Hifadhi

Agriculture contributes approximately 22–34% of Kenya's GDP and supports millions of smallholder farmers, yet it remains highly vulnerable to climate uncertainty. Unpredictable weather patterns, changing growing conditions, and climate-driven pest outbreaks continue to reduce productivity and increase risk across the agricultural sector. These climate-related disruptions have made agricultural lending increasingly risky for SACCOs and rural financial institutions. When yields decline, farmers often struggle to repay loans, with default rates reaching 15–25% in some portfolios. As a result, many lenders limit financing, reducing farmers' access to the capital needed to invest in more resilient production. A key challenge is the lack of visibility after a loan is disbursed. Farmers must make critical decisions throughout the season such as when to plant, apply inputs, or respond to emerging threats while lenders and extension officers often have no way of identifying problems until harvest season, when it is too late to intervene. The result is a cycle where climate uncertainty reduces farm productivity, increases loan defaults, and restricts access to agricultural finance, ultimately limiting the sector's ability to build resilience and adapt to a changing climate.

Hifadhi bridges the gap between climate uncertainty, agricultural production, and access to finance. The platform supports farmers throughout the growing season by providing timely, localized guidance on critical decisions such as planting, fertilizer application, pest management, and other farm activities. Using AI, satellite imagery, weather data, historical production records, and crowdsourced observations from nearby farming communities, AgriForesight monitors changing conditions and delivers simple recommendations through SMS, USSD, or WhatsApp. Satellite imagery helps track farm activity, crop development, and emerging production risks, while climate and farmer-reported data enable earlier identification of challenges that may affect yields. At the same time, the platform gives SACCOs, lenders, and extension officers greater visibility into what is happening on farms after financing has been issued. Rather than discovering problems at harvest, stakeholders can identify climate and production risks earlier and provide support when it can still improve outcomes. This creates a more manageable lending environment, strengthens confidence in agricultural finance, and enables more farmers to access credit. As farmers continue using the platform, each season contributes to a digital farm history containing records of farming activities, climate conditions, input usage, yields, and financial outcomes. Over time, this creates a trusted agricultural profile that demonstrates a farm's productivity and resilience across multiple seasons. This historical record can support better lending decisions, improve access to crop insurance, strengthen trust between farmers and financial institutions, and provide evidence of land productivity for future leasing, valuation, investment, or property transactions. To strengthen accountability, SACCOs may also issue digital input vouchers redeemable through approved agro-dealers for seeds, fertilizer, and other farm inputs. By improving farm decision-making, increasing visibility across the agricultural value chain, and building trusted farm records over time, Hifadhi helps farmers become more climate resilient while enabling safer, more inclusive, and sustainable agricultural financing.