Betty Mwende

Kenyan tech entrepreneur revolutionizing agriculture through mobile innovation.

Betty Mwende pioneered M-Farm, a mobile platform connecting Kenyan farmers to markets and resources. Born in 1978 in Western Kenya, she witnessed farmers’ struggles with middlemen exploitation and price volatility. M-Farm’s SMS-based system aggregates crop prices, provides weather alerts, and links farmers directly to buyers. By 2018, it served 50,000+ users, increasing incomes by 30-50%. Mwende’s approach won the GSMA Mobile Money Award in 2014.

Innovative features include crop insurance via USSD and drought-resistant seed recommendations. Her partnership with Safaricom integrated M-Pesa payments, enabling instant transactions. Critics argued mobile penetration was too low, but Mwende’s voice-based interface made it accessible even without smartphones. A 2020 study by World Bank cited M-Farm as a model for digital agriculture in Africa. Mwende later co-founded Agritech Hub, training 2,000+ women in tech-driven farming.