Per March 1, 2021 SoilCares Foundation’ director Christy van Beek will take up a new opportunity. Leaving SoilCares Foundation isn’t easy, she says, but she is proud of what has been achieved and looks back at more than 4 exciting years.
Since its launch in 2017 in Kenya, the AgroCares scanner has been used more than 100,000 times for soil analyses. Among farmers that tested their soils with the scanner, many of them repeated soil analyses year after year. We compared results from 9 fields randomly selected in Kenya that were sampled in 2019 (or the year before) and in 2020. This study shows consistent and positive results!
In October 2020, 60 decibels, an independent impact measurement company assessed the impact of the AgroCares' scanner on the livelihoods of farmers in Kenya. What they found is that, even in times of pandemic crisis, informed based decisions had a positive impact of the lives of most of the 260 interviewed farmers.
Back in 2017, AgroCares released the scanner technology for the first time in Kenya. Since then, Kenya is a key country showing market response regarding AgroCares technology.
Since January 2020, 5,873 soil analyses were performed in Kenya with the AgroCares Scanner and 1,806 soil analyses with the Lab-in-a-Box. SoilCares Foundation conducted a survey by calling 42 farmers that benefited from soil analysis to better understand who they are and what where the impacts of AgroCares technology. Below are the results of this survey.
Soil Organic Carbon is a key element of soil fertility and it shows great variation from one field to another. How do you know the SOC content of your soil to ensure successful food production? At SoilCares Foundation we analysed more than 20,000 soil samples from our database of South-Western Kenya and found SOC contents as low as 0.03% to more than 9%.
SoilCares Foundation has analysed the results of more than 35000 soil samples analysed which were analysed using AgroCares technology. The results are alarming.
In 2019 SoilCares Foundation performed a farmer survey among 14 farmers in Kenya who had their soil tested by the SoilCares Scanner. The tests were offered through the network of Service Providers and farmers were called at the end of the growing season to ask about their experiences.
Results of field trials comparing farmer practice and AgroCares fertilizer recommendations obtained with AgroCares Soil Scanner
Pierre van Hedel, former director of Rabobank Foundation, explains how AgroCares’ solutions can contribute to reaching out to smallholder farmers, so they can sustainably produce more food.
AgroCares talks about creating impact among smallholder farmers with Pierre van Hedel, retired director of Rabobank Foundation, with a vast international experience of working for Rabobank and Rabobank Foundation. Pierre has recently joined SoilCares Foundation’s Board. He shares his views on the urgency to sustainably produce more food and why smallholder farmers are key.
After several successful trainings in Nairobi and Nakuru, on 12th of July the SoilCares Foundation organized its first soil fertility training in Eldoret, Kenya. The training was attended by 20 eager-to-learn participants and resulted in very lively discussion about the importance of soil fertility. The training was organized in collaboration with Ampath Kenya.