Africa's Gold is Green

Hey, Caleb Maru here 👋

If you’re reading this, it’s because you’re special to us.

At Tech Safari, we’ve been working on something new. 

For years, we’ve told stories about Africa’s tech scene: the startups, the builders, the dreamers.

And on that journey, we kept finding tracks leading to an unexpected place: the farm.

Some of the biggest stories of innovation are on the ground, and they aren’t being told.

These stories are about unlocking Africa's most valuable and most under-used asset: agriculture.

This opportunity deserves the same energy we’ve put into tech.

So today, we’re launching Ag Safari, a new newsletter exploring Africa’s food future.

And we want you in on it.

So before we start, tell us 👇🏾

The Irony of Plenty

There’s an interesting paradox across the world.

Some of the richest countries on earth, in gold, oil, and other minerals, are also the poorest.

Like Venezuela. It has the world’s biggest oil reserves, but 82% of its citizens are poor.

Or Congo, a place with enough Coltan and Lithium to power the world’s tech. 

Yet it’s the poster child for instability.

It’s called the irony of plenty.

In Africa, we’re seeing this paradox show up in the most unexpected place: food.

And we have to talk about it because…

Africa’s Gold is Green

Africa is sitting on agricultural gold.

It has:

• Over 874 million hectares of fertile, unused land.

• Year-round sunlight and has one of the world’s biggest tropical rainforests.

• And it’s teeming with farmers, as 60% of its workforce works in agriculture.

This continent could feed the world!

But somehow, it can’t even feed itself.

Africa is one of the hungriest places on earth.

About 1 billion Africans (66% of Africa) can’t afford a healthy diet. That’s 1 in 3 people.

And more than 50% of Africans risk having no food at all.

But why does this happen?

One peek under the hood, and we see the answer.

It’s the inefficiency trap

African agriculture is grossly inefficient.

Take land, for instance. Yes, Africa has 60% of the world’s unused farmland. 

But much of it is nutrient-depleted from planting the same crops each year.

Even worse, 80% of Africa’s farmers are smallholders. 

They work less than two hectares on average, earn under $2 a day, and rely on outdated methods. 

Only 10% of farmers use mechanised tools like tractors.

To understand why, you have to walk in their shoes.

Before a single seed hits the soil, these farmers are staring down several challenges.

They're short on cash right when they need it most.

The good seeds are either too expensive or too far away.

And even if they get their hands on them, no one has shown them the best way to use them.

So while there’s plenty of farming, there’s not enough food.

And the problems are not just on the farms.

Transport, storage, and processing all choke the system.

• In some places, transport costs make up 45% of food prices.

• Over a third of food spoils before it even reaches markets.

• Ghana and the Ivory Coast control half the world’s cocoa supply, but earn little from the $145 billion chocolate industry.

The result? Africa’s potential bleeds out at every step.

To take on the efficiency trap, Africa has two paths.

One is the long road: building infrastructure. Roads, siloes, mills. 

The African Development Bank says we need $45 billion annually to catch up. But governments currently spend only $17 billion.

The other is the shortcut: using technology and innovation to do more with less.

Across the continent, the second path is seeing a lot of action.

The first seeds of change

About 95% of farms in Africa depend on rain for water.

No rain means no yield. So, this makes them vulnerable to droughts and weather shifts. 

Enter: Sunculture.

Sunculture builds solar-powered pumps that give farmers their own water supply.

Then it installs them on small farms and lets farmers pay it off on a plan.

Today, Sunculture serves over 45,000 farmers across Africa.

And it’s been a game-changer for them. Their yields have grown by 300%, and their incomes by 10x.

But rain is just one variable. 

iShamba is using AI to help Kenyan farmers figure out the weather and plant better.

It uses satellite tech to predict weather patterns, then sends those predictions to farmers using calls and SMS.

So far, it’s reached 540,000 farmers in Kenya, many of whom have seen a 67% increase in their yields, plus extra profits of $288 per acre.

Then there’s Babban Gona in Nigeria. 

The company uses a franchise model to give small farmers the benefit of being a big farmer.

They pool farmers in groups of three to five, train them to use tech and modern farming methods, give them loans, and pool their harvests for sale.

The results were dramatic. Farmers who used to scrape by suddenly earned 2.5 times more.

And 99% of farmers repay their loans. 

Today, Babban Gona works with over 280,000 farmers across Nigeria.

And it’s the largest producer of maize in Africa.

Stories of innovation abound in African agriculture:

• Hello Tractor rents out tractors to farmers daily.

• Pula insures farm yields, so farmers are protected when their harvests are too low.

• And Crop2cash provides credit to farmers. So far, it has given out $2 million to 5,000 small farmers in Nigeria.

You’ve probably heard of these trailblazers, and their work is essential.

But there is so much more to unpack in African agriculture.

At Tech Safari, we’ve seen what happens when great stories are uncovered: people care, and when they care, they act.

We’ve done that with African tech. But what if we could do that for agriculture, too?

That’s why…

We’re launching our new Ag-Venture!

Earlier this year, we met up with GIZ’s SAIS program, a German initiative that helps agritech startups scale.

We aligned on a simple truth: agriculture is one of Africa’s biggest growth opportunities. But it doesn’t get the spotlight it deserves.

So together, we’re launching Ag Safari.

We’ll map the people, products, and places transforming African agriculture. 

Between 2014 and 2024, over $1.56 billion flowed into African agritech across 700+ deals.

That’s 700+ stories of change we could be telling. This one you’re reading is just the first.

Our goal? To shift the global narrative on African agriculture, making it visible, engaging, and investable. Because telling untold stories can create change.

So, if you’d like to join us on this journey, sign up and come along.

And if you want to support us, share this newsletter with a friend, colleague, or investor who cares about Africa’s food future.

But before you go, we want to hear your take.

How have you seen technology fixing food systems in Africa?

👉🏾Tell us via email or on LinkedIn.

P.S: This edition looks a bit different because it’s a launch post for Ag Safari! We wanted to give you a preview of what you’ll get when you sign up for Ag Safari. Tech Safari will be back to its usual design next week!

Cheers!