On 28 August, the Strathmore Agri-Food Innovation Center (SAFIC), together with Baobab Impact, convened close to 30 organisations from across Kenya’s agricultural ecosystem around one shared question:

The conversation highlighted an important opportunity: Kenya does not need to build everything from scratch.

Across the ecosystem, valuable agricultural content, farmer and market data, digital platforms, advisory services and technologies already exist. The opportunity is to connect what already exists, build what is missing, and make these capabilities work better together.

The proposed Kenya AI-Driven Agricultural Advisory Platform (KAiDAAP) Information Exchange is being designed around this principle, providing shared infrastructure that can connect data, content, AI capabilities and services across the ecosystem while enabling organisations to participate according to their strengths and interests. The Platform is being developed by Strathmore Agri-Food Innovation Centre (SAFIC) with the help of OpenAgriNet (OAN), whose experience spans building complex AI-driven platforms worldwide, with India and Ethiopia Agrinets as key projects.

The convening surfaced critical questions around data sharing, interoperability, trust, accountability, incentives, governance and farmer participation.

  • Who is accountable for the quality of advice?
  • How can data be shared safely and responsibly?
  • How can different systems work together?
  • What will motivate organisations to contribute?
  • And, most importantly, how do we ensure farmers remain at the centre?
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We were pleased to bring together government representatives, including KADIC and KALRO, alongside private-sector organisations, technology providers, research institutions, farmer-facing organisations and implementing partners.

The next phase is about moving from discussion to testing identifying partners ready to participate in pilots, defining the data and services they can contribute, testing the model in practice, and establishing the governance needed to support implementation and scale.

As the project is learning: Ultimately, success will not be measured by whether we create another AI platform.

It will be measured by whether collaboration helps farmers access better advice, make better decisions and improve their livelihoods.

The future of agricultural advisory in Kenya will require more than better technology. It will require better collaboration.