Project summary

The project aims to empower smallholder farmers and youth in Kisii County, Kenya through sustainable agriculture practices, waste management solutions, and market-first farming approaches. It addresses the challenges of unsustainable farming, youth unemployment, ineffective waste management, and climate change vulnerability. More on our website.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

• Enhance youth capacity for entrepreneurship in agribusiness and waste management.

• Improve agricultural productivity and income for smallholder farmers.

• Implement an integrated waste management solution.

To achieve these, we will implement the following:

• Youth Pre-accelerator Program: Training 50 youths/youth groups on entrepreneurship, sustainable agriculture, and insect rearing.

• Farmer Support Program: Providing inputs and training to 100 smallholder farmers

• Expand our Demonstration Farm: Scale our capacity to showcase sustainable agriculture and waste management practices.

• Integrated Waste Management: Implementing organic waste collection and processing

With the minimum funding indicated, we intend to develop a training curriculum for the youth and farmers, enabling us to provide this on an accessible online learning platform. However, with the full funding we seek, we will be able to fully implement this program.

How will this funding be used?

Funding will support:

• Agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilizers, PICS bags) for farmers

• Training materials and sessions for youth and farmers

• Expansion of demonstration farm

• Setup of waste collection and Black Soldier Fly production facilities

• Development of organic fertilizers and animal feeds
  

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Team:

• Lawrence Juma (CEO): Program management expert, management consultant of 5 years, and previously with Exa Innovation Studios, GiveDirectly and Educate!

• Juliah Omariba (COO): Supply chain expert in agricultural logistics, with 5 years of work with smallholder communities. Previously with the Kisii Smart Community.

• Alpha Masemba (Chief Strategy Officer): Monitoring and evaluation expert, with 5 years of experience in ML and RCT evaluations. Previously with Dalberg and the Toyota Mobility Foundation.
  

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

Potential causes of failure:

• Insufficient farmer or youth participation

• Challenges in implementing waste management systems

• Market linkage difficulties

• Climate-related crop failures

Potential outcomes of failure:

• Continued unsustainable farming practices

• Persistent youth unemployment

• Ongoing waste management challenges

• Decreased agricultural productivity and food security.

What other funding are you or your project getting?

Currently, we have applied for the LTF (unsuccessful) and USAID (pending) funding. If successful, the project aims to generate revenue through:

• Markup on agricultural inputs sold to farmers

• Sales from the demonstration farm

• Sales of products from the waste management solution

However, these are intended for long-term sustainability rather than the initial funding we need.