages farmers through a mobile savings platform that allows the gradual deposit of small amounts of money into a mobile wallet. At the start of the growing season, Seed Up notifies farmers to redeem the funds they have saved for inputs at an outlet close to them, by using farmers’ GPS location data and SMS technology. Seed Up operates through Kenya’s widely used mobile money platform, M-PESA.

Seed Up eliminates farmers’ transportation costs of acquiring seeds from distant markets, by distributing inputs at the village level. It employs trusted community members to distribute scratch cards, through which farmers receive USSD codes to join the mobile savings platform. Once registered, Seed Up sends farmers reminder SMS and calls to top up in their savings for the upcoming growing season. Seed Up leverages blockchain technology to fix input prices, ensuring that the price of seeds promised to farmers upon registration, does not change. Such technology fosters trust, and protects farmers from input price fluctuation.

Seventy five percent of Kenyans live in rural areas and rely on farming as their primary source of income. These smallholder farmers meet an estimated three quarters of Kenya’s food demand. However, they are some of the most food-insecure people within the country. As climate change intensifies, these farmers experience significant crop loss, leading to acute food crises. Kenyan farmers are 20% less productive than smallholder farmers globally, and less productive than farmers in neighboring Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania; lack of hybrid seeds is a primary reason.

Hybrid seeds are drought, pest, and disease-resistant, and yield more nutritious varieties compared to their traditional counterparts. Improved seed varieties are estimated to increase farmers’ productivity by over 40%. The Access to Seeds Index 2019 report contends that reaching smallholder farmers with improved seeds is critical to tackling malnourishment as global hunger rises. 

In Kenya, less than 10% of smallholder farmers have access to hybrid seeds because such seeds cost nearly $7.5 per season, a burdensome cost for farmers earning an average of $1.5 per day. Consequently, farmers opt for less-productive, low-quality varieties. Farmers also incur high transportation costs of acquiring seeds at distant markets. Furthermore, many farmers are suspicious of new hybrid seeds, because of illicit trading, whereby people sell counterfeit seeds at extortionist prices. As climate change causes increased crop failure and poverty, use of hybrid seed varieties will take on greater significance for enhancing farmers’ productivity and shielding them from food insecurity.

Seed Up Africa addresses the needs of millions of Kenyan smallholder farmers that cannot afford more expensive, yet more productive hybrid seed varieties and climate change-resilient inputs.

Seed Up lowers the seasonal cost of hybrid seeds for farmers from $7.5 to $5.5, by fixing seed prices with blockchain, distributing seeds locally, and encouraging long-term saving. Our mobile savings platform nudges farmers to save gradually, so that they can purchase up to four times the amount of seeds they can normally afford. 

Seed Up therefore allows farmers to grow higher and more productive hybrid crop volumes, leading to increased economic well-being and reduced hunger and malnutrition among farmers. Furthermore, with increased income from successful harvests, and optimal savings behavior, farmers can purchase even more productive agricultural inputs like fertilizer and pesticide at Seed Up village outlets.

Organizations currently offering seeds at the village level are lending institutions, which leave many farmers indebted in poverty loops after failed harvests. Seed Up seeks to eliminate these poverty traps by guiding farmers through optimal input saving over time, so they can afford all their inputs at the beginning of the season. We envision a Kenya where farmers can purchase all necessary climate change-resilient inputs at the start of the season and keep everything they harvest. 

Seed Up promises to alleviate poverty among Kenyan smallholder farmers, leading to several positive long term impacts such as: improved health, higher educational attainment, reduced displacement, and reduced violence.

For the past three years, I have researched barriers to uptake of climate change-resilient inputs and technologies among smallholder farmers in Kenya. In 2019, I conducted a pilot study of barriers to uptake of weather index crop insurance (WII) among smallholder farmers in the Mount Kenya region. For the past nine months, I have worked in Kenya as a U.S. Fulbright Researcher, studying barriers to adoption of WII.

In August 2021, I implemented a survey of 500 smallholder farmers, discussing their greatest concerns related to climate change and their use of climate change-resilient inputs. Throughout my fieldwork, I learned a lot about the “last mile problem” in delivering agricultural inputs at the village level. Several farmers asked if I could help bring seeds to the village level, citing high transportation costs to distant markets as barriers to seed acquisition.

Throughout my research, I have collaborated with the Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise (ACRE Africa) — East Africa’s largest service provider of weather index insurance. During this collaboration, I have gained insights into how to successfully market agricultural technologies among smallholder farmers, and how to launch a successful social enterprise.

Motivated by what I learned from farmers, I teamed up with Patrick Sampao of ACRE to develop and test the Seed Up Africa mobile wallet. With just a few SMS texts and zero face-to-face contact or explanation of the product, we already have hundreds of farmers saving with Seed Up, providing proof of concept.

Seed Up Africa is in the prototype stage of development. As of now, Seed Up is developing its mobile wallet and preparing to pilot the mobile wallet and input distribution in various communities across Bungoma, Machakos, and Makueni counties. Seed Up is in the prototype phase because we are testing the concept of the mobile wallet among farmers within various communities. Seed Up has sent 200 farmers SMS texts to register for the Seed Up mobile wallet. Remarkably, with only a registration SMS, and no face-to-face contact or in-depth explanation of the product, over 100 farmers have registered with the mobile wallet. These farmers are gradually depositing small amounts of money every few days, providing proof of concept.

Now that we have strong evidence that the mobile wallet is practical and appealing for farmers, we are preparing to pilot the official product among 2,000 farmers in the next year. In the piloting phase, we aim to onboard community members as agents to distribute Seed Up scratch cards within their communities, and teach community members about the product. We also aim to formally establish several agro-shops at the village level, where farmers can redeem their Seed Up inputs.

Seed Up Africa leverages USSD codes, GPS technology, SMS texts, and blockchain.

Months leading up to the growing season, Seed Up agents distribute scratch cards to farmers in their communities. Farmers then retrieve a USSD code (*800*615151#) from the card. Farmers enter the USSD on their phones, which on-boards them into the Seed Up Africa mobile money wallet and gives them the option to deposit mobile money.

The USSD is GPS-linked, which automatically matches farmers with nearby Seed Up-affiliate agro-shops. At these agro-shops, farmers can redeem the inputs for which they have saved. For about 40 days, farmers receive IVR calls and SMS reminders to make top ups in their input savings. Recognizing that trust is a significant barrier to new adoption, farmers can check their balance anytime from their mobile phone at no cost, and withdraw their deposits at any time.

Two weeks before the start of the season, farmers receive a unique code via SMS with instructions on how to redeem their inputs at the agro-shops.

Farmers present their unique code at the agro-shop, and the shop attendant validates the code for the specific inputs and quantities for which the farmers have saved. Upon validation, money moves from the Seed Up mobile money wallet into the agro-shop’s mobile money account. An instant notification SMS confirms that the redemption is successful. 

Seed Up uses blockchain technology to fix input prices, cushioning farmers from price fluctuations.

Because Seed Up Africa is in the prototype phase of development, our product does not officially serve anyone yet. However, nearly 200 farmers are already engaging with the Seed Up Africa mobile wallet, providing proof of concept. We are enthusiastic to officially pilot Seed Up Africa in 2022.

In 2022, we aim to serve at least 2000 farmers across a few villages. We will on-board them into the Seed Up Africa mobile wallet, encouraging them to gradually save up for inputs before the start of the growing season. We will then deliver the inputs for which they have saved at their local agro-shops. These farmers will start engaging in optimal savings behavior, allowing them to purchase more seeds than previous seasons, and avoid taking out loans for inputs. Furthermore, they will receive hybrid seeds, which yield more productive climate change-resilient crops. 

Seed Up Africa is excited to pilot among a few hundred farmers during 2022, and help them achieve higher yields and earnings. We will then evaluate the impact of our pilot, make revisions to product design and service delivery, and scale for the next several years.

Over the next year, we aim to pilot Seed Up Africa’s mobile wallet among 2000 smallholder farmers in Kenya. As such, we will guide these farmers through optimal savings behavior, and provide them with improved hybrid seed varieties. With more productive seed varieties and the ability to grow higher volumes of crops, the following are Seed Up’s broad impact goals for 2022: 

1. Decrease hunger among smallholder farmers in Kenya — Seed Up’s savings scheme enables farmers to purchase and grow higher volumes of crops. Hybrid seeds help farmers achieve more productive yields. Overall, Seed Up will allow farmers to have more successful harvests, and grow more crops for subsistence, thereby reducing hunger.

2. Increase good health and well-being among smallholder farmers — With more successful harvests, farmers will experience reduced hunger and reduced malnutrition, leading to positive health outcomes.

3. Reduce poverty among smallholder farmers — With improved harvests from hybrid seed use, farmers will have more crops to sell, increasing household income. 

4. Increase smallholder farmers’ resilience to climate change — Seed Up will deliver climate change-resilient hybrid seeds to thousands of farmers, which are over 40% more productive than traditional varieties.

5. Increase economic growth and opportunity among smallholder farmers — With improved harvests, farmers will have more crops to sell at the market, and garner higher earnings. Furthermore, with stable agricultural harvests, farmers can invest more time engaging in other economic activities that increase their capital.

Seed Up Africa will measure progress towards its impact goals by examining a few key indicators. First, we will examine hybrid seed uptake among Seed Up farmers. We can go into the Seed Up system and analyze the amount of seeds, on average, that farmers have purchased. Through this analysis, we can estimate if farmers are purchasing more seeds than they typically would (absent Seed Up services), and safely conclude that farmers are growing higher volumes of productive crop varieties.

We will also examine savings behavior among Seed Up farmers to analyze average saving levels before the start of the season. With substantial savings rates, we can be assured that we are helping farmers maximize their resources and engage in optimal financial decision-making.

More intensively, we will engage in household surveys, where we ask Seed Up farmers about their crop yields before using Seed Up compared to crop yields after using Seed Up. For less bias, we will also survey Seed Up and non Seed Up farmers within the same communities to compare crop yields among those engaged with Seed Up and those not engaged with it. Finding higher yields among Seed Up farmers would be significant in tracking progress towards our impact goals of poverty alleviation, improved health and well-being, decreased hunger, and increased resilience to climate change.

Because Seed Up Africa is in its piloting phase, our biggest barriers are financial and time startup costs. We intend to on-board 2,000 farmers into the Seed Up mobile wallet system. To do this, we need to hire village agents and pay them a commission for distributing Seed Up scratch cards. Additionally, we will incur time costs, as we have to spend ample time recruiting and teaching community agents about Seed Up. Furthermore, we will face financial and time costs establishing Seed Up affiliates at village-level agro-shops and stocking these shops with our inputs. We also face product development costs as we continue to build and revise the mobile wallet.

Lastly, with piloting any new technology, there is a trust barrier. We have to invest significant time in developing trust between ourselves and farmers who may be skeptical of an unfamiliar technology. We aim to address this barrier by employing trusted community agents to teach those in their communities about Seed Up Africa. Additionally, we allow farmers to check their Seed Up balance and withdraw their money at any given time, in an effort to foster trust. Overall, however, fostering this trust will require significant time, transparency, and relationship-building.

Seed Up Africa founders, Laura Schwartz and Patrick Sampao, are passionate about addressing smallholder farmers’ greatest needs through technical innovation. Their complementary skills sets complement provide the necessary foundation for Seed Up’s success.

Laura is a U.S. Fulbright Researcher in Kenya, studying access to climate change-resilient inputs among smallholder farmers. For 9 months, she has surveyed hundreds of farmers from Kenya’s most arid counties to better understand the challenges they face. She learned what solutions farmers believe will best increase their resilience to climate change. Many shared that a key problem was a lack of access to climate change-resilient varieties, citing high seed prices and transportation fees as barriers to acquisition. Laura researches these issues in partnership with the Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise (ACRE Africa), East Africa’s lead weather index crop insurance service provider, and Strathmore University. Motivated by conversations with farmers on restricted seed access, Laura collaborated with Patrick to establish Seed Up Africa.

Patrick Sampao is an expert digital product specialist, with years of experience working with smallholder farmers. Native Kenyan, Patrick grew up in the Rift Valley, surrounded by smallholder farmers, and has firsthand insights into the challenges they face. Patrick has worked in mobile technology mass market products for the last 8 years and served as ACRE Africa’s digital product specialist for 5 years. He designed the innovative mobile crop insurance product, Bima Pima, which insures 50,000 smallholder farmers across Kenya, and protects them against financial ruin caused by drought and irregular rainfall.

Laura and Patrick have strong backgrounds working with farmers and seek to develop technical solutions to increase their productivity and well-being. To best serve farmers, Seed Up Africa is committed to centering their perspectives in product design.

Seed Up Africa is partnered with ACRE Africa, East Africa’s largest service provider of crop insurance. Thousands of farmers across Kenya use ACRE brand insurance products to insure their crops against weather shocks. Seed Up has partnered with ACRE to deliver climate change-resilient inputs to smallholder farmers. Seed Up has conducted a pilot in partnership with ACRE where 50 agents were trained on input savings using Seed Up’s mobile wallet.

Seed Up has partnered with Shamba Pride, an organization affiliated with over 100 agro shops. Seed Up farmers in Eastern Kenya can redeem their inputs in these affiliated agro-shops. 

To fix input prices, we have partnered with seed manufacturers SeedCo Group  and Kenya’s largest seed manufacturer, Kenya Seed. These manufacturers have agreed to reserve seed stocks at an unchangeable price for all farmers who purchase through the Seed Up Platform.

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