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METOS plans 100,000 smart weather stations across Africa, starting with 15,000 in Kenya, linking smallholder farmers to data, finance and markets.
Austrian agricultural technology company Pessl Instruments has announced plans to roll out up to 100,000 IoT-enabled weather stations across Africa, beginning with 15,000 in Kenya. The initiative, called UpYield4Africa, aims to raise smallholder farmers’ productivity, strengthen climate resilience and open up better access to agricultural markets.
It was launched in Nairobi bringing together technology providers, agribusinesses, financial institutions and industry stakeholders to discuss how real-time weather intelligence can change the way Kenyan farms operate.
The stations, developed under Pessl Instruments’ METOS brand, collect field-level data including rainfall, temperature, humidity, soil moisture and leaf wetness. That information feeds into FieldClimate, the company’s digital platform, where farmers can access forecasts, crop disease models and other insights through online and mobile apps.
The aim is to help farmers move away from relying mainly on traditional weather patterns and towards decisions based on accurate, location-specific data. That data can inform irrigation, planting schedules, fertiliser application, pest and disease management, crop protection and preparation for extreme weather.
Pessl Instruments founder and CEO Gottfried Pessl explained the thinking:
“Smallholder farmers need reliable, localised information to make better decisions throughout the farming cycle. By combining field-level measurements with weather forecasts and disease models, we can help farmers anticipate risks, improve resource utilisation and increase productivity.”
AgriMet Data Kenya will serve as the local implementation partner, handling distribution, installation and maintenance of the stations, along with farmer training and customer support.
Austrian Ambassador to Kenya, H.E. Dr Simone Knapp, said the launch reflects growing cooperation between the two countries on food security and productivity.
“METOS weather intelligence technology will provide smallholder farmers with real-time data to improve decision-making, anticipate weather patterns and strengthen pest and disease management,” she said, adding that Austrian agritech companies can help build more resilient agricultural systems in Africa.
UpYield4Africa goes beyond hardware. It seeks to build a commercially sustainable community farming model that connects smallholders to advisory services, input suppliers, shared infrastructure, financial institutions and produce buyers.
Under this model, farmers will be organised into production clusters supported by Digital Farm Advisors. These advisors act as the bridge between technology and the field, helping farmers interpret weather and crop data, make agronomic decisions, source suitable inputs and coordinate production to match market requirements.
The approach targets some of smallholder farming’s most persistent problems: fragmented production, limited technical expertise, unpredictable weather, inadequate financing and difficulty meeting the quality and volume demands of commercial buyers. By linking production to offtakers, the initiative aims to make supply more consistent and give farmers better visibility of market demand before and during the season. Revenue from crop sales and paid advisory services is intended to fund the ongoing operation of the technology and advisory network.
Financing is a key part of the plan. A bank-to-bank arrangement is proposed, involving Austrian financial institutions and a Kenyan banking partner. Under it, a cluster company or produce offtaker would access financing against eligible equipment and crop purchase arrangements, reducing the need for individual smallholders to put up land or personal assets as collateral.
It is worth noting that this remains a proposal. It is subject to lender due diligence, eligibility requirements and approvals from the participating institutions, including Austria’s OeKB. KCB’s participation is provisional, and final financing terms have not yet been confirmed.
The launch drew representatives from across the agricultural value chain, including Safaricom, Bayer Crop Science, Lindsay, HZPC and Viazi, X Green Capital, FreshCrop Limited and SAI Platform. Eyal Azar of AgriMet Data Kenya presented the proposed Kenyan deployment.
Four panel discussions covered the role of field-level data in farm decisions, the economic value of the model to farmers, technology integration and the financial sustainability of community-based farming. A live METOS technology demonstration rounded out the programme.
The initiative arrives as interest in digital agriculture grows across the continent, with countries looking to boost food production, strengthen climate resilience and make smallholder farming more attractive to commercial investment.
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