farmbetter: Digital AI-Driven Climate Resilience for Smallholder Farmers

farmbetter: Digital AI-Driven Climate Resilience for Smallholder Farmers

Kenya flag

Kenya

Agriculture

Implementing Organisation

farmbetter

Kenya, Kenya, Nairobi City

Private Sector

Implementing Point of Contact

Evalyne Waithira Njuguna

Head of Fundraising and Communication

Contributor of the Impact Story

Government of Maharashtra’s AI and Agritech Innovation Center, World Bank Group, Wadhwani AI

Year of implementation

2026

Problem statement

Smallholder farmers in Africa and India face increasing climate variability, pest outbreaks, soil degradation, and limited access to timely, localized advisory services. Traditional extension systems are often resource-constrained and unable to deliver real-time, personalized guidance at scale. Limited access to reliable weather, soil health, and market data further reduces farmers’ capacity to make informed decisions, contributing to yield variability and post-harvest losses. These challenges undermine income stability and climate resilience. Addressing this gap requires scalable digital advisory systems that integrate predictive analytics, localized agronomic insights, and accessible communication channels suitable for low-bandwidth and low-literacy environments.

Submission Overview

Farmbetter is a Kenya-based digital agriculture company deploying AI-powered solutions to enhance climate resilience, productivity, and income for smallholder farmers across Africa and India. The organization delivers a 3-in-1 digital platform comprising a WhatsApp chatbot for farmers, a mobile application for extension advisors, and an organization-facing dashboard. The platform integrates soil health data, weather forecasts, pest and disease intelligence, and market information to generate real-time, personalized, climate-smart agricultural recommendations. Designed for low-bandwidth and low-literacy contexts, farmbetter enables farmers to access advisory services directly via widely used communication channels. Operating across eight African countries and India, farmbetter supports over 50,000 farmers, strengthening climate adaptation, reducing post-harvest losses, and improving yields. Through projects such as AgriPath in India, the organization demonstrates cross-regional scalability and contextual adaptability.

AI Technology Used

Machine Learning

Key Outcomes

Efficiency & Productivity

Economic Value Creation

Access & Reach

Inclusion & Equity

Resilience & Risk Reduction

Resource Efficiency

Accuracy & Quality Improvement

farmbetter is revolutionizing agricultural resilience for Africa and India's most vulnerable farmers. By delivering AI-powered, real-time advisory services through accessible channels like WhatsApp, farmbetter has enabled over 50,000 smallholder farmers across eight countries to increase yields by 20–30% and reduce post-harvest losses by 15%. The platform integrates soil health data, weather forecasts, and pest intelligence to generate personalized, climate-smart recommendations tailored to low-bandwidth, low-literacy contexts. Operating at the intersection of climate adaptation and economic empowerment, farmbetter demonstrates how scalable digital solutions can bridge critical gaps in traditional extension systems, strengthen food security, and build lasting resilience against climate variability - one farmer, one decision, one harvest at a time.

Impact Metrics

Yield increase among farmers using farmbetter AI advisory platform

Baseline Value

Conventional farming practices without AI-driven decision support Percentage

Post-Implementation

20 –30% increase in crop yields

Internal Monitoring

Reduction in

Baseline Value

Standard Percentage

Post-Implementation

15 % reduction in post-harvest losses

Internal Monitoring

Farmers reached through AI-powered digital advisory platform

Baseline Value

Limited access to personalized, real-time advisory services Farmers

Post-Implementation

More than 50,000 farmers reached across 8 African countries Farmers

Internal Monitoring

Implementation Context

Scaled

Kenya and India

50,000+ smallholder farmers across 8 African countries, smallholder farmers in India under AgriPath collaboration, extension advisors, farmer-facing organizations

Key Partnerships

Replicability & Adaptation

Not specified

1. Localization required for crop types and agro-climatic conditions 2. Integration with local extension systems enhances adoption 3. Designed for low-bandwidth and low-literacy environments

Supporting Materials

* The data presented is self-reported by the respective organisations. Readers should consult the original sources for further details.