Farmbizafrica is an online farming news platform formerly called Webarazafarmer.com, launched April 2010 in a move to educate farmers on high yielding farming practices to strengthen food supply in the country.
With a following of close to 100,000 farmers a month, Farmbizafrica.com provides farmers in the East African region with up to date information on ways of increasing yields and returns especially on dairy farming, crops, horticulture,innovations for farmers and provides management and market information for farmers and farmer groups.
Farmbizafrica, is owned by African Laughter Media Company, a content and innovation firm founded in 2007 by Jenny Luesby, a media trainer and former reporter and editor with publications like Financial Times and BBC.
The firm recently launched a crowd contributors platform to extend its reach across the country and widen farmer information access to close in on the information gap characterising the agriculture sector and leading to low yields and poor returns for farmers said its editor Bob Koigi.
Mr Koigi added, “Food security rests on getting better information to all our farmers, information that at the level of homes keeps families fed and pays school fees, and at the biggest level drives economic growth for everyone.”
And the portal is focused on that.
Farmbizafrica.com has helped a cross-section of farmers to learn new farming methods, discover solutions to chronic crop ailments and increase crop and animal yields at high rates. Farmbizafrica has also exposed farmers to international agricultural organisations, research bodies and media organisations which otherwise would have no clue on what the farmers in the region are doing.
One such farmer, Zack Matere from Eldoret cycled for over 10 kilometres to a cyber cafe to discover how he could save his potatoes. Now the founder of Leo network of notice boards, Matere is at the forefront of helping farmers use internet as a farmer extension tool. The Leo Network uses simple wooden notice boards, with print outs of text messages, e-mails, photos illustrations and articles on farming issues from Farmbizafrica, BBC and other sites and journals.
Farmbizafrica recently partnered with South Africa’s Farmers’ Weekly to get the best quality of smallholder news and information to farmers across the regions of Africa.
The site is a go to for farmer news from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda and is available on desktop, mobile website and as a multi-platform phone app.
