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Paper short abstract

Ethnographic research on Kenyan agri-tech startups examines how “sustainability” is defined in digital agriculture. Early findings show it is framed as commercial viability, reinforced by input-company partnerships, shaping who digital tools are built for and whose farming futures are prioritized.

Paper long abstract

Kenya is frequently positioned as a continental leader in digital agriculture, celebrated for its ecosystem of agri-tech startups and innovation hubs. Within ICT4Ag discourse these technologies are framed as pathways toward sustainability, productivity, and inclusive rural development. Yet the social worlds in which these digital futures are designed remain underexamined.

Drawing on extended ethnographic fieldwork among Kenyan agri-tech startups, developers, and intermediary actors, this paper examines how “sustainability” is conceptualized and enacted by those building digital agriculture systems. Based on semi-structured and informal interviews, participant observation inside startup offices, as well as on farms and with the startups' field agents, the analysis combines insights from anthropology and STS.

The paper asks how agri-tech actors understand sustainability, and how these understandings shape the design and targeting of digital tools. Early findings suggest that sustainability is frequently framed in entrepreneurial terms as commercial viability. This framing is materially reinforced through through partnerships with agricultural input purveyors that embed input marketing within digital advisory platforms. Environmental and social concerns enter the design process primarily when they can be aligned with these commercial imperatives.

Rather than presuming either success or failure, the paper traces how market-oriented definitions of sustainability become infrastructural, shaping who digital agriculture is built for and what forms of farming are made legible and valuable. In doing so, it situates Kenyan agri-tech within broader AR4D investments and asks whether digital agriculture is opening pathways toward inclusive rural development - or consolidating a narrower, market-centric vision of agricultural futures.