Safaricom has partnered with agritech startup iprocure in a move to improve farming at Makueni County.

The initiative will ensure that about 150,000 farmers in Makueni County can access information on best farming practices, discounted inputs and credit services through their phones.

Thanks to education from DigiFarm, about 120,000 farmers in Makueni can now access the service.

According to DigiFarm, it will open three depots in Wote, Kalawani and Mbumbuni to help improve the service quality.

In a similar fate, Mbumbuni will be officially opened today to help farmers access quality, discounted inputs.

Makueni farmers will benefit from the all-round availability of inputs at the depots, especially during peak season.

It will have access to advisory and technical information from experts stationed at each of the depots.

There is a call also to people who may have shops or already running agrovets and would wish to partner to bring services closer to the farmer to come forth and register their interest.

DigiFarm is an agribusiness solution tailored for small-holder farmers.

It provides them with best farming practices on different crops and livestock, access to credit, and quality, discounted inputs.

This service is delivered through a mobile phone where farmers can enrol and access it by dialling *283#.

Through DigiFarm, farmers can now apply for an input loan where they receive a code on their phones which they redeem at a DigiFarm depot.

For loan processing, the service relies on a big data model to score farmers for financing, based on historical data on their MPESA.

The more a farmer applies and repays a loan the limit increases.

Digifarm now serves more than 700,000 farmers and has opened 18 depots across the country.

By:StephanieHorsu/techvoiceafrica.com