We provide greater visibility of the food movement. Our top notch systems improve food safety control by
allowing customers to verify that products meet market and/or regulatory requirements and to respond swiftly
in the event of food safety breaches.
End to end supply chain traceability; Reporting feature that ensures that the product is linked to real
data illustrating how it was treated throughout the growing season and through the supply chain.
Non replicable QR and barcode stickers that are digitally linked to a farmer’s field.
Aggregation applications at the produce aggregation centres; we Record the quality of crops during harvesting.
Determine quality attributes that are specific to the crop and assign respective grade levels
Pack house services; Quality assessment, weighing, sorting, packaging and labelling
T
here are over 8,000,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya, 40,000,000 in East Africa and nearly one billion
around the world. Many of these farmers are unable to access fair prices on the global market.
Although smallholder farmers often are the low-cost producers of a given crop, agricultural buyers prefer
to trade with one seller rather than many individuals. As the world gets hotter and rainfall more erratic,
the type and availability of ingredients for daily meals are changing. A growing population, climate-related
shocks, rural-urban migration, land subdivision and a youthful population which is less interested in
agriculture threaten both Kenya’s agricultural productivity, and food security.
S
mallholder farmers in Kenya
are thus under pressure to delicately balance between maximising productions to meet the ever growing food
demand and producing quality. On the other hand consumers are becoming more specific on what they choose
to eat given the rise to lifestyle diseases. Traceability is key to striking a balance between quality and
maximum yield. Farmers need to understand quality requirements and market standards before they produce.
This reduces contamination, disease, and spoilage in the food supply by identifying hazards before affected
products make it to end consumer markets.
I
have witnessed thousands of farmers in Kenya being unable to sustain their livelihoods despite producing season after season.
They are less motivated to produce due to lack of market or rejection of produce at the market leading to food wastage.
Market accessibility has a higher multiplier effect on production, food distribution, safety and nutrition.The market for safe and
traceable food usually excludes smallholder farmers who lack the resources to comply with increasingly strict standards, particularly
requirements for tracking and monitoring environmental and supply chain variables through sophisticated technologies.
M
y vision is to enable smallholder farmers to trade with such offtakers. With Cropsoko, farmers can now invest in their farms and
focus on production to maximise yields. We are bringing safe and high quality produce to our customers while striking a balance between
food security and environmental conservation. Beyond distributing food and ensuring our country is food secure, supporting smallholder
farmers specifically means partnering with our efforts to create lasting change in smallholder farming.
