How climate-resilient greenhouses assist farmers overcome unpredictable climate

Ghana loses about $1.9 billion annually to post-harvest losses. Farmers, who kind the spine of the agricultural sector, using over 30% of the inhabitants and contributing roughly 20% to nationwide GDP, lose as much as half their harvests to erratic rainfall, outdated farming strategies, and poor storage or market entry. On the similar time, unlawful small-scale mining, generally known as galamsey, has polluted a lot of Ghana’s freshwater. Some estimates counsel that about 60% of the nation’s rivers and streams are actually contaminated, and hundreds of hectares of farmland have change into unfit for cultivation.

In opposition to this backdrop, Anaporka Adazabra launched Farm.io Restricted in 2020 with what she calls “Farms of the Future”: climate-smart greenhouses built-in with precision farming instruments, agronomist assist, market linkages, and versatile financing.

“Farm.io isn’t nearly offering instruments; it’s about constructing a full system that connects farmers from manufacturing to market whereas making them extra resilient to local weather change,” Adazabra mentioned.

Her work earned her the Bayer Basis Ladies Empowerment Award in 2025, drawing worldwide consideration to a mannequin that’s quietly altering how Ghana’s smallholder farmers produce and promote meals.

Sensible greenhouses for year-round manufacturing

Farm.io’s modular greenhouses are designed to face up to Ghana’s numerous local weather circumstances. Constructed from recycled but sturdy supplies, she says the buildings final over 15 years and defend crops from warmth stress, erratic rainfall, and pests.

“In open farming, yields are extremely susceptible to erratic rainfall, pests, and warmth stress,” Adazabra explains. “With greenhouses, farmers can develop year-round in managed environments, optimise water use, cut back pest stress, and enhance productiveness as much as 5 instances in comparison with open fields.”

She provides that every unit comes with drip irrigation for environment friendly water use, air flow controls for temperature and humidity administration, and protecting mesh to minimise pest entry. Newer fashions embrace digital sensors related to Farm.io’s USSD platform, permitting farmers to watch circumstances and obtain tailor-made recommendation.

Recognising that business greenhouse techniques will be costly, Farm.io designed modular homes utilizing domestically sourced supplies. Relying on measurement, a Farm.io greenhouse begins at round $500 for compact yard fashions and scales as much as group buildings costing just a few thousand {dollars}.

Adazabra says that thus far, Farm.io has constructed and deployed over 200 modular greenhouses throughout Ghana, from yard kits for city growers to bigger business items for cooperatives. The corporate has accomplished greater than 100 tasks, with most customers reporting regular yields all year long.

“As a substitute of harvesting simply a few times a 12 months, farmers can now obtain a number of manufacturing cycles and provide greens similar to tomatoes, peppers, and leafy greens persistently to the market,” she says.

versatile financing fashions. Adazabra describes a pay-as-you-grow scheme which permits farmers to repay the price of greenhouses or inputs step by step from harvest proceeds reasonably than upfront.

“For bigger items, we provide lease-to-own fashions that unfold funds throughout a number of seasons till farmers or cooperatives totally personal the infrastructure,” Adazabra explains. “We’re additionally exploring partnerships with monetary establishments and impression traders to unlock low-interest credit score and blended finance.”

A digital farm supervisor in each pocket

Past bodily infrastructure, Farm.io extends its attain by way of a digital platform, out there as a smartphone app and by way of USSD for fundamental telephones. In keeping with Adazabra, the platform acts as a farm supervisor, providing real-time steerage all through the farming cycle.

“By the app, and even the USSD model for farmers with out smartphones, they’ll entry climate-smart recommendation, get alerts on irrigation or pest administration, monitor crop development, and request inputs or providers instantly from Farm.io,” Adazabra explains. “It additionally connects them to patrons prematurely, lowering postharvest losses.”

For areas with restricted connectivity, the USSD service ensures farmers can nonetheless request providers, verify crop schedules, and obtain advisory messages with out information.

“We constructed light-weight offline performance that shops updates and syncs each time there’s a sign,” she provides. “By combining USSD, SMS alerts, and low-data design, we make sure that no farmer is omitted, no matter their gadget or location.”

To make sure adoption, Farm.io’s area brokers present hands-on demonstrations to coach farmers on how you can use the instruments.

To attach farmers to market, Farm.io operates a twin market technique, connecting farmers instantly with aggregators, retailers, and institutional patrons who decide to purchases prematurely, and thru its personal on-line store the place farmers can promote on to shoppers. Each harvest goes by way of standardised sorting, packaging, and high quality checks to satisfy each native and export requirements.

Recognition and the journey forward

Being named a Bayer Basis Ladies Empowerment Awardee has been transformative for Farm.io.

“It gave us international publicity and credibility, opening doorways to companions, traders, and policymakers who may by no means have discovered us in any other case,” Adazabra says, particularly helpful in a sector traders have beforehand thought-about too dangerous to spend money on. 

The award additionally strengthened her platform as a lady entrepreneur in agriculture, connecting her to a community of friends and mentors. Since then, Farm.io has secured new partnerships to broaden greenhouse adoption and strengthen farmer financing pipelines.

Operationally, logistics stay the hardest problem. “Getting inputs, greenhouses, and produce to and from distant farms is complicated and dear,” she says. Farm.io is addressing this by way of higher route planning, aggregation hubs, and native partnerships.

Adazabra’s ambitions lengthen past Ghana. Over the following 5 years, she envisions Farm.io as Africa’s main platform for climate-smart farming.

“Which means scaling our modular greenhouses into each district, so farmers, whether or not in rural villages or city backyards, can produce persistently all 12 months spherical,” she says. “It additionally means increasing our SuperApp right into a one-stop ecosystem for coaching, financing, inputs, and markets.”

At scale, she believes Farm.io may assist tens of millions of farmers feed rising cities and even attain export markets, shifting from subsistence to industrial ranges of manufacturing. 

“Our greatest achievement has been proving that smallholder farmers can thrive when know-how meets agriculture,” Adazabra says. “We’ve constructed tons of of greenhouses, onboarded farmers onto our SuperApp and USSD platforms, and proven that productiveness and incomes can rise considerably.”