The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), has launched Solar Energy for Agricultural Resilience (SoLAR) Phase II project in East Africa.
The initiative aims to unlock the transformative potential of solar technologies across agriculture and food systems, enabling smallholder farmers, value chain actors, and women, youth, and other disadvantaged groups to have equitable access to opportunities that build resilience in the face of climate extremes.
Unlike conventional projects focused mainly on irrigation, SoLAR II will promote productive uses of renewable energy (PURE) such as solar-powered cold storage, dryers, milling and agro-processing that will help farmers cut costs, reduce losses and create new income opportunities.
Irrigation Secretary, Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation Eng. Vincent Kabuti in his opening remarks during the launch of the SoLAR Phase II project in East Africa at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi said that Kenya’s irrigation potential is 3.3 million acres, while only about 710,000 acres are currently under irrigation.
Kabuti said that Kenya offers strategic entry points to scale solar irrigation and agro-processing with strong policy frameworks including the Vision 2030 development blueprint and Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), renewable energy strategies, and the National Irrigation Sector Investment Plan (NISIP).
“We have a strong political will and a vibrant private sector to help us achieve NISIP’s target to irrigate one million acres by 2030” he said adding that what is needed now is coordinated action to bridge policy gaps, expand financing options and raise awareness among farmers
He said that through its activities, SoLAR II seeks to generate actionable evidence through tools, frameworks and solar suitability maps to guide decision-making for governments, implementors and investors.
However, he observed that challenges remain in policy, financing, technical capacity, farmer awareness, and ensuring gender-inclusive approaches.
Director of Water, Growth and Inclusion at IWMI Dr. Inga Jacobs-Mata said that by fostering stronger partnerships and co-developing pathways with diverse stakeholders, SoLAR II aims to integrate solar energy solutions into farming and food systems, ensuring they are socially inclusive, climate-smart and financially viable.
She said that building on five years of work in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan), SoLAR Phase II expands to Kenya and Ethiopia and that he programme adopts a holistic, systems-based approach to solar energy for sustainable agriculture (SESA).
Jacobs-Mata divulged that the project will unlock finance and investment by developing inclusive financing solutions and exploring innovative mechanisms such as a Solar4Africa fund and build capacity and knowledge via training programmes and south-south collaboration, with a strong focus on women farmers.
“Through SoLAR II, we will work hand-in-hand with governments, private sector actors and communities to create the enabling environment that will allow these technologies to thrive at scale.” she said.
She said that the project will validate and scale business models through on-the-ground ‘living labs’, where agro ecological innovations are identified, co-designed, tested and adopted by stakeholders in landscapes.
“Solar energy has the potential to transform food systems, making them more sustainable, inclusive and climate-resilient,” she said.
Regional Representative at GOGLA East Africa Walter Kiprono said that solar-powered pumping and irrigation systems remain the most established and mature technologies for the productive use of energy, offering scalable solutions tailored to a wide range of users, from smallholder farmers to large-scale commercial operations.
The inception workshop brought together senior government officials, private sector leads, farmer representatives, development partners, researchers, financiers and civil society.
Participants explored pathways to align policies, expand financing mechanisms and strengthen capacities needed to overcome barriers and accelerate adoption of solar technologies in agriculture.
By Anita Omwenga
