Pay-As-You-Go smart assets increase farmers’ climate resilience

Monday 1 November, 2021

Pay-As-You-Go smart assets increase farmers’ climate resilience

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Jan Priebe
Senior Insights Manager, AgriTech

Innovation

SunCulture Pay-As-You-Go solar irrigation systems

Partners

SunCulture, Energy Access Ventures, Microsoft, REEEP, MIT, PG Impact, GSMA, EDF, Shell Foundation, SNV, USAID, EEP Africa, Mercy Corps, DPI, Acumen Capital Partners, Self Help Africa

Smallholder farmers are gaining access to agricultural assets previously out of reach through Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) models. PAYG leverages mobile money payments and remote-locking technologies to viably provide assets such as farm equipment, energy grids and irrigation systems to farmers.

Kenyan agritech SunCulture specialises in solar power irrigation systems for farmers. Farmers can acquire the irrigation pumps on credit using PAYG model, and repayments can be made over 36 months. Additionally, SunCulture uses farm and farmer data collected at the application stage, together with data on pump efficiency and solar battery storage collected via remote sensors, to provide farmers with advice on how to use irrigation systems more efficiently.

SunCulture’s approach demonstrates how digital agriculture can increase the productivity and climate resilience of smallholder farmers, in this case by enabling them to better adapt to unpredictable rainfall patterns.

Impact

SunCulture irrigation systems are marketed directly to customers through phone sales and a network of agents in Kenya. Founded in 2013, SunCulture has successfully raised over $27m to expand its operations across Sub-Saharan Africa.

This “Innovation Story” was produced for the #ClimateShot – the agricultural innovation race to save our planet.
Recognizing the urgent need for an innovation-driven transformation of global food systems to overcome the climate challenges they currently face, GSMA AgriTech fully supports CCAFS’ Global Action Agenda for Agricultural Innovation as it addresses those actions critical to achieving this goal.