Postharvest technologies provided by women entrepreneurs benefit Kenyan farmers

The She Feeds Africa project, funded by Zinpro Corporation and the Anderson Foundation, provides women entrepreneurs with access to financing, tools, and training, equipping them to improve postharvest practices and incomes across Kenyan communities

Under the golden morning sun, Janet Simiyu rolls her maize shelling machine out of storage and dusts off its bright green paint. She follows the checklist she learned in training, preparing the machine for the day, checking the oil and air filter. She makes sure all the bolts are tight, tests the tension on the belts, and confidently starts the engine. It’s running just right. Janet then carefully secures the machine to the back of her motorbike and heads out for the first farm of the day. “At the time I do shelling, I also normally do table banking of the proceeds I get,” says Janet. “I take that money and buy tarpaulins and hematic bags that I also sell to farmers. So now, this business is supporting other businesses."

Under the golden morning sun, Janet Simiyu rolls her maize shelling machine out of storage and dusts off its bright green paint. She follows the checklist she learned in training, preparing the machine for the day, checking the oil and air filter. She makes sure all the bolts are tight, tests the tension on the belts, and confidently starts the engine. It’s running just right. Janet then carefully secures the machine to the back of her motorbike and heads out for the first farm of the day. “At the time I do shelling, I also normally do table banking of the proceeds I get,” says Janet. “I take that money and buy tarpaulins and hematic bags that I also sell to farmers. So now, this business is supporting other businesses."Working with a machine operator, Janet spends the rest of the day going from farm to farm in western Kenya, feeding hundreds of bright yellow maize ears into the machine at each stop, much to the delight of her hardworking clients. Because low income local farmers know just how efficient it is to shell their crops using the machine, they are happy to pay Simiyu for the privilege, and when the harvest season begins, she can hardly keep up with the demand. “When power goes off on one phone, I get calls on the other phones,” she laughs.

Up to 70 percent of farmers in some regions hand-process maize

In Kakamega County, where Janet lives and works, some 80 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture. The maize grown on farms like these is the country’s staple food, consumed by 90 percent of Kenyan households. However, the majority of farmers don’t have access to the kind of machinery Janet provides and much of the labor required for producing maize is done manually, usually by women in the household, greatly increasing the time they spend working their farms. With as many as 70 percent of farmers in some regions hand-processing maize, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, postharvest losses are increased as crops can be accidently damaged when shelled manually, leaving them more susceptible to contaminants such as aflatoxin. Maize can also spoil as farmers who aren’t aided by postharvest mechanization sometimes take too long to get through an entire crop. And because the job of shelling is considered a domestic chore, women farmers, who are also busy with other household responsibilities, find it difficult to make the time required to process enough maize to turn a reasonable profit.

Project powers women entrepreneurs to assist women farmers

To combat postharvest challenges, the She Feeds Africa project has empowered 27 women entrepreneurs like Janet with tools, training, finance and other forms of support, to develop businesses providing postharvest services to farmers in their communities. The 3-year project, run by Bountifield International, a Minnesota-based nonprofit which integrated with iDE in 2024, teaches the entrepreneurs how to use machines from maize shellers and multi-crop threshers, to chopper shredders and solar dryers. In addition to technical training, women receive training in business management and digital marketing, using tools such as Facebook and WhatsApp, helping them reach new clients, setting them up for commercial success. 

iDE Kenya team leader Geoffrey Nyamota said the project targeted women entrepreneurs because the job of processing crops following the harvest usually fell to the women, and women farmers say they prefer receiving services from other women because they feel they can trust them. “I have seen women farmers expand their acreage citing the ease of mechanical threshing and shelling compared to manual processing,” said Nyamota. He added that postharvest technologies not only saved time and decreased food losses, but also encouraged production increases, which meant that more locally-produced food was available, increasing food security.

Janet says she will expand her business and depends on no-one

In just the first few months running her maize shelling business, Janet served some 583 farmers and processed 133,830 kg of maize, saving her clients the equivalent of 10,706 hours of manual labor. With the money she’s made, she plans to buy a second shelling machine, expanding her business and providing postharvesting services to even more farmers. “I’ve paid my children’s school fees and improved my household cash-flow,” said Janet. “I don’t see myself being dependent on anyone.”