Joyce Kamande

2022 - 2023

From:

Kenya

Sector:

Agriculture

Location:

Kenya

Joyce was born and raised in a semi-arid area in rural Kenya and witnessed the first hunger issues in her community, her determination enabled her to study hard and get to the University, it is during her years at University she met other people who faced extreme poverty and food insecurity issues. She ventured into research and development in circular economy and it is during her research she discovered a solution for the depleted soils and food insecurity. Her commitment to entrepreneurship is to provide affordable farm input and capacity building for smallholder farmers to help her community and other communities be food secure. This resonates with her on a personal level.

In her work, Joyce has co-founded and scaled a social enterprise that uses technology to decentralize fertilizer production in village-based units using the locally available resources, labor, and waste to produce a high-yielding affordable carbon-negative fertilizer that helps farmers increase their yields by 30%.

In Kenya, the government has made it so easy for its entrepreneurs to be in a position to register a business and receive their certificate of incorporation within 10 days, in the comfort of their homes or office. Additionally, the government has set up innovation hubs that support SMEs with a working and production space for at least one year in Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI).