On 8th June 2025, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) President, Dr. Alice Ruhweza, made a landmark field visit to Nyandarua County as part of her first 100 days in office. The visit, hosted by NPCK, was a key part of her tour to project impact zones, to evaluate how AGRA’s resources are translating into tangible benefits for smallholder farmers and contributing to AGRA’s mission of transforming African agriculture through increased productivity, resilience, and market systems development.
Dr. Ruhweza’s presence in Nyandarua underscores AGRA’s continued commitment to deepening support for Kenya’s potato sector, particularly through the Kenya Sustainable Potato Initiative (KSPI), a flagship project funded by AGRA and implemented by a consortium comprising NPCK, KALRO-Tigoni, and Egerton University. Launched in July 2024, KSPI aims to directly impact 150,000 smallholder farmers in four counties—Nyandarua, Meru, Laikipia, and Nandi by promoting climate-smart agriculture, sustainable seed systems, and structured marketing. The three-year project focuses on boosting productivity, improving access to certified seed, strengthening farmer groups, and building resilient market linkages. As of March 2025, KSPI had already facilitated the sale of over 17,000 bags of certified seed, trained 24,000 farmers, and supported 62 farmer groups toward structured marketing, all through the Viazi Soko digital platform.
A key highlight of the visit was a courtesy call to H.E. Governor Moses Kiarie Badilisha, where Dr. Ruhweza and her delegation held discussions with the county government and agriculture officials on strengthening collaboration to unlock Nyandarua’s potato value chain potential. As a leading potato producing region, Nyandarua plays a critical role in Kenya’s food security and rural economy. The meeting focused on reviewing the progress of the KSPI project, county support to farmer groups, climate adaptation interventions, and opportunities for scaling.
Dr. Ruhweza later visited Kagacha Potato Cooperative Society in Oljoroorok, a vibrant farmer-led organization comprising 100 members; 60 women, 28 men, and 12 youth. The cooperative, supported by KSPI, is implementing key components of the project, including collective input sourcing, adoption of climate-smart farming practices like surface planting and soil testing, contract farming, and digital market access through Viazi Soko. Members demonstrated how they’ve moved from selling in extended bags to structured kilogram-based selling in line with the Irish Potato Regulations (2019), and how they’ve used their aggregation power to negotiate better seed and produce prices. The President also toured the cooperative’s cold storage facility, where AGRA committed to supporting the installation of Wi-Fi for real-time data access and plans for expanding the store’s capacity to reduce post-harvest losses.
The visit continued to Engineer Ward, where Dr. Ruhweza met two promising seed potato producers supported under the project; Mr. Reuben Murituh, a 29-year-old entrepreneur running Potato Republic, and Mrs. Pamela Mumbi, a certified apical cuttings producer and active VBA (Village-Based Advisor). Mr. Murituh has leveraged project support to revive and scale his seed potato enterprise, establishing a 50MT Diffused Light Store, screenhouse, and mechanized systems to expand production to 12 acres. Mrs. Mumbi, a certified producer and VBA, propagates in-vitro potato plantlets into rooted apical cuttings and supplies them affordably to local farmers. She also trains farmers on good agricultural practices and supports digital registration on the Viazi Soko platform for easier access to inputs and markets.
Dr. Ruhweza’s visit was a powerful affirmation of AGRA’s strategic shift toward place-based investments that deliver measurable outcomes. The field engagements allowed her to experience how AGRA’s support is catalyzing improvements in seed systems, climate resilience, youth inclusion, digital extension, and structured markets. The KSPI project has already exceeded several early milestones, including the production of over 176,000 rooted apical cuttings, training of 138 VBAs, 16 demo plots established, and several county partnerships secured.
As Dr. Ruhweza concluded her field engagements, she reaffirmed AGRA’s strategic focus on investing in place-based, evidence-driven interventions. Her reflections from Nyandarua will inform AGRA’s broader efforts to ensure that its investments deliver real value to smallholder farmers making farming more productive, market-oriented, and resilient for the long term.
Group photo with members of Kagacha Cooperative Society during Dr. Alice Ruhweza’s visit to Nyandarua County
From right to left: Mr. Wachira Kaguongo, CEO of NPCK; Mr. Reuben Muritu, Founder of Potato Republic; and Dr. Alice Ruhweza, President of AGRA, during a visit to Potato Republic in Nyandarua County.
