Kenyan graduates use AI and social platforms to make farming pay as formal jobs remain scarce
Young farmers in Kenya are using AI tools, social media and farm-management apps to market produce, diagnose crop problems, build nutrient plans and track dairy performance as salaried jobs remain limited.
Young graduates in Kenya are increasingly treating agriculture as a serious profession and income strategy as formal employment remains scarce. Al Jazeera reports from Kericho County that educated rural producers are combining practical farming with digital tools to sell produce, manage risk and improve the economics of mixed smallholder operations.
One of the farmers featured is 33-year-old Chepkorir Rotich from Kiboito village. After leaving college, she expected to work as a business administrator, but the best temporary contract she found in Nairobi paid about $200 a month. She now starts before sunrise each day, milks cows, sells milk, tends chickens and harvests vegetables for orders already placed. Rotich uses social media to market produce and share modern farming knowledge, and she has built an online following of nearly 50,000 people while also running a YouTube channel focused on agriculture.
Rotich disputes the idea that farming is only for older people. She notes that the FAO has reported an average African farmer age of about 60, but argues that the deeper issue is access to land, which is often controlled by older generations. She said she started farming in the compound of her rented house and eventually reached a point where, after rent settlement, her landlord still owed her money because he bought milk and vegetables from her.
Kiringai Kamau, a University of Nairobi lecturer specialising in agricultural economics, agribusiness and food systems, said young people are well placed to adopt technology as a full-time farm tool. He pointed to the creation of a devolution agroecology and AI learning centre at Murang’a University, intended to train youth to work with agricultural data systems and connect them with wider county and national information infrastructure.
Another graduate, 32-year-old Geoffrey Kiprop from nearby Kaptoroi village, earned an information technology degree in 2017 but never secured permanent formal work. He said the best systems-development contract he found paid 15,000 Kenyan shillings, while farming now brings in about 7,000 shillings a day. Kiprop runs a mixed farm with dairy cows, chickens, tea, coffee, capsicum, cabbage and beans. He uses the Plantix app to identify crop disease and nutrient deficiency from photos, Virtual Agronomist to map plots and generate soil-based nutrient plans, and Digicow to track milk sales, inputs and dairy profitability.