Climate-Smart Dairy Project in Nandi: What the Farmer Partnership Offers
By Faith Jepkirui | Updated October 9, 2026
The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), Africa Guarantee Fund (AGF) and technology company Space AI launched the Climate-Smart Dairy Value Chain Transformation Project at Tilalwa Multi-Purpose Farmers’ Cooperative Society in Nandi County on February 13, 2026.
The launch announcement describes a project covering 45 dairy cooperatives across 11 pilot counties. KNCCI said the initial phase aims to reach more than 1,500 farmers. These are programme targets and launch figures; they do not confirm that every farmer has received a loan, service or training.
What the project says it will provide
- Finance and credit readiness: The project aims to catalyse up to KSh600 million in climate-smart dairy financing and introduce Mkulima Loans through partner financial institutions. “Up to” is a target, not a guaranteed loan amount or approval for an individual farmer.
- Milk collection and transport: E-mobility solutions are intended to support milk aggregation and reduce logistics constraints.
- Farm services: Planned Malisho Service Centres are intended to connect farmers to inputs and animal-health services, including East Coast Fever vaccination.
- Digital cooperative records: Space AI says it is digitising participating cooperatives for farmer profiling, milk-data capture and automated check-off systems.
- Household payment options: The announcement describes “Maziwa ni School Fees” and “Maziwa ni Afya (Lipa SHA)” initiatives intended to link milk income to education and health costs.
Questions farmers should ask before signing up
The launch release does not publish a complete application form, loan interest rate, fees, repayment schedule or a confirmed list of participating cooperatives. A farmer interested in the project should first ask their cooperative whether it is one of the pilot groups, which lender is offering any loan, and what the written loan terms are.
Before borrowing, compare the total cost of credit, any guarantee or insurance fee, repayment timing and the income the dairy enterprise can realistically generate. Do not pay an individual or mobile number based only on a social-media message; verify the programme through KNCCI, the cooperative or the named regulated financial institution.
How to judge whether the programme is working
Useful follow-up evidence would include the cooperatives actually enrolled, farmers served, credit approved and repaid, milk volumes collected, service-centre availability and the cost of those services. The KSh600 million figure and expected farmer reach are ambitions from the launch announcement, not measured results.
Source and verification
The details above are based on the project announcement by KNCCI, one of the project partners. We have not found an independently published beneficiary list or loan schedule as of this update.
