Phase 2 Begins: Ashoka East Africa and Partners Launch Next Chapter of the Towards Improving Livelihoods for Smallholder Farmers Program

Smallholder farmers are the backbone of East Africa's food systems, producing the majority of food consumed across the region. Yet they continue to face interconnected and persistent challenges: unreliable access to energy for irrigation, processing, and storage; high post-harvest losses that erode income; limited market access; and increasing vulnerability to climate shocks. These pressures trap millions of farming households, particularly women and youth, in cycles of low productivity and income insecurity.

Distributed renewable energy holds enormous potential to break this cycle. Consider what this looks like in practice. Across Uganda, smallholder farmers producing tomatoes, vegetables, and other perishables can lose 30 to 50 percent of their harvest simply because there is nowhere nearby to store it after picking. Without cold storage, farmers are forced to sell immediately at whatever price middlemen offer or watch their produce spoil entirely. 

Ronald Mugaiga, one of the 23 innovators selected for Phase 2, built ClimaVault Africa to address exactly this failure. His enterprise operates 13 solar-powered, IoT-enabled cold storage hubs across Uganda, combined with a plant-based edible coating that extends produce shelf life from two days to up to 21 days. Farmers pay only for the storage they use, making the service accessible even to those with the smallest holdings. 

To date, ClimaVault has served over 120,000 farmers and secured more than $300,000 in funding, demonstrating that when distributed renewable energy is paired with the right business model, it can deliver measurable, scalable change for farming communities that have long been left behind. Ronald's story is one of 23 in this program that can fundamentally change what is possible for a smallholder farmer. 

Since Phase 1, the program has championed a model of deep, sustained support for social entrepreneurs like Ronald working at the intersection of renewable energy and agriculture, equipping them with the tools, networks, and strategies needed to grow their impact.

Welcome to Phase 2 

Phase 1 of the program mapped over 140 innovators and ecosystem actors, engaged 12 innovators in a collaborative entrepreneurship journey, and catalysed new partnerships and co-created solutions. The process highlighted both the richness of innovation in East Africa and a critical gap: a fragmented ecosystem with limited structured opportunities for knowledge exchange and collective action. Phase 2 represents a significant expansion of this work. Through a rigorous selection process, 23 innovators were chosen from a highly competitive field of applicants, each meeting stringent criteria around their focus on distributed renewable energy applied to agriculture, the operational readiness of their solution, their role as founders or core decision-makers, and their commitment to impact for smallholder farmers across the region.

The program is built around four interconnected pillars: mentorship from experienced practitioners and Ashoka Fellows; engagement with the broader DRE and agricultural ecosystem; partnership development; and preparation for scale. Over the next six months, participating innovators will work intensively to refine their business models, strengthen their impact strategies, and build the relationships needed to grow.

View the Phase 2 innovators

Looking Ahead

Over the coming months, these 23 innovators will deepen their connections to mentors, ecosystem actors, investors, and each other. They will refine their solutions, stress-test their business models, and build the partnerships that will carry their work to greater scale.

Ashoka East Africa, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and E4Impact are committed to walking alongside them every step of the way, providing not just programmatic support, but the belief that these innovators and their solutions are capable of reshaping agricultural systems and improving lives across East Africa.