Agriculture remains the backbone of Kenya’s economy, contributing 22 percent of GDP and employing more than 70 percent of the rural population. Despite this importance, most smallholder farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture, leaving them highly exposed to erratic rainfall and recurring droughts. Although irrigation could significantly reduce these risks, only a small portion of Kenya’s irrigation potential has been developed, limiting farmers’ ability to stabilize production and incomes.
To address this vulnerability, the social enterprise SunCulture, with support from Shell Foundation and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office under the CASEE programme, is scaling off-grid solar irrigation through a pay-as-you-go credit model. By integrating energy access directly into irrigation systems, this approach overcomes gaps in water and power infrastructure, particularly in areas where grid electricity and diesel fuel are unreliable or too expensive. SunCulture has grown to serve more than 60,000 customers and now holds a dominant share of the solar irrigation market in sub-Saharan Africa.
An independent evaluation by Duke University assessed the impact of SunCulture’s technology on more than 750 households across six Kenyan counties between 2023 and 2025. The study compared adopters of solar irrigation with non-adopters and found substantial increases in irrigation use, with a higher share of farmland coming under irrigation. Beyond increased technology uptake, the findings point to broader welfare improvements, including greater household resilience to shocks, improved dietary diversity alongside lower food expenditures, reduced post-harvest losses due to more predictable harvests, and a shift away from costly diesel pumps toward clean energy.
The research also observed changes in farming strategies following adoption. Many farmers began focusing on a smaller number of higher-value irrigated crops, indicating a move toward strategic specialization. While expectations for future revenues rose, net income and productivity remained stable in the first year, reflecting a transition period as households adjusted cropping choices, labor allocation, and input use to make the most of the new technology.
At the same time, the evaluation highlighted challenges that could limit wider adoption. Ongoing pay-as-you-go repayments created liquidity pressures for some households, reducing confidence in their ability to meet emergency expenses. Adopters also tended to have higher initial incomes than non-adopters, pointing to an access gap for poorer farmers. Gender dynamics played a role as well, with shared household decision-making linked to stronger resilience and revenue expectations, while changes in labor patterns increased reliance on hired workers to manage expanded production.
Overall, the findings suggest that solar-powered irrigation can deliver meaningful gains in resilience, nutrition, and production for smallholder farmers in Kenya, while also supporting climate adaptation. To fully realize this potential, longer-term support is needed through flexible financing, carbon revenue mechanisms to reduce upfront costs, financial literacy, access to quality inputs, and extension services. Aligning these efforts with supportive national policies that empower smallholders to invest in their own technologies can help position small-scale solar irrigation as a resilience-first investment for sustainable agricultural growth.
