Strengthening digital agriculture through innovative integrated land, soil, and crop information systems: Policy insights from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Rwanda
Date: November 1, 2025
Land, soil and crop (LSC) data hubs in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Rwanda are already enabling faster, evidence-based planning and reducing duplication of land, soil, and crop datasets across institutions. Integrating the hubs into existing or planned national platforms, such as the Kenya Digital Agriculture Platform, Ethiopia’s Agricultural Data Hub (AgData Hub), Rwanda’s Agricultural Management Information System (AMIS) and Rwanda Soil Information System (RwaSIS) infrastructure, increases efficiency, strengthens data governance, and improves the targeting of climate-smart agricultural interventions. User feedback highlights strong functionality and ease of navigation but underscores the need for enhanced visualisation tools, local language options, offline access, and continuous digital literacy support, particularly for subnational users. Long-term sustainability depends on clear institutional ownership, recurrent budgets, and embedding the LSC hubs within national agricultural strategies, digital governance frameworks, and public-sector workflows. Scaling is most promising when (i) the hubs are embedded in national digital agriculture platforms, enabling seamless interoperability and reduced duplication; and when (ii) LSC data is actively used by key stakeholders in the agricultural policy, planning and extension system at national and local levels. The Land, Soil, and Crop Information Services (LSC-IS) project offers actionable lessons for the emerging continental and regional Fertiliser and Soil Health Hubs envisioned under the Nairobi Declaration— demonstrating how interoperable data systems, institutional ownership, and sustained capacity can be operationalised across countries to accelerate Africa’s soil health and fertiliser agenda.
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