How TechnoServe and UK FCDO Helped Us Professionalise Our First-Mile Operations

About the CASA Kenya Programme

The Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusinesses (CASA) programme is a UK FCDO-funded initiative designed to increase the income of smallholder farmers in developing economies by helping agribusinesses build stronger, more inclusive value chains. In Kenya, the programme was implemented by TechnoServe — one of the world's leading non-profit business developers with deep expertise in African agricultural markets.

CASA selected FarmMoja as a programme partner following a competitive assessment process that evaluated the viability of our business model, the quality of our farmer relationships, and our potential to reach scale in the Kenyan avocado export sector.

The Value Chain Assessment

TechnoServe's engagement began with a comprehensive, independent assessment of FarmMoja's value chain — from seedling sourcing and farmer recruitment through agronomic support, aggregation, packhouse operations, and export logistics. The assessment was conducted without management influence and benchmarked FarmMoja's practices against best-in-class standards from comparable programmes across East Africa.

The assessment identified three priority areas for improvement:

• First-mile data collection and farmer record-keeping at the plot level
• Packhouse throughput efficiency and cold-chain consistency
• Buyer relationship management and export documentation protocols

The Technical Assistance Package

Based on the assessment findings, TechnoServe delivered a tailored technical assistance package over a six-month engagement. The package included:

• Farmer field school redesign: Revised training curriculum aligned to GlobalGAP record-keeping requirements, making compliance less burdensome for farmers with limited formal education
• Digital data systems: Support in implementing a mobile-based farmer data collection system, replacing paper records and enabling real-time visibility of plot-level agronomic and volume data
• Packhouse SOPs: Standard operating procedures for intake, grading, packing, and cold storage, benchmarked to EU importer requirements
• Export documentation toolkit: Templates and workflows for phytosanitary certification, certificate of origin, and buyer-specific documentation packages

The Measurable Outcomes

Following the TechnoServe engagement, FarmMoja saw measurable improvements across all three priority areas. Farmer record-keeping compliance improved significantly, reducing the rework required ahead of GlobalGAP audits. Packhouse throughput increased, enabling faster turnaround from field delivery to pre-cooling. Export documentation errors fell to near zero across the 2025 export season.

These operational improvements were a direct contributor to FarmMoja's ability to complete its first two export containers in 2025 without a single phytosanitary rejection or buyer quality dispute.

A Template for Responsible Scaling

The CASA / TechnoServe engagement demonstrated that third-party technical assistance — when well-designed and genuinely independent — can accelerate an agribusiness's journey to export readiness faster than internal trial-and-error alone. FarmMoja is grateful to TechnoServe and UK FCDO for their support, and we hope the model provides a template for other agricultural development programmes operating in Kenya.