AgroCares is an agricultural diagnostics provider with worldwide operations. Its mobile spectral scanners help customers determine soil fertility status, optimize livestock feed choices and carry out crop monitoring. It also offers products to collect, analyze and implement digital data on crucial farming variables such as soil nutrients. AgroCares is providing iSDA with the spectral devices to determine soil fertility status and generate customized fertilization advisories. The devices are being deployed in our pilot project in Kenya, along with technical training and support. AgroCares, founded in 2013, is headquartered in Wageningen, the Netherlands, and operates under the leadership of CEO Henri Hekman.

iSDA has teamed up with data analytics consultancy EnvirometriX to develop a soil-mapping system offering an unprecedented spatial resolution of 30 meters covering the entire African continent. To do so, we’ve harnessed open-access remote sensing data and machine learning, and combined this with geolocated soil analysis data created by AfSIS and others, which together can generate predictions for over 20 soil variables.

eProd Solutions provides an integrated resource planning and management system to support the smart farming services offered by iSDA. The system manages critical aspects of the supply chain, including farmer registration and farm data. It functions both online and offline ,and can be integrated with other software, such as financial accounting applications. The management platform is also used to feed information into the M&E reporting system to assist project management. It is currently used in over 20 different value chains in 11 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It is available in nine different languages, including English, French, Spanish and Kiswahili.

PES has developed a sensor that can tap into the wealth of information contained in the gases released by soil biota. Their technology was validated under an InnovateUK grant in 2018. Working as a team, iSDA, PES and ICRAF have obtained a follow-on InnovateUK grant to calibrate the technology in Kenya during 2020. Once the calibration is complete, iSDA will start designing a go-to-market strategy.

Sucastainability is a coffee company whose mission is to source coffee from Kenyan growers for milling and marketing; their annual volume is over 4,000 tons. The company is part of Sucafina, a Swiss trader sourcing coffee from all over the world, which delivers a range of support services to the 70,000 farmers in their dedicated supply chain. Sucastainability, operating at farm-gate level, has established robust connections between growers and buyers through productive interaction and a stable supply of top-quality coffee.