Bridging the data gap in Africa: Amini’s solution for farmers
“We can’t produce when the sun is too strong, it kills the plants,” notes Yao Passi Gênea, a farmer in Abengourou, Côte d’Ivoire. With the help of the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa, Amini is gearing up to support farmers like Yao with the custom data infrastructure needed to plan their harvests and mitigate the impacts of warmer seasons and weather variability.
On a warm February morning in Abengourou, Côte d’Ivoire, Yao Passi Gênea is amongst his fellow cooperative members, a group of farmers from the area who are forming the bedrock of one of Côte d’Ivoire’s chief economic outputs: cocoa production.
Yao has been a cocoa and rubber farmer for most of his life. Each year, he comes away with new learnings on these plants and how to produce them.
In recent years, he has started to see disruptions in his harvest cycle, as warm temperatures come earlier each year.
“We can’t produce when the sun is too strong, it kills a lot [of plants]. Because of climate change, the variety of plants we grow is vulnerable. They cannot withstand the sun because it is already very hot in February, and the plants die.”
-Yao Passi Gênea
Warming temperatures are also increasing the intensity and unpredictability of rainfall in Abengorou, which makes it difficult for Yao to plan his rubber harvests. Harvesting rubber is a labour-intensive process that takes more than 24 hours and requires dry conditions. If it rains during harvest, the latex sap from the rubber trees can wash away, and Yao would be left without yield or income.
He and many other farmers are concerned about keeping up with warmer temperatures, weather volatility and increased rainfall — all primary threats to their farms. But they are not giving up.
Yao and the farmers in his cooperative are ready and willing to integrate whatever tools can support their farm amidst the stress of climate change. In particular, they are looking for data to help them understand the changes their farms are going through, giving them a fighting chance to respond, keep pace and sustain their farms.
“If the cooperative had access to reliable weather forecasts, like knowing exactly when and where it will rain, it would help us plan better. For example, if we know it is going to rain, we can avoid harvesting that day.”
This appetite for data offers a great opportunity for an innovative solution that will close the data gap for farmers, equipping them with the information they need to make smart decisions, sustain their yields and feed the world.
Amini, a female-founded, Kenya-based tech startup, might have just the tool that Yao and his community are looking for.
Amini is closing the data divide
If you are in the AI for agriculture or AI for good space, you have likely heard of Amini.
The startup has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, the Atlantic and the New York Times. Kate Kallot, Amini’s founder and CEO, was named one of the top 100 most influential people in AI by Time.
The big buzz surrounding Amini matches its ambition: to become the backbone of all data collected, processed and distributed in the Global South over the next decade. In just three years since its founding in 2022, it has already scaled to 25 countries.
Amini ingests millions of data points, leveraging artificial intelligence and existing satellite, map and reported data, and houses them under the same roof, making it easier to take action. Governments and other entities pay for Amini’s platform and the data it provides, recognizing the great value of data in today’s digital age.
What makes Amini a leader in the AI for good space is that they are taking the same data system has brought them global recognition and making it accessible to rural smallholder farmers in Côte d’Ivoire. In some cases, they give it away for free.
It’s a groundbreaking reversal of the current data economy that puts the power of data back in the hands of those who need it most.
Thanks to the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa, Amini is bringing its unique approach and widespread success to Côte d’Ivoire.
There, the team has been laying the groundwork to apply its model to the cocoa value chain. It will provide critical data on crops, soil and weather to improve sustainable cocoa production.
As part of its localized approach, Amini worked with Yao’s local cooperative to listen to the community’s needs. When learning about Amini, Yao was excited about the opportunity for more data on his farm.
“Tools like Amini could really support us. We would be delighted to have that information.”
-Yao Passi Gênea
With the vision and desire in place, Amini is now discovering the best ways to engage farmers in collecting data and building a custom solution for the local cocoa farmers.
From vision to village: Amini’s in Côte d’Ivoire
To bring Amini’s high-tech solution to life in the farmland of Côte d’Ivoire, Amini is working with one of the institutions farmers trust most: their local farmers’ cooperative.
Cooperatives provide training and resources to their members, and improve access to equipment, seeds and fertilizers needed on the farm. Many regional farmers are already part of a cooperative, and farmers like Yao Passi rely on them as trusted advisors and sources of accessible information, especially for those who are not digitally literate. This makes them an ideal channel for introducing Amini’s new solution and data.
This collaboration ensures that the cooperative’s training and support is backed by the most recent data on local contexts, giving farmers the strongest insights.
It also benefits the cooperatives themselves. With access to real-time, verifiable data, cooperatives can now support their members in applying for certifications like fair trade or EU anti-deforestation standards. These certification processes can sometimes be expensive, duplicative or out of reach for underresourced groups.
Amini puts data ownership in local hands, rather than relying on external auditors who may collect data and leave without giving insights back to the farmers. Cooperatives can now submit verified data directly, saving time and money and leveling the playing field with larger agribusiness.
Amadou Kamagate, Amini’s local programme manager in Côte d’Ivoire, has been instrumental in making this happen. Amongst the cocoa farmers in Abengourou, Amadou is right at home and well-connected.
He has more than 15 years of experience working in the cocoa value chain and knows it as intimately as anyone. He knows the nuances of local farming and the importance of trust, leading Amini directly to the cooperatives. And critically, he shares Amini’s vision for data-powered agriculture across Africa.
“Across Africa, our vision is to enable data sovereignty and climate adaptation through scalable, AI-powered infrastructure that empowers local actors, from cooperatives to policymakers.”
-Amadou Kamagate, Food Security Program Manager, Amini
The Award that made it possible
The story of Yao Passi, Amadou and Amini has been made possible through the funding and support provided by the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa.
The Award is initiated by the Federal Chancellery of Austria in cooperation with the Kofi Annan Foundation, the WFP Innovation Accelerator and the Austrian Development Agency. It supports entrepreneurs who innovate for the public good, focusing on digital solutions that enhance progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Amini aims toward similar goals, seeking to unlock the potential of innovators across Africa to drive innovative transformations that support the SDGs.
“We believe in shifting the narrative, from innovation happening to Africa, to innovation driven by Africa.”
-Amadou Kamagate, Food Security Program Manager, Amini
With a shared vision and proven success at scale, Amini was awarded the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa alongside ventures ChipChip and FRESH Networks in September 2024.
It has since been expanding its platform to the Côte d’Ivoire cocoa value chain, hiring Amadou and conducting research on the local contexts and data landscape. The team notes that none of this would have been possible without the dedicated resources from the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa.
Support from the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa includes grant funding, mentorship and networking opportunities with global partners and collaborators and hands-on coaching from the WFP Innovation Accelerator. For a scaling venture like Amini, that support can bring a needed, but challenging project into reality.
Data is the past, present and future of farming
Amini’s pilot project in Côte d’Ivoire is a small piece of its scaling journey across 25 countries. And yet, Yao Passi proves that even just one change–a reliable weather forecast in a changing environment–can make a huge difference to a farmer’s livelihood.
Even in this early stage of implementation, Yao Passi and his fellow farmers’ willingness to take in new data and adapt their farming practices to it demonstrates Amini’s great potential in Abengourou.
As the world relies more and more on data, digitalization, artificial intelligence and more deep technology, it is critical that smallholder farmers, who feed the world, are not left behind.
Amini is helping them bridge the gap, one localized solution at a time.
Learn more about Amini and the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa.
Thanks to the Austrian Federal Chancellery, the Kofi Annan Foundation and the Austrian Development Agency for supporting the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa.
To follow Amini’s full journey with the WFP Innovation Accelerator, read further about the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa’s applicants, finalists, bootcamp and watch the award and pitch event.
The WFP Innovation Accelerator sources, supports and scales high-potential solutions to end hunger worldwide. We provide WFP staff, entrepreneurs, start-ups, companies and non-governmental organizations with access to funding, mentorship, hands-on support and WFP operations.
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WFP does not endorse any product or service. The WFP Innovation Accelerator provides grant funding and venture support via its sprint programme to ventures and innovations based on its scaling and impact potential, innovativeness, business model and other factors.
