Enabling Market Intelligence and Building Engagement (EMBE)

Project Name (full): Enabling Market Intelligence and Building Engagement (EMBE) 

Geographic area, countries: Kenya 

Funders: BMGF

Partners: Agribusinesses, Digital service providers, Insurance companies, Financial institutions, and Farmer cooperatives 

The Enabling Market Intelligence and Building Engagement (EMBE) project addresses critical information and service delivery gaps in Kenya that limit farmers’ ability to access and adopt climate adaptation solutions. The project leverages digital tools to reduce data asymmetry, promote knowledge sharing, and support climate-resilient farming practices. 

A unique focus of EMBE is optimizing sales agent networks to lower customer acquisition costs: improving how agents are selected, trained, and incentivized. This addresses a major bottleneck for rural-facing businesses and enhances last-mile delivery of bundled services that combine multiple climate risk-mitigating products. 

To strengthen targeting and improve service delivery, EMBE also applies low cost, gamified data collection and data-driven approaches such as behaviorally informed customer segmentation and risk modeling. These strategies help tailor offerings to farmers’ specific needs and improve business efficiency.

By supporting the viability of key actors—including agribusinesses, digital platforms, financial institutions and cooperatives—the project is contributing to a more inclusive and sustainable market ecosystem. It places emphasis on underserved groups, including women and youth, ensuring equitable access to innovations. 

Ultimately, EMBE aims to scale climate-smart practices, boost resilience among smallholder farmers, and contribute to long-term food and economic security in Kenya. 

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• Optimizing sales agent networks – Identifying, selecting, training, and incentivizing rural sales agents to reduce customer acquisition costs and improve last-mile delivery
• Developing and promoting bundled services – Designing integrated product and service offerings that combine climate risk-mitigating solutions for efficient delivery to farmers
• Leveraging digital tools for data collection and engagement – Using mobile and digital platforms to gather low-cost customer data, facilitate engagement, and promote climate-smart practices
• Applying data-driven approaches – Utilizing customer segmentation, advanced risk modeling and analytics to tailor products and services to farmers’ needs
• Strengthening market actors – Supporting agribusinesses, digital service providers, financial institutions, and cooperatives to enhance the delivery of climate solutions
• Promoting inclusive access to climate innovations – Designing and implementing strategies to reach underserved groups, especially women and youth
• Building a robust market ecosystem for climate adaptation – Facilitating partnerships, knowledge sharing, and enabling environments for sustainable and scalable climate resilience efforts
• Scaling adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices – Driving uptake of climate-resilient techniques through awareness, demonstration, and improved service delivery

EMBE employs a unique partnership approach that places the Agribusinesses at the core of project implementation: They play a central role in the co-development and testing of the various solutions. The research and development objectives of the project are rightly integrated within the operations of the Agribusiness partners to enhance learning and adaptability of last mile delivery mechanisms, informed by real time data and analytics.