High tech, high yields? The Kenyan farmers deploying AI to increase productivity

AI apps are increasingly popular among small-scale farmers seeking to improve the quality and quantity of their crop

Sammy Selim strode through the dense, shiny green bushes on the slopes of his coffee farm in Sorwot village in Kericho, Kenya, accompanied by a younger farmer called Kennedy Kirui. They paused at each corner to input the farm’s coordinates into a WhatsApp conversation.

The conversation was with Virtual Agronomist, a tool that uses artificial intelligence to provide fertiliser application advice using chat prompts. The chatbot asked some further questions before producing a report saying that Selim should target a yield of 7.9 tonnes and use three types of fertiliser in specific quantities to achieve that goal.