Our spotlight hero of the month is Taita Ngetich, ABH 2023 Top 20 Hero and founder of Synnefa, an agritech company that has developed FarmShield—a low-cost greenhouse microclimate management system. This innovative system uses commercially available sensors, powered by solar cells, to monitor greenhouse conditions, including soil and ambient temperature, soil humidity, and nutrient content. Synnefa is among the 11 companies awarded a total of USD 1.7 million by the Efficiency for Access Research and Development Fund.
This funding aims to advance clean energy agricultural technologies to improve post-harvest resilience and productivity in dairy, fish, and horticulture value chains across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Synnefa will use the funds to develop smart solar dryers equipped with their proprietary FarmShield IoT devices. This technology will benefit farmer cooperatives involved in high-value horticultural crops such as coffee, tomatoes, mangoes, and pyrethrum in Kenya. The project will be implemented in collaboration with the Kiambu, Kitui, and Makueni County Governments. Taita Ngetich, Founder and CEO of Synnefa, emphasized the impact of this support: “We believe that technology can significantly reduce farming risks and boost incomes for smallholder farmers in Africa. This funding enables us to enhance our FarmShield and FarmCloud technologies, providing community-owned smart drying solutions. By reducing drying times and connecting farmers to markets, we aim to improve incomes and minimize post-harvest losses.”
We congratulate Taita Ngetich and the entire team at Synnefa on this milestone and commend them for their continued impact.
Source: Synnefa
