Kenyan Partner KACE Featured on NPR

ACDI/VOCA's longtime partner, the Kenyan Agricultural Commodity Exchange (KACE), was featured on National Public Radio's Marketplace program for its work in connecting farmers to global markets through technology. Cutting out the middleman, ACDI/VOCA and Safaricom, a local wireless phone service provider, collaborate with KACE to disseminate market prices and other information via mobile phone as well as radio, which has never been done before in Kenya. The Marketplace report examines how this increased access to information has put Kenyan farmers on the same playing field as commercial farmers in the U.S., Europe and Brazil, gaining valuable bargaining power to increase their profits as much as 25 percent. As Dr. Adian Mukhebi, founder of KACE, says, "A small farmer producing here in Kenya is actually competing with farmers all over the world!"

Under the USAID-funded Kenya Maize Development Program,KACE is a subgrantee to ACDI/VOCA and is responsible for gathering and disseminating market information and trade facilitation. KACE has benefited from the work of three ACDI/VOCA volunteers, who were important in the development of KACE’s radio show model for sharing prices with farmers and the design of its original website. Besides partnering with KACE on KMDP, ACDI/VOCA has been instrumental in the KACE's growth starting with a similar relationship in 2000 on the Regional Commodity and Trade Information System (RECOTIS), also funded by USAID, which gathered and disseminated market information and trade intelligence on key commodities, particularly cereals.

To go to NPR's Marketplace report, click here.