As droughts and extreme weather events in the East African nation increase in frequency and intensity, Maryanne Gichanga believes innovation is vital to helping Kenya’s farming community build resilience.
Kenyan farmers are using new data tools to improve their productivity.
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Speaking to the United Nations ahead of International Clean Energy Day, celebrated annually on January 26, he explains how in a “male-dominated field” he has managed to provide farmers with information on soil and crop health, as well as weather patterns, through the use of solar-powered sensors and satellite data powered by artificial intelligence.
From farmers to helping farmers
“I grew up in an agricultural environment. My parents are farmers. I witnessed many harvests, but when climate change started, we couldn’t understand what was happening. Since our source of income was farming, when the harvest was bad, it directly affected our quality of life and meant we couldn’t go to school.
I always wanted to offer solutions to my parents and other people from farming families. That’s what inspired me to start my company and get like-minded people to create this solution to support small farmers.
Greenovations Africa, a UN-supported initiative that supports women entrepreneurs like me, was a very important part of the process, because they believed in small businesses and offered them training and seed capital to help them grow.
Giving up is not an option
In Africa, communities are quite patriarchal. So trying to break into this male-dominated field is one thing. It’s difficult. It has its own challenges, because people prefer to work with a man. They feel that men understand what you do better than you do. In many places they do not believe in female leadership; Not even women would agree to offer solutions.
What really helped me on this journey was perseverance and having training and demonstrations to prove what we do and that we know what we are doing. You can’t give up. Collaborate with the people you know and eventually everything will work out.
It’s also important not to lose sight of why you started; knowing that my parents are no longer fighting and thinking about the millions of children whose parents are farmers, and the future of those children who would be in danger if their parents did not have a stable income.
Sometimes you look at how far you’ve come and think that giving up is not an option. Many people depend on you. That’s what keeps me focused.
the reward
My highest point is when I see lives directly changed.
When you empower farmers, their lives change.
When you see a direct increase in crop yields or when people are no longer struggling, it makes you want to work even harder.
When you see that the farmer, who didn’t even have money to buy seeds, is in control of the prices at which he sells his crop, that is very encouraging to me.
The call to others
To other women and girls who want to innovate in agriculture or climate action, I would just say go for it.
You will learn along the way and there will be many people who will support you financially or offer technical support, advice and training. There is no right time to start and you will never be sufficiently prepared; you just have to do it…don’t be scared!