We have launched a social commerce platform to empower micro-entrepreneurs to participate in the growing digital food economy in Africa and deepen e-commerce penetration in underserved communities while enabling more direct route to market for producers. With a growing network of agents/resellers (mainly women and the youth) we are building a low cost distribution system that delivers fresh produce and essentials goods to underserved urban and peri-urban communities.

We are pleased to announce that Ifarm360 is this year's WINNER of the International INNOVATION AWARD for SUSTAINABLE FOOD systems. A global award by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the Federal Government of Switzerland.

Ifarm360 is awarded for leveraging technology to enable investors to crowdfund smallholder farmers in Kenya. In addition to access to finance, Ifarm360 offers smallholder farmers crop advisory and supervision, as well as farm inputs and equipment such as solar irrigation kits.

Ifarm360 further guarantees market access through a network of aggregation hubs-physical structures located within farming communities that enable bulking-up of produce to meet the demand of large off-takers.

Ifarm360 connects smallholder farmers, crowd Investors, and offtakes, creating a win-win business model. This award was awarded to Ifarm360 on 1st October.

Milka Owour, CEO of Ifarm360 was virtually present and this is what she had to say.

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We dedicate this award to you, our hardworking smallholder farmers, our crowd investors and partners.

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Have a look at official statement from FAO here

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You are the REAL heroes of this award!

“For the longest time, here in Molo, we planted potatoes but getting markets was a big challenge. Now with ifarm360, we can now sell more and farmers here are happy,” says Kinyanjui, one of the potato farmers we serve in Molo, Nakuru County.

Kinyanjui is part of a smallholder farmer group that primarily farms potatoes as the core economic activity. From their small farms they have been bale to take children to school, improved their homes and resiliently contributed to the economic growth of Nakuru county.

However, accessing guaranteed, timely and structured markets has been a challenge leaving them exposed to exploitative middlemen.

With a 360 approach to commercial farming, we are ensuring that farmers access quality inputs, technical know-how and markets to enable them to compete in the market, promote food security and improve their economic status.

We want to ensure that these farmers are the biggest beneficiaries of the decade-long $1 trillion food economy.
Powering food security, Together!

Nyeri, July 2, 2021 – Ifarm and the office of the Nyeri county assembly have signed a memorandum of understanding to support over 5000 smallholder farmers in the region to unlock the huge potential in onion farming.

Through the partnership, Ifarm360 will strengthen the onion value chain in the region to better serve the growing urban markets. Further, farmers will have access to structured production support and modern technologies like Solar irrigation to ensure sustained production across the year.

Hon. Clement Ndegwa, the local member of the county assembly, expressed confidence in the partnership and reiterated that Ifarm360's entry brings so much hope for farmers in the region. He assured of the county government's goodwill and support to ensure that the partnership is valuable and sustainable.

In the past few months, Ifarm360 has helped farmers unlocked a micro-economic value of over $50,000, reduced post-harvest losses while buyers now have access to quality fresh produce from Kieni.

Please watch event coverage here:

It gives us great pleasure to announce that Ifarm Agritech has been awarded by UNWTO as Global Champion for SDG 2: Zero Hunger. This award is given to startups and outstanding founders from across the globe, who are using innovation and technology to accelerate achievement of UN’s sustainable development goals.

The global startup competition’s final event was held at the Royal Theatre in Madrid, Spain on 17th May, and was graced by UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili among other dignitaries drawn from the UN and global private sector stakeholders. Present to receive the award was Derrick, our cofounder.

We want to dedicate this award to you, our investors, our partners, and all the hard-working smallholder farmers in our network.

Powering a food secure world, TOGETHER!

Small-scale farmers can now farm up to 3 cycles a year generating up to Ksh 1.4 million in household revenue with the kilimo biashara sunlight solar developed by Ennos.

As a farmer looking at sustainable water and irrigation solution for your small-scale farm, you can get started on the solar by registering on this link. Ifarm360 support will be in touch with you to advise on financing, logistics, installation and value-add.

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Register here.

Today we celebrate all workers in the Kenyan food value-chain. People who work relentlessly to put healthy, safe and sufficient food on our tables.

#Happylaborday!

Following our recent partnership with Ennos and Epicenter aimed at making the award winning swiss sunlight pump technology available, accessible and affordable for the smallholder farmers, Robert, is being supported to acquire his pump.

Robert is a farmer who has over 5 acres of arable land that is adjacent to a river but has not been able to put it to good use, because of lack of water irrigation solutions.

Thanks to our partnership with Ennos and Epicenter, Robert has access to the award winning solar pump technology, can now finance it in a structured way and through working with ifarm360 will be able to farm commercially at scale.

He says, he is now more than ever excited about his farming business of onions, vegetables and some maize for his Dairy.

A little over 5 months ago, we recruited rice farmers for cohort 3 (phase 3). We have walked with these farmers supporting them throughout production with provision of quality inputs, fertilizer, superior seed variety , agronomy support, crop insurance, mechanization (Ploughing and harvesting) and access to markets. A bundle of agri-finance solutions thanks to Rice phase 3 farm sponsors.

These farmers are now harvesting and what a bumper harvest!

One of the farmers Mr. Dalmus Oundo, harvested 20 more bags per acre, a 66% increase in production compared to previous seasons. This translates to double increase income at current market price for rice rice paddy price.

Powering Food Security, Together!

......and we are LIVE,

We are excited to launch our FIRST ever TECH-ENABLED aggregation center in our onion producing smallholder farmer region of Kieni, Nyeri County, Mt. Kenya region. Onion hub, Kieni has a holding capacity of 100 tonnes, curating facility and is 100% tech-enabled.

Onion smallholder farmers lose up to 30% of their produce in post harvest loses due to lack of modern data-driven storage, a further 20% of the crop value is lost as farmers cannot do basic level value-addition through sorting and grading.

Our goal to support over 1,000 smallholder farmers in the 1st year alone creating value of over $20 million in the next one year.

Powering Food Security, Together! 🧅 🧄

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Ifarm360 has kickstarted farmer recruitment drive for the Swiss award winning solar pump by Ennos. Through investor contributions here ifarm360 is seeking to equip over 1000 smallholder farmers with the solar pump through a structured finance model.

Ifarm360 will work closely with farmers in it's onion, watermelon and avocado value-chains, supporting them with acquisition of the pump, farming support and access to markets to empower farmers through a pay-as-you-farm model.

To apply as a farmer visit: https://ifarm360.com/farmer

In a round of rice updates, rice phase 4 farmers have finished transplanting. In these phase farmers used more advanced farm machinery for ploughing , rotavating and in future mechanized harvesting. Technologies that were previously too expensive for them.

Tuesday 2nd February, 2021 Nairobi: Ifarm360, Ennos and Epicenter Africa partner to support smallholder farmers with award winning solar technology in a bid to accelerate food security, climate action and end poverty.

Over 90% of Kenyan farmers heavily rely on rain-fed agriculture or use outdated farm irrigation methods like manual flooding and furrows. Only 4% of Africa’s arable land is under irrigation compared to 60% in Asia. Solar irrigation technology offers the greatest hope for these farmers. With a solar kit, a small-scale farmer can farm up to 3 cycles a year, increase yields by 300%+ and earn up to $14,000 (Ksh. 1,400,000) in annualized household income.

However, farmers struggle with the high cost of acquisition, lack of availability, and lack of a sustainable financing model.

Through its crowdfunding platform and farmer network, ifarm360 seeks to mobilize resources to support installation of over 1000 solar kits in the first phase of the project. Ennos, an award winning Swiss based solar technology manufacturer is working on design and technology that will ensure that the 1000 solar kits are working for the Kenyan farmers. Epicenter Africa, a renowned solar and energy solutions provider and distributor will support local farmers with access, installation and technology support for the solar kits.

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Our organization ifarm360 has been named as one of the winners of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Global Startup Competition.

Ifarm360 emerged winner in the "SDG 2: Zero Hunger"-category and the only top startup from sub-Saharan Africa.

Celebrating innovation!

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Farm investor confidence is a very important north star for us here at ifarm360.  Every day our collective effort in empowering smallholder farmers is undisputedly actuated by crowd investors who express immense confidence and faith when they fund projects.

In working with smallholder farmers, crowdfunders have an opportunity to influence and gain from the local food economy. To date we have paid back investors over $24,300+ in ROI, mobilizing $68,500+ to support our growing farmer network.

Mr. Brian Mdawida is one of them, here is what he had to say in his testimonial. Find the testimonial on this you tube link.

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From an initial harvest, a small-scale orchard of 20 trees can yield 800 Kg of avocado, earning a single household about USD 1,145 / KSH 126,000 at a (grower’s price) of KSH 70 per Kg in the 1st year alone.  This is significant increase in income for the majority of households who are primarily maize farmers. In a year, they take home a paltry of USD 500 / KSH 50,000 from subsistence maize farming in a season.

The hass avocado tree takes 3 years to mature and its fruits are harvested for about 6 months in a year. The lifetime value of an avocado tree is estimated to be, KES >6,000,000 (or USD 55,000) over 65 years.

Ifarm360 is on an ambitious project to support 1,000 smallholder farmers in Western Kenya with 20 hass avocado seedlings each, organic fertilizer and pest management, best practices, and agronomy support in a bid to advance the production of the crop, create value for investors, and improve farmer livelihoods in the long-term.

To learn more about how this project works for you as an investor and the impact for farmers visit:

https://ifarm360.com/product/avocado

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This week , our field team has been working hard with the farmers to finalize rice farm harrowing and nursery in preparation for planting.

Farmers in rice phase 3 are now applying fertilizer and the plants look healthy!

Our agronomists have predicted a bumper harvest!

We are happy to announce that the potato farm phase 4 is sold out! We want to thank project investors for the confidence in ifarm360 farm investing options.

A previous study showed that a 1% increase in agricultural per-capita GDP reduced poverty gap five times more than a 1% increase in GDP in other sectors in Kenya and across Africa. Another study demonstrated that for a 10% increase in farm yields, there was a 7% reduction in poverty in Africa.

These reports reinforce the importance of our work ifarm360, where we are keen on using technology and innovation to champion SDG 2, sub 3, by supporting smallholder farmers to increase productivity and household incomes through access to affordable agrifinance, best farm practices, and markets.

The impact begins with our crowdfunding platform www.ifarm360.com. Get started today!

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Reflecting our work on SDG 2 target 2.3

By 2030 double the agricultural productivity and the incomes of small-scale food producers, particularly women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment.

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According to International Finance Corporation, investments in sustainable irrigation for smallholder farmers will not only play a crucial role in relieving pressure on conventional agricultural systems but also empower smallholder farmers to produce more, become more efficient and venture into commercially viable farming models.

Recognizing the potential of these technologies, we are working with Sunculture and our watermelon farmers - like John from Kano, Western Kenya - to access the climate smart rainmaker solar irrigation kit.

Through structured financing and agronomy support, John was able to increase his yield by +50%, which had a direct impact on his household income and enabled him to pay school fees for his child. See his testimony here.

Africa has a food bill in excess of $35 billion, with the agribusiness sector expected to grow tremendously to reach $1 trillion by 2030.

Currently, the food bill is being met through food importation.

Smallholder farmers alone produce 80% of the food consumed in Africa at less than 30% production output. To sustain the rising food demand in Africa, smallholder farmers will have to increase their production capacity by over 50% mid-term and achieve higher scale over the next 10 years.

But to achieve this, smallholder farmers need up to $450 billion in agri-financing to access quality inputs, mechanization, irrigation, technical support and open up markets for their produce.

At ifarm360, we are on a core mission to meet the food bill demand by creating a thriving local food economy through sourcing agri-finance from impact investors and matching it up with smallholder farmers.

In just one week, we were able to sell out the onion phase 2 project! We will be able to support smallholder farmers in Kieni, Mount Kenya region, with quality seeds, farm best practices and access to markets through our aggregation center.

What a delightful soaring investor confidence, by both investors that rolled-over investments to this new project as well as new local investments - thanky you for your support and continued confidence in ifarm360. Together we will match up the 50% deficit in the local onion market!

Two of our watermelon farmers, Sabastian and Mwovi from Kitui county, had a bumper harvest of 10+ tones. Ifarm360 was able to support them throughout the farming cycles with best practices, sorting, and access to market. The fruits were of excellent condition & quality!

The harvest was delivered to Twiga foods, one of the largest fresh produce off-takers in Kenya, a proud partner to ifarm360.

Through the resources we had thanks to your investments we were able to provide watermelon farmers with quality seeds, fertilizer, and technical know-how to ensure that they have better yields.

The watermelons have been successfully planted, grown, harvested and sold. We are currently paying out all our crowd investors their principle plus the expected 15% return. We are delighted that a good number of you are choosing to reinvest.

The highlight of the project was partnering with Sunculture to provide farmers with solar powered irrigation kits.

The new year is here and we have good news for you.

Thanks to our collective efforts to empower farmers and transform food value chains in Kenya, ifarm360 has been recognized by UNWTO as one of the best innovations tackling SDG 2 Zero Hunger across the world.

Find the full story here.

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We wish you a prosperous and happy new year!

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As the new year begins we wish you success in your work even as you support our work with farmers in Kenya.

The entire ifarm360 family wishes you happiness, good health and prosperity throughout the holiday season and the new year. Happy holidays.

Rice farmers in the Ahero irrigation scheme have for the past seasons used manual harvesting techniques that are inefficient and often lead to over 30% post-harvest loss of rice paddy.

This is changing thanks to ifarm360.

Over 20 smallholder farmers in the rice phase 2, were treated to a pleasant surprise when we introduced mechanized harvesting for their ongoing harvesting activities.

This is what our collective efforts are achieving.

You can check out the video here.

Powering food security, together!

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A couple of weeks ago, ifarm360 was featured in the Business Daily. Our story of financial innovation, supporting smallholder farmers to produce more, feed healthy communities and fuel a sustainable local food economy covered aptly. BD is the most read local print paper for Business, investment, financial and technology news. We have uploaded a scan of it for you to review.

Our new open projects:
Potato farms (phase 2): 5,000 KES per unit, 10% ROI, 6 months
Rice farms (phase 4): 10,000 KES per unit, 10% ROI, 6 months
Red onions (phase 1): 20,000 KES per unit, 10% ROI, 6 months

These are the new, exciting farm investment opportunities in Kenya. You get to support the farmers, follow the production progress, contribute to food production and earn your returns. Join us!

Our community of local and global investors asked for this project and we listened: red bulb onions!

Red bulb onion project is a very attractive commercial investment opportunity for you, since local production is not enough, yet demand is consistently high.

To get it right, ifarm360 has partnered with crop experts to support farmers with proper inputs, best practices and secured off-taking contracts with a large onion buyer!

Red onions are LIVE and open for funding! Get your units, this project is already selling out fast!

In just a few weeks, our local and global investors have helped us fund 50 units of Potato Farms for our smallholder farmers in Kenya. We are thrilled and looking forward to the success of this project.

Given the fundraising success and the ongoing demand for the potato commodity by our large buyers, we have opened fundraising for Phase 2 of Potato Farms to generate larger quantities of this produce and support more farmers.

Join us today!

To the sung heroes who fought for our freedom, to the unsung heroes who keep food flowing from farm to table, and to all Kenyans we celebrate you on this special day.

Happy Mashujaa day!

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Ifarm360 as part of the Most Inspiring Digital Innovations of 2020 (MIDI 2020) took part in the global Parto's Innovation Festival.

This was an opportunity for @ifarm360 to document the journey, co-create and present the case, 'digital innovation for sustainable development.' Find highlights of the event here.

On a day like this, it is also more important than ever to recognize the need to celebrate and support our food heroes - our smallholder farmers in the rice, french bean, tomato, fruit tree seedling, potato, and watermelon food value chains - who keep working hard amidst challenges and making sure that food is produced at scale.

Furthermore and most importantly, on #WFD2020, we are celebrating you, our real #Foodheroes. Through your faith and investments, farmers are able to focus on what's important, farming, while we provide the much-needed agricultural finance, agronomy support and access to guaranteed markets for their produce.
 
We celebrate you!

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The sweet fruits of our collective labour are here, the second smallholder farmer in West Kano is harvesting today! Thanks to your agrifinancing, farmers in West Kano are seeing the fruits of our work in their lives and communities!

Rice farms are looking good. Chief agronomist Fred has just given us an update and based on his assessment, the plants are looking healthy!

Moses, smallholder farmer 1, West Kano Watermelon phase 1 is harvesting. We are delighted by our collective efforts on this farm.

We are delighted to announce that fruit tree seedlings phase 1 is fully funded. Ifarm360 has partnered with SICAN focus group to produce commercially viable fruit tree seedlings at scale. We are looking forward to producing over 11,000 seedlings with guaranteed markets in the next 3 months. SICAN focus group is a community based agribusiness powered by people with disability, women and the youth.

A big thank you.

It's week 3 after transplanting our rice farms in Ahero, Western Kenya, and they are settling in well. As the rice grows, so does the hopes of the local communities. Rice is important to these smallholder farming communities as a staple food and as an economic activity.

Ifarm360 is one of the top 10 agritech start-ups in Africa that will be joining the #FoodAfricaAccelerator program, a joint program by GIZ Cooperation, MakeIT In Africa, Pangea Accelerator and Strathmore University. The program will support ifarm360's mission to promote food sustainability through sustainable agriculture in Africa.

Read more about this milestone here.

We have secured a market for the 'Shangi' potatoes, which is the most preferred potato variety in Kenya with early maturity and short dormancy. Ifarm360 will work with a group of 50 women smallholder farmers to produce at scale, supply and empower. We need your support in getting much-needed capital to this group of women.

Start farming here.

In the last couple of months, The Spindle searched for those brilliant innovators that work on new digital initiatives that contribute to an inclusive and sustainable world. From 60 applicants they announced which 30 initiatives belong to the 30 Most Inspiring Digital Innovations (MIDIs) 2020. Ifarm360 was selected as one of the 30! Watch the inspiring journey here. So who else from across the world made it as a MIDI? Check it out here

Water melons farms in West Kano, Western Kenya, are now fruiting and sweetening. Thanks to your funding, smallholder farmer toil and our agronomists, the melons are almost there. And we can't stop salivating for the harvest day.

So what does this mean? Well, it's just a matter of weeks now. Get investing in new projects to keep up the good feeling of countdowns like this.

SICAN Focus group has started with the grafting process aiming at producing more than 1000 fruit tree seedlings a month. This social agribusiness focusing on empowering women and people with disability. You can grab one of the last 3 remaining units and earn while empowering them to produce more!

After a month-long seed growth in a nursery, our rice farmers are now transplanting the rice seedlings to their farms. With quality inputs provided and advisory support on demand, the farmers are focused to do their part towards the success of the farms. Stay tuned as we walk together through to the harvest!

Our partner farmers are seeing good fruition of their capsicums and looking forward to a great harvest. We thank our investors that brought in the much needed capital to procure quality inputs and advisory support to our farmers. Capsicum is a high value crop with promising returns to investors. We welcome you to partner with us to unlock this farming potential and gain returns.

Ifarm360 visited farmers in Makueni County in Eastern Kenya to understand their immediate needs and explore opportunities for partnership. Pixie oranges, avocados, watermelons, mangoes, tangerines and many other fruits do well in this region that serve as the fruit basket for the country and also serve the export market. Farmers highlighted the need for quality inputs, water, market linkages, among others. Together, we can join hands to unlock the immense potential in these value chains and enable farming as a business. Join us today!

Thanks to our global investors, we were able to fund our watermelon farm of 50 units within 3 weeks in July 2020. We are working together with farmers in Kano, near Kisumu, Kenya. Thanks to our farmers’ skills, we have already seen the first fruiting and are about 1.5 months away from the first harvest. This project is expected to generate a 15% return on investment in January 2021 – stay tuned!

Following the great success of our previous farm projects, we have launched two new sustainable projects on our platform. The first, is a rice farm project in Western Kenya where you can expect a 28% return in 12 months. The second is a fruit tree seedling farm in Rusinga Island (also in western Kenya) where you can expect a 15% return in six months.

Last week, the team was in Taita Taveta County where we engaged farmers, addressed challenges and identified new value chains. This opportunity was well met by the team as we got first-hand inspiration to consider bananas and plantains as a new value chain for Ifarm360.

Sustainable & environment-friendly farming technologies form the basis of our approach. As such, we worked with one of our smallholder farmers on our watermelon farm and transitioned his farm from diesel-powered irrigation to renewable solar power.

A few days since we planted a new rice bed at our farm in Western Kenya, seedlings have sprouted and are growing at an amazing rate. We anticipate that in a little over a week, they will be ready for transplanting to our rice farms.  We look forward to a successful rice harvest!