Kenya Climate Ventures (KCV) has invested in an agribusiness startup company, Agriflora Solutions, to help the company accelerate the transition to sustainable food and agricultural system.
The company based in Nyahururu-Kenya uses fully decomposed animal and plant waste to process organic fertilizers with the aim of providing their clients with quality products in a safe, reliable, efficient, and environmentally sound manner.
“Our main objective is to encourage agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity among farmers in our region and the nearby counties such as Nyandarua, Baringo and Samburu with our target group mainly being potato farmers,” says Kiboi Kuria, the founder of Agriflora Solutions.
The company manufactures slow-release fortified organic fertilizer known as Asili Granulated Fertilizer that helps to improve plants quality due to the availability of balanced nutrients. This leads to increased productivity of plants under healthy soil and reduces toxic load by keeping chemicals out of air and soil.
Asili fortified organic fertilizer
Given that the global organic fertilizer was estimated to account for slightly less than US$ 6.7 billion in terms of value in the year 2018 and was predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.2% by 2027, there is an urgent need for impact investors to financially support agriculture projects that have the potential to fix a broken food system.
“The focus of this investment is on the essence of our food system. As an investor in the agribusiness sector, we look forward to helping Agriflora Solutions promote healthy soils, biodiversity, animal welfare, lower carbon emissions and food waste, and promote a conscious use of earth resources,” says Victor Ndiege, the CEO of KCV.
Since impact investing as a whole is growing very quickly, the most popular sector to poll everyone interested in investing in is sustainable food and agriculture.
In fact, according to the Global Impact Investing Network’s 2016 report, 63% of impact investors said they were putting their dollars into sustainable food and agriculture, and that impact investment in the sector has grown at an annual rate of 32.5% since 2013.
Those in the agricultural sector like Kiboi Kuria say that capital is what sustainable agriculture needs to scale up. “The biggest bottleneck in a good organic food system is not entrepreneurs but capital. I believe that through the financing, we will expand our manufacturing plant to meet the increasing demand from farmers.”
Agriflora Solutions, having been incubated by Kenya Climate Innovation Centre (KCIC) in 2020, have the potential of growing their operations and income; this is one of the main reasons KCV invested in the business.
“We always want to partner with progressive farmers, help them grow their operations and income, and put them in a position where they have the financial resources to acquire more sustainable resources,” adds Victor.
KCV is bringing financial capital, technical assistance and business development support to the table, and looks forward to bringing so much more in their thought leadership which is going to make it possible for real shifts to happen.
