KAMPALA. A Ugandan agri-tech company is helping smallholder farmers buy solar irrigation equipment without borrowing. Sandi AI uses farmer savings groups as the route to ownership, with no loans, collateral or credit scores required.
The cost barrier for smallholders
The upfront cost of pumps and solar systems is a major barrier for farmers who want to depend less on rainfall. Irrigation can reduce that dependence, but the price of equipment remains a hurdle.
How the savings-group model works
Sandi AI’s answer is to work through groups that already exist. A group leader registers the group and its members through WhatsApp, USSD or the company’s mobile platform, and each member picks the equipment they want. The company describes the mechanism as rotational savings. Once a group’s pool reaches the required amount, the money equips one member with solar pumping, soil sensors and satellite-based AI guidance. The company says the equipped farmer’s savings on fuel and water then help the circle move faster for everyone else.
Farmers reach the service on basic phones as well as smartphones. They can check savings or irrigation updates by dialling a shortcode.
Growth, revenue and competition
The company has grown quickly. It has registered more than 10,000 farmer groups, representing hundreds of thousands of people, mainly in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, and plans to enter Zambia and Malawi, where savings groups are already common. It earns money from small transaction fees, supplier commissions, direct product sales, and agricultural data and advisory services. Its competitors include banks, microfinance institutions, pay-as-you-go irrigation firms and equipment retailers.
New soil-moisture tool
In June the company added a soil-moisture tool. Sensors placed at root depth feed data into a system that combines it with local weather forecasts, crop water needs and soil type, and the guidance is free to members of its savings groups. On its website, the company claims farmers using the full package can save up to 90 percent of water while raising yields. That figure comes from the company itself and has not been independently verified.
Prize recognition
The startup recently won outside recognition. It took the 2026 GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize, worth $50,000 in growth funding, at the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.
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