Pessl Instruments will deploy 15,000 smart weather stations in Kenya as part of the UpYield4Africa programme.
The rollout was launched in Nairobi on Friday, bringing together technology companies, agricultural businesses, financial institutions and other stakeholders.
The stations, marketed under the METOS brand, will record rainfall, temperature, humidity, soil moisture and leaf wetness and transmit the data to Pessl’s FieldClimate digital platform.
Farmers will be able to access localised forecasts, crop disease models and other agricultural insights through online and mobile applications.
Gottfried Pessl, founder and chief executive of Pessl Instruments, said smallholder farmers need reliable, localised information to make better decisions throughout the farming cycle.
Austrian Ambassador to Kenya Simone Knapp said the programme reflects growing cooperation between Kenya and Austria in applying technology to address food-security and productivity challenges.
AgriMet Data Kenya will serve as the local implementation partner, overseeing distribution, installation, maintenance, farmer training and technical support.
The initiative will organise farmers into production clusters supported by Digital Farm Advisors who will translate weather data into practical recommendations and help coordinate inputs, production and market alignment.
The model aims to address fragmented production, limited extension services, unpredictable weather, limited credit and market access by linking farmers to input suppliers, advisers, financial institutions and commercial buyers.
A financing arrangement under discussion involves Austrian financing institutions and a Kenyan banking partner, with funding channelled through a cluster company or produce offtaker; KCB’s participation remains provisional and final terms are pending lender due diligence and approvals from Austria’s OeKB.
The Nairobi launch featured participants such as Safaricom, Bayer Crop Science, Lindsay, HZPC, Viazi, X Green Capital, FreshCrop Limited and SAI Platform, and included a live METOS demonstration and panel discussions on agricultural data.
Pessl Instruments, founded in 1984 and headquartered in Weiz, Austria, operates in 85 countries and has offered the FieldClimate platform since 2005.
The 15,000 stations are part of a broader plan to install up to 100,000 devices across Africa under the UpYield4Africa programme.
The programme also envisages generating income through crop sales and paid agricultural services to sustain the technology infrastructure and advisory network.
