RAIN 2 Seeds: Zowasel

Zowasel works to strengthen the resilience of small scale farmers, food systems, and global supply chains in Kenya and Tanzania through sustainable digital solutions. The organisation connects sorghum farmers and cooperatives with buyers through a digital marketplace that promotes transparency, traceability, and fairer market access. By supporting regenerative agriculture, carbon tracking, and access to climate smart information, Zowasel helps farmers improve profitability while meeting growing global sustainability standards. The initiative also provides training, digital advisory services, and physical Crop Centres where farmers can access technology, inputs, and learning opportunities to strengthen their participation in local and global markets.

Innovation Challenge grantees have the option to participate in a research study in collaboration with the Stockholm Resilience Centre looking at the transformative potential of their initiative. This is part of the Seeds for Transformative Resilience work. The research project involves a series of interviews and surveys that were analysed to develop a document that details and explains these efforts and investigates the grantees transformative potential.

A seed is a local or regional initiative already being implemented but not yet mainstream that strengthens community resilience and has the potential to drive transformative change. These initiatives offer practical examples of how more sustainable, resilient, and peaceful futures can emerge through new ways of thinking, social movements, institutions or technologies. Seeds have transformative potential when they support learning and systems understanding, foster collaboration, are backed by resources, fit their context and help shift power structures and norms.