FFS 038 - The Fuel Empowering Kenyan Farmers

The global fertilizer market is a $200 billion industry. But who does it serve?

Produced in large-scale, centralised facilities in developed countries, conventional fertilisers are neither cheap nor reliably accessible for rural smallholder farmers in emerging markets in Africa and India.

Safi Organics in Kenya has a vision to decentralise and downsize fertiliser production. Using recycled waste from local farms, carbon-negative organic biochar fertilisers empower farmers by making their farms more resilient with lower costs, higher yields, and better soils.

We talk to co-founder Samuel Rigu about:

• His childhood memories of growing up on a farm in Kenya

• The conventional model of fertiliser production and use

• The crippling costs and logistical challenges of fertiliser use in Kenya

• Decentralising fertiliser use

• Carbon-negative, organic biochar fertiliser

• The role of fertiliser in facing the reality of climate change

• A vision of empowering smallholder farmers for lasting food security

Links:

• Safi Organics Website, Twitter, Instagram

• “How Climate Change is fuelling innovation in Kenya” – Smithsonian

• “The EU finally provides legal framework for organic and recycled fertilisers”– EURACTIV

• Thought For Foodwebsite

• The Original Foodies: A Documentary Series

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• FFS 020 – Optimising the Food Economy with Blockchain

• FFS 017 – When Farming Goes Vertical

• FFS 006 – The Sustainable Food Entrepreneur