In 2024, Alternative’s Ulangizi AI chatbot sparked actual change for farmers in rural Malawi by delivering real-time, region-specific agricultural insights, serving to farmers enhance their yields, increase resilience, and enhance their backside traces. For smallholder farmers residing in a number of the most distant areas on the continent, the sort of device will be life-changing. In its first 12 months, hundreds of farmers used the app to enhance their harvests and construct new pathways to prosperity.
And whereas 2024 proved {that a} single spark of innovation can brighten the lives of hundreds, 2025 is the time to increase and improve that influence throughout Africa. This February, Alternative Worldwide’s Digital Innovation Group launched into a tour of the continent to increase our efforts in Malawi and launch two new pilots for FarmerAI, the latest version of Ulangizi. In partnership with a number of the most influential establishments of their markets, FarmerAI will attain extra individuals, entry extra info, and assist much more farmers throughout the continent.
FarmerAI Expands to Kenya By means of Safaricom Partnership
It began with a visit to Nairobi, the place Alternative CTO Greg Nelson signed an official settlement with Safaricom to launch FarmerAI in Kenya. As Kenya’s main telecommunications supplier, Safaricom serves tens of hundreds of thousands of customers, together with hundreds of smallholder farmers. In partnership with Safaricom’s DigiFarm product—which already helps farmers nationwide Alternative Worldwide launched FarmerAI’s first pilot in Kenya, offering AI-powered agricultural steerage to potato farmers.
“We reside in an thrilling time of speedy development because of synthetic intelligence and machine studying, and guaranteeing that this expertise helps essentially the most weak amongst us is our precedence,” mentioned Chief Expertise Officer Greg Nelson. “However understanding our end-users is essentially the most important a part of the puzzle. Because of Safaricom and DigiFarm, we’ve authoritative knowledge that may assist us perceive the perfect practices for Kenyan farmers—and higher perceive the farmers themselves.”
Scaling FarmerAI in Ghana with Growth Financial institution Ghana
That very same week, the staff joined Growth Financial institution Ghana (DBG) for the same partnership launch in Accra. Within the first section of the Ghana pilot, 100 agricultural extension officers will use FarmerAI’s AI-driven chatbot to provideregion-specific farming steerage, serving to a whole bunch of rice farmers enhance ields and stop plant illnesses. The collaboration additionally entails GIRSAL, an agricultural establishment developed by the Malawian Ministry of Finance, which is able to present authoritative knowledge so FarmerAI Ghana can ship hyper-specific steerage to farmers within the area.
“It’s significantly thrilling to see our work increasing to Kenya and Ghana, which is my residence nation,” mentioned Dr. William Derban, Alternative’s Head of Packages and Partnerships with the Digital Innovation Group. “It’s necessary to notice that these two nations are high-growth international locations on the continent however nonetheless rely closely on their agricultural sectors. By placing FarmerAI into the arms of smallholder farmers in these international locations, we’re each combatting poverty and strengthening economies for years to return.”
The Way forward for AI in Farming
Collectively, these two new pilots will increase entry to invaluable information for a number of the most underserved communities on earth. Too usually, rural smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income nations face main limitations to the knowledge that might assist them construct extra adaptable and worthwhile farms. If farmers have questions on crops or livestock, they usually should journey lengthy distances hoping to search out an agricultural knowledgeable at a authorities workplace—after which hope that individual has the solutions. By means of these cross-sector partnerships, Alternative Worldwide’s FarmerAI reduces that search time to mere moments.
After preliminary testing in these pilot phases, additional technological and social improvements might be designed to make these functions much more accessible. In Malawi, the place Alternative’s first AI chatbot launched, staff members Wealthy Moe and Ama Akuamoah traveled to Lilongwe to start the following chapter of Ulangizi.
The staff hopes to quadruple the variety of Farmer Help Brokers, neighborhood farmers who’re skilled by Alternative to cascade their information to their fellow farmers, utilizing the chatbot by the tip of 2025.
“Smallholder farmers are a lifeline to meals safety globally,” mentioned Ama Akuamoah, DIG Director of Market Engagement. “In locations like Malawi, we work instantly with smallholders as a result of they know what’s finest for his or her enterprise. These individuals develop most of their nation’s meals, like their counterparts throughout Africa, and maintain the enter that may assist us strengthen whole meals programs.”
Alternative Worldwide’s AI-driven farming options are reworking smallholder agriculture, offering a scalable, human-centered AI mannequin that empowers essentially the most weak farmers. Because of the braveness of native establishments like Safaricom and DBG, that spark is catching hearth. We sit up for the 12 months forward and to watching these new applied sciences unfold into the arms of hundreds extra—strengthening not solely farmers, however their households, their communities, and their economies.
