Kenyan Start-Up Offers Farm in a Backpack

There are more than 100 million farmers in East Africa. Many of them have the desire, and the money, to use technology to improve their crop yields. (Photo: Backpack Farm)

There are an estimated 100 million farmers in East Africa, and 27 million in Kenya alone. Many not only have the desire to be better farmers, but also the money to invest in technologies that will help them do just that. Now, a start-up called Backpack Farm wants to tap into that market, and it’s betting heavily on mobile technologies. The World’s Clark Boyd writes about this in his latest column for the BBC Future website. Here’s a taste:

“We’ve been called ‘the McDonald’s of farming’,” Rachel Zedeck says with a laugh. The former development worker is the founder of a start-up called Backpack Farm, which aims to help farmers in East Africa grow more crops, more food and ultimately earn money.

“The reality is that Africa is the breadbasket of the world, and in eastern and sub-Saharan Africa, the way to impact the vast majority of human beings is through farming,” she says.

It is a simple idea. The company sells smallholder farmers a backpack stuffed full of seeds, irrigation, “green” chemicals and tools along with training manuals and advise on how to farm efficiently. It can cost up to $2,000, but at that price also includes a drip irrigation kit and water tank. Backpack Farm says that while the cost might seem high, it’s one seventh of what those materials would cost commercially. And it claims that the pack, used properly, can double or triple crop yields.

The McDonalds moniker comes in because the company offers franchises, meaning Backpack Farm sales and training centres have sprouted in various cities and towns throughout Kenya hoping to tap into the estimated 100 million farmers in East Africa, and 27 million in Kenya alone.”My goal is to impact the lives of a million farmers by 2017,” says Zedeck. Read more>>