Globally rice is one of the most important food crops in the fight against hunger, poverty and wellbeing. This is the case for the rice farming community in Ahero irrigation scheme. The Ahero Irrigation Scheme is located in the Kano plains between Nandi Escarpment and Nyabondo Plateau, in Kisumu County, Western part of Kenya. The scheme has a gazetted area of 4,200 acres with 3,100 acres currently under irrigation. The scheme has 570 farm holders, 2500+ smallholder farmers and over 30,000 dependents

Ifarm360 has been working with farmers in the scheme through their respective board leaders to increase yields and household incomes through agrifinancing for quality inputs, agronomic support, crop insurance and access to markets. Through our collaborative approach we introduced superior quality rice variety called aromatic (Basmat-370) increase yields, and household income by +150%. However, farmers in this irrigation scheme have been left behind with adoption of modern mechanization technologies. Especially mechanization for harvesting. Without mechanized harvesting, farmers lose up to 40% of the grain harvested and end up with low quality grain that reduces the market price by 10–30% thus affecting farmer income. Furthermore, manual harvesting is tedious, inefficient and more often than not, because of cost, farmer house holdings resort to using services of school going children.

In every production cycle, at least 4 blocks of 250 acres each are under production with 150-200 acres ready for harvesting every month. We are keen to support over 100 smallholder farmers with over 200 acres with mechanized harvesting technology to reduce post-harvest loses, improve grain quality and double their rice income. Ifarm360 has partnered and negotiated better rates with local mechanization providers for rice combined harvester machinery rental option. We are also inviting investors to support us in this financing round, providing this much needed technology as well as gain solid return on your investments.

Overall benefits:

• Advance modern farm technology adoption for small-scale.

• Promote food security in Kenya

• Reduce rice post-harvest loses by +30%

• Increased income for farmers

• Sustainable agriculture Your fund of $200 (Ksh 22,000) per unit will go into a pool that will support mechanized harvesting at a cost of $80/ Ksh. 8,000 per acre on 200 acres subdivided in 4 cohorts of 30-40 farmers each with combined 50 acres per farming cycle.

Through this financing we will provide these much needed technologies at scale, safeguard your money through a guaranteeing markets for the rice harvested and recovering the fund at the point of sale. Project viability, In rice phase 3, we introduced for the first time mechanized harvesting to a cohort of 20 small-scale farmers with a combined 50 acres. Working with reputable mechanization providers, farmers saw an increase in harvest of 40-45 bags/acre for IR-2793 and 30-35 bags/acre of aromatic basmati an increase from 30-35bags/acre and 20-25 bags/acre in all the previous seasons where they used manual harvesting.

Over 500 farmers have registered and are in line to be supported through this project. The recovery rate is at an all-time high of 99.9% with all the farmers in this cohort recommitting their farms to the project. Join Us Today! #Empower #Impact #Earn

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