UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI VIRTUAL CITY LIMITED • • • About the Innovation Kenya’s horticulture sector faces a number of significant supply chain and marketing challenges that hurt smallholder farmers and discourage private sector efforts to invest in improvements. These include poor market linkages, information and power asymmetries, high costs, low traceability from farm to market, and cash flow challenges. Agrimanagr is a produce-purchasing innovation that provides transparency and integrity in the supply chain. The technology accurately tracks production and quality for individual farmers, ensuring that they are properly paid and rewarded for exactly what they deliver. It provides buyers with complete visibility into the supply chain, quick electronic reconciliations, and a powerful platform to efficiently provide extension services, mobile money payments, among others. Agrimanagr represents a major departure from current practice in most Kenyan agricultural where the typical set-up involves an inaccurate manual weighing scale and a buying process that provides many opportunities for errors and fraud. Innovation Champion Mr. John Waibochi is the Founder and CEO of the Virtual Group of Companies. In 2010, the company won the Nokia Growth Economy Venture Challenge - which came with a US$1,000,000 cash prize - beating competition from 54 other countries to take the prize and putting him squarely on the world map as a top tech entrepreneur. The firm has also received a US$1.5 million convertible loan from the Acumen Fund for the development of a mobile-based agricultural application to help small-scale farmers market their produce. John’s innovations have also earned him/the firm other honors such as the World Summit Award Mobile 2010; Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear; Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund; Legatum Africa Award for Entrepreneurship; and the Dale Carnegie Highest Award for Achievement. An Electrical Engineer State University, John has communication sector in launched Virtual City in 6 • • • Innovation title: Initiative to transform horticulture supply chain Innovation stage: Proof of concept (Stage I) Innovation deployment location: High Rainfall Zone I ( and Semi-Arid Zone II trained at Michigan worked in the mobile Kenya since 1994. He 1999. Virtual City has become a formidable force in East Africa because it is not only transforming logistics management for big companies, but because it is addressing the real issues by pioneering mobile business management solutions for smaller traders. Virtual City is a mobile supply chain and knowledge management company. According to John, when it comes to mobile’s next-big-thing, Kenya is the country to watch because of its early and leading adoption of m-commerce, large investments in terrestrial and submarine fiber, the government’s strategy to grow the Business Process Outsourcing sector and lastly, the position of Nairobi as the “unofficial” business capital of the East African community’s common market. Acquiring high-level technological talent is what keeps him up at night. While there are enough entry-level programmers in Kenya for Virtual City to take its pick, a business as successful as this creates a hungry demand for top talent. John’s goal is to consistently develop innovative mobility solutions that simplify lives. Innovation title: Innovative Cooling Option for Smallholder Farmers Innovation stage: Proof of concept (Stage I) Innovation deployment location: High Rainfall Zone I (Nyamira) and Semi-Arid Zone II (Makueni). About the Innovation It is estimated that 30% to 50% of horticultural commodities are lost between production and retail sites. This is two to three times the losses that occur in developed countries. The losses mean lost income, labor, inputs, and natural resources for smallholder farmers. Temperature control is the single most important factor in the preservation of perishable food; the rate of deterioration of perishables increases an approximated two to three-fold with every 10°C increase in temperature in the commodity’s physiological temperature range. While most farmers may be aware of the benefits of maintaining a cold chain for perishable commodities, most of them, especially smallholder farmers, lack capital to invest in standard refrigeration equipment and cold storage rooms. As a result, they are forced to sell perishable commodities as soon as they are harvested through middlemen or brokers who often exploit them. Our innovation is a cooling and cool-storage technology, especially useful for perishable horticultural commodities. The CoolBot is an inexpensive controller for a standard window or split-unit air conditioner unit that enables these units to cool rooms down to optimal storage temperatures of 0 to 150C, without ice accumulation on the evaporator coils. In combination with a well-insulated room constructed from local materials, this locally-available, relatively-inexpensive cooling system makes cold storage a viable option for smallholder farmers. The technology will initially target farmers who are organized in producer/commodity groups, market groups or cooperatives, and can therefore benefit from economies of scale. With these facilities, farmers can store their produce for prolonged periods thus extending the marketing period.The potential for bringing cooling power to rural communities is evident, and the intention is to continue this research through the Innovation Engine project. Innovation Champion Dr. Jane Ambuko is the Head of the Horticulture Unit at the University of Nairobi’s Department of Plant Science and Crop Protection. Since 2008, Jane has lectured, carried out research and outreach at the University, and coordinated students’ research projects, as well as the Msc Horticulture Program. Over the years, through a number of research grants she has won, she has supported several graduate students’ research and played the role of mentor. Her outstanding authorship/co-authorship of six papers in referred journals and over 20 conference papers locally and internationally has earned Jane the prestigious AWARD Fellowship (African Women in Agricultural Research and Development, 2013 -2014) and the Norman Borlaug Fellowship (2012-2013). Activities of the two fellowships have helped her foster collaborative activities and created linkages with other local and international institutions. 7