The model works. Now we build the organization to carry it further.

Smallholder farmers grow most of Kenya's food. Many of them still cannot live from it.

Smallholders produce around 63% of Kenya's food (Farm Africa). At the same time, farmers in rural Kenya lose up to 37% of their harvest before it reaches a market (FAO). What survives is often sold right after harvest, when prices are at their lowest, to middlemen who set the terms.

What farmers in our network told us

For our digital extension work, we surveyed 1,007 farmers in 51 farmer groups in Siaya County. The picture was clear:

BASELINE SURVEY · 1,007 FARMERS · 51 GROUPS · SIAYA COUNTY · AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD SIZE 5

Seven out of ten farmers sell without knowing what their harvest is worth. Three out of four lose part of it before it is sold. This is not a question of skill. The farmers know their land. What fails them are the systems around it: seed they can trust, storage that protects a harvest, fair prices, reliable buyers and knowledge when they need it.

Why more production alone makes it worse

Most agricultural programs start with yield: better seed, more fertilizer, bigger harvests. Our most important lesson from the field is that this order fails. If a farmer produces more but still has no storage and no fair buyer, more food is lost and the extra harvest is sold at a lower price. The gap between harvest and market is quickly filled by actors who profit from farmers having no alternative.

That is why we build fair market access and post-harvest infrastructure first, and production capacity on top of it.

When a farmer earns a fair income, a whole household moves.

In our network, an average household has five members, and around three quarters of the farmers we work with are women. Higher income does not stay in one pocket. It pays school fees, covers the months between harvests and allows families to plan instead of react.

It also changes how young people see farming. When the land provides a real living, the next generation has a reason to stay and farm it well. And soil that is farmed regeneratively keeps feeding that generation.

WILLIAM OTIENO · 43 · SIAYA COUNTY · MEMBER SINCE 2023

"I believed in what the land could give me. But for a long time, what it gave me was far less than it should have been. […] I can now plan for the next season before the current one is finished."

BEAN PRICE KSh 75 → 125 PER KG · 26 KG FROM 0.25 ACRE, VERIFIED RECORD LONG RAINS 2025

Our long-term goal

We measure success by whether communities can run these systems themselves. We work deeply with one community until the structures hold, then move on to the next. Learning from the Motherland gUG is building a stable organization now so that it can hand over responsibility step by step to MOTHERLAND CBO and the communities it serves. A strong organization today is what makes a responsible handover possible later.

Since 2023, MOTHERLAND and MOTHERLAND CBO have built four layers together with farmers.

• 01
  Local Impact TeamsCommunity members from Siaya, organised through MOTHERLAND CBO: agronomists, extension officers and community agents. They run trainings, field visits and village meetings, and they are the first contact for every farmer group. Relationships come first, systems second.
• 02
  Lima AIA WhatsApp-based support tool in English, Swahili and Dholuo, the local language in Siaya, built with PeachStone AI. Lima gives our Local Impact Teams market prices, soil diagnostics, weather and training content in the field, so every team member can answer more farmers, faster and with better information.
• 03
  Seed-to-market infrastructureCertified seed, regenerative farming practice, aggregation, hermetic storage, processing and direct buyer connections, so farmers can wait for a better price and sell above the local market rate.
• 04
  Digital backbone and traceabilityEvery step from planting to sale is documented: farmer profiles, monitoring and impact measurement. This is how we stay accountable to communities, donors and partners, and how we know what works.

A farmer's path through the system

1. Join a farmer group. Local Impact Teams meet the community, explain the model and register farmers in groups.
2. Train and plant. Farmers learn regenerative practice and receive certified, locally adapted seed.
3. Harvest and store. The harvest is aggregated and stored in hermetic bags, protected from pests and moisture.
4. Sell at a fair price. MOTHERLAND connects farmers with buyers directly, at prices above the local market.
5. Reinvest. From the first harvest, part of the value flows into community funds that the groups manage themselves.

Three programs on the same foundation

JOSEPH WERE · 63 · SOIL HEALTH AMBASSADOR · SIAYA COUNTY

"I farmed for 30 years battling the same problems: expensive inputs, low yields, and no market that treated me fairly. Since MOTHERLAND came, all three of those problems have been addressed."

40–84 KG ON ½ ACRE → 150–200 KG ON 1 ACRE · AT LEAST KSh 14,000 PER SEASON · 1 CHILD IN COLLEGE

What is next for Lima

The Cisco Foundation has supported Lima since 2025. The current grant runs from June 2026 to May 2027 and takes Lima from development into testing and everyday use: first with our Local Impact Teams, then step by step with farmer communities, starting where our teams already work. Our goal: 12,000 farmers using Lima by 2027.

These are validated results from the field, documented in our Impact Report 2025.

Four farmers, four paths

FLORENCE OCHIENG · 49 · LEAD FARMER · SIAYA COUNTY

"I have no stress about inputs, and I have no stress about the market. MOTHERLAND has given me both. Now I focus on farming and on leading the farmers around me."

270 KG BEANS LAST SEASON · 0.75 → 1 ACRE · NOW A LEAD FARMER

LIZ AKINYI · 40 · LEAD FARMER · PAP GORI

"Before MOTHERLAND, I was farming hard and still falling behind. Now I can pay school fees for my eight children without borrowing. I am not just surviving anymore. I am building something."

30 → 100–120 KG BEANS PER ACRE · KSh 75 → 125 PER KG · 8 CHILDREN

WILLIS OCHIENG · 29 · SIAYA COUNTY

"I had no interest in agriculture because the inputs were too expensive and the market was too low. One MOTHERLAND training changed all of that. Now I am farming, and I have a market waiting for my harvest."

A YOUNG FARMER WHO CHOSE FARMING AS A LIVELIHOOD

Florence expanded her land and became a lead farmer who guides others. Joseph, now a Soil Health Ambassador, earns at least KSh 14,000 per season. Liz pays school fees without borrowing. Willis, 29, is part of a generation that is choosing farming again because there is a market for what they grow.

What we have learned

Local leadership in the field, accountable structures behind it, and three years of results.

Built on research, not assumptions

Before founding MOTHERLAND in 2023, the founding team spent more than six months in dialogue with over 50 African entrepreneurs and experts and mapped 324 African startups along the post-harvest value chain. The model grew out of what they learned about where food and income are lost.

Tools built for the field

Lima runs on WhatsApp, a channel already used by our field teams and by more than half of the farmers in our network. It supports the people who work with farmers every day, instead of replacing them. We test every feature in the field before we scale it.

One ecosystem, not isolated projects

The same Local Impact Teams, the same tool and the same network of more than 2,000 farmers carry every program. Each new program builds on what already exists, so the next farmer is cheaper to reach than the last.

A healthy funding mix

We aim for no single funder to provide more than 20 to 25% of our budget. Combining foundations, institutional partners and a growing circle of private monthly donors keeps the work independent and resilient.

Partners along the value chain

Grants pay for projects. They rarely pay for the team, the tools and the organization that make those projects work.

That is our biggest gap. MOTHERLAND grew as a founder-led initiative funded project by project. To reach 25,000 farmers, we are turning it into an organization that does not depend on one person or one grant: with stable Local Impact Teams in the field, Lima AI, monitoring, finance and reporting, in Kenya and in Germany. This needs flexible, planable money.

What 2027 will bring

• Lima in use. Under the current Cisco grant (June 2026 to May 2027), Lima moves into testing and use with our teams and farmer communities.
• Seed at scale. With the W.P. Schmitz Stiftung, seed production grows from 20 toward 100 acres over three years.
• More schools. Young Earth Guardians grows to more schools in Siaya County.
• A stronger organization. Building an advisory board, clear roles and a growing base of monthly donors.

The work on the ground is led by the MOTHERLAND CBO team in Siaya County, together with Learning from the Motherland gUG in Germany.