Small-scale farmers in Kenya and Zambia futureproof with digital solutions

Through an innovative digital platform, Apollo offers a complete solution that combines financing, quality raw materials, training and insurance – from seed to sale. Swedfund’s support means that Apollo can scale up its operations and offer easily accessible and innovative solutions that help farmers secure their livelihoods in an increasingly unpredictable climate.

Smallholder farmers produce 80 percent of Africa’s food, but many farms have less than one hectare of land and are heavily dependent on rainwater, making them vulnerable to extreme weather conditions. East Africa has been particularly hard hit by climate change, with recurring droughts and floods destroying crops and threatening food supplies. In Zambia, the President declared a national disaster in 2024 due to a prolonged drought – a crisis that affected over a million families and highlighted the urgent need for more resilient agricultural systems.

Despite their crucial role in the continent’s food production, rural smallholders are often excluded from access to credit, modern farming practices and distribution. Traditional solutions in the agricultural sector are often adapted to large-scale operators and difficult to apply to small, dispersed farms. Apollo’s model solves this problem using a data-driven approach that reduces costs and makes it easier for smallholders to access the necessary inputs and financing.

Using machine learning, Apollo assesses creditworthiness and can provide quick financing decisions, even to those without a formal financial history. Farmers can then order seeds, fertilisers and other inputs via a digital store and collect them from more than 1,000 local agrodealers. A cornerstone of Apollo’s business model is the advisory services offered, for example through recordings available to farmers who do not own a smartphone. In this way, they receive support throughout the entire cultivation cycle, from seed to sale, enabling a transition from survival farming to profitable business operation.

The results are promising: Apollo’s business model has proven to generate a yield that is 2.5 times higher than the average yield of Kenyan farmers. This increase in productivity stabilises incomes and provides a buffer against climate shocks.

If farmers have access to high-quality, drought-resistant hybrid seeds or more modern farming methods, they earn more money and the sustainability of their operation improves. Apollo also works to make its services easily accessible, simple and efficient, especially given that many of its customers do not own a smartphone.

Apollo’s progress is partly due to the support of development finance institutions such as Swedfund, which invested early on in Apollo’s digital expansion journey. Development finance is important for projects aimed at long-term development in high-risk areas, offering venture capital to bridge the financing gap.

As part of its investment in the food sector, in addition to Apollo, Swedfund also invested in AgDevCo during the year, which supports sustainable agricultural companies in sub-Saharan Africa, and Robust International, which improves the local processing of raw materials in West and East Africa.

Apollo’s strategy offers farmers insurance against climate-related risks. Currently, only around five percent of African farmers have access to insurance, despite the effects of climate change becoming increasingly apparent. Apollo’s built-in insurance solutions provide farmers with a financial safety net that helps them cope with unexpected weather events. The insurance also reduces Apollo’s own lending risk, which means that more farmers can access credit.

Apollo’s vision of making commercial agriculture available to millions more smallholder farmers is in line with Swedfund’s objective of strengthening resilience in vulnerable markets and developing sustainable food.