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When planting season arrives in southern Kenya’s Makueni County, Eleanor gathers what seeds she can find and hopes for the best. She gently places them in neat rows of crumbly red soil, using the same techniques her neighbors use. She listens to the radio, putting her faith in an increasingly unreliable forecast. Then, she waits.

Roughly 70 percent of people in Kenya’s rural areas earn at least part of their income this way: from agriculture, including growing crops, raising animals, and running related businesses. The majority is small-scale, rain-fed agriculture, like Eleanor’s farm. For her and millions of others, the ability to feed and provide for their families is tied directly to agricultural success. But long-standing challenges — from climate change to issues with pricing — make the livelihood a gamble.

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In Kenya, poverty rates are falling but still high, and roughly a third of the population is food-insecure. Supplies like fertilizer and animal feed are often hard to come by in rural areas, where seeds sold are often old or poor-quality and where farmers have a tough time getting a fair price for their goods at markets. On top of that, regional weather and rainfall information — dictating when farmers should plant and harvest — is chronically incorrect.

“We were just taking chances,” Eleanor explains, regarding her community’s dependence on unreliable data and word-of-mouth farming advice. When farming work failed, her only recourse was acceptance, even if she lost everything. “There was very little I could do about that,” she says. That is, until smartphone technology gave her farming operation a boost.

The financial impact of climate change

Eleanor raises animals and grows sorghum, legumes, maize, and cabbage to support her family. But her already-difficult way of life is being made more fragile by the effects of climate change. “There used to be enough rainfall in the area, and the harvest used to be good, and we could predict when the rains could come and [we should] start planting,” she says. “There is a lot of change between those times and now.”

Weather shocks — drought, extreme temperatures, flooding — have occurred at a more frequent pace, and five years of drought conditions destroyed crops, dried up animal pastures, and fueled hunger. Eleanor remembers when the drought was so bad nearly all her animals starved, and her family needed governmental food assistance. “During that period, things were almost impossible for us,” she recalls.

Even today, after a season marked by below-average rainfall, massive swarms of desert locusts (another condition worsened by climate change) have resulted in a poor harvest. When yields are low, Eleanor says: “It means [people] have to reduce the number of meals they take in a day.”

As she walks her own dusty land, she points to the withered remains of a legume called green grams: row upon row of small, brown seedlings dried up at only a few inches tall. These are the crops she would normally rely on to meet her family’s needs and pay her children’s school fees. Without that income, she traditionally has only two options. She can make ends meet through informal day labor, making bricks, or migrating to another area for work. Or, she can sell off her assets, like land, animals, or equipment, which means losing an investment and a source of stability. “It is a short-term solution,” says Eleanor, “to address the burning issue at that particular time.”

Boosting financial security with technology

Although Eleanor faces many of the same struggles year after year, one thing is different this season: Now she has the tools to fight back. She participates in Mercy Corps’ AgriFin program, which uses mobile technology to connect farmers with services from a team of local partners. With access to insurance, banking, better seeds, NASA weather forecasts, and more, farmers have better tools to adapt to the changing climate, improve their harvests, and increase their wages.

Mobile phones are a common, critical form of connectivity for people around the world, including those in low-income countries. In Kenya, almost 90 percent of adults report owning one, making the technology an effective way to equip farmers like Eleanor with more resources.

One AgriFin resource is soil testing, provided through a mobile platform called DigiFarm, with which farmers can learn how to optimize their land to grow more successful crops. Eleanor ordered AgriFin testing to verify what crops are most suitable for her land, and SMS-based training, so she can use her phone to learn how to raise different crops and animals, and build diversity in her production. Through a partnership with NASA, the program also provides farmers with more accurate weather information so they can better prepare for growing conditions.

Through the program, Eleanor can order seeds for a specific cash crop — something with a market demand to grow in a larger quantity — and sell the yield to a commercial buyer. The seeds are drought-resistant and come automatically bundled with insurance, so if the harvest fails, she doesn’t lose her investment. Those seeds, plus other supplies like fertilizer and animal feed, are stocked at local retailers so they’re easy to access, and many can be purchased on loan if necessary.

Helping farmers look forward

Ensuring farmers can successfully grow crops and raise animals is vital to helping communities around the world overcome poverty and hunger.

Last year, during a good rainy season, Eleanor purchased fairly priced seeds to grow a new crop — sunflower — through AgriFin. Because the seeds were certified and she had extra information about growing techniques, she produced a successful harvest and sold it to a buyer identified by the program.

The venture earned her enough to pay her children’s school fees and start an emergency fund: something she couldn’t do before. “Without the kind of information that I’m getting … farmers would be in a worse position,” Eleanor explains. Already, she says her family’s income and food access has improved, and she’s looking forward to what else is possible.

“[My] livelihood will improve, and the children will be in a position to go to school regularly,” she says. As she continues to fight tough farming conditions, this time, technology will be on her side.

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