Research highlights opportunities for digitising agriculture in Kenya

Strathmore University released research titled Mapping Policies and Structures for Kenya’s Preparedness for Digital Agriculture which aims at espousing the development of a regulatory and policy environment that can enable the development of smart farming in Kenya and Africa at large. The study, which was commissioned by Microsoft, argues that Kenya’s agricultural output could be boosted by leveraging digital technologies to support smallholder farmers to improve productivity and enhance access to supply chains and value addition. ‘The paper addresses two regulatory and policy-based questions. First is ‘what are the critical regulatory and policy frameworks that can drive digitisation and agricultural transformation in Kenya?’ The second is ‘what are the best policies that can enable Big Data and AI to drive agricultural transformation as envisioned by the government, thus enabling Kenya to utilise its limited agricultural resources more efficiently, become food-secure and build prosperous agribusiness sectors?,’ noted Microsoft Kenya Country Manager Kendi Nderitu.