What Arid Lands Information Network does

Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) is a Kenya-registered international non-governmental organisation founded in 1987 that supports climate resilience, agricultural productivity and digital inclusion for communities in the arid and semi-arid lands of East Africa (primarily Kenya, with operations in Uganda). It delivers services through a hybrid model of physical community knowledge centres known as Maarifa Centres — equipped with computers, internet and library services and staffed by Community Information Volunteers — combined with field-officer outreach, demo plots and training. Its principal customer segments are rural arid-lands communities, smallholder farmers, youth and students, women pastoralist groups, Kenyan county governments (Kilifi, Kajiado, Nakuru, Laikipia) and civil-society organisations engaged in climate advocacy.

Its core technology stack is a constellation of complementary platforms rather than a unified product. FARMIS-Kenya is a web/mobile farm records management system (operated by the Sokopepe social enterprise subsidiary launched in 2016) that captures farmer production and financial data via Production Information Agents; SOKO+ is a digital commodity trading platform linking those farmers to retailers and bulk purchasers. RACHEL is a portable offline server pre-loaded with educational content (KA Lite, Wikipedia for Schools, Moodle, GCF LearnFree, PhET, Blockly Games, KICD materials) deployed in schools and Maarifa Centres without internet. ALINET is a community-owned broadband network in Sipili, Laikipia County using licensed spectrum with AHERINET and APC support, and OpenStreetMap is used for community mapping and spatial planning. The organisation also publishes the Baobab newsletter (since 1988), Joto Afrika magazine and the Laikipia Rural Voices citizen-journalism blog.

ALIN is a donor-funded non-profit with no commercial pricing; all community-facing services are provided free of charge, and the organisation is not venture-backed or PE-owned. Revenue is generated through grant funding from institutional donors including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (US$1,000,000 Access to Learning Award in 2011), GIZ, Oxfam IBIS, UNDP, USAID Feed the Future, Hivos, WWF, Ford Foundation, APC and Kenyan county governments. Major strategic milestones include the 2010 expansion into Uganda, the 2016 launch of the Sokopepe social enterprise, the 2021 strategic refocus on climate resilience, agricultural productivity and digital transformation, and recent expansion into climate justice advocacy through Universal Periodic Review work with KHRC and EACH Rights.

Name

Arid Lands Information Network

Legal name

Arid Lands Information Network/Reseau d'Information des Terres Arides (RITA-ALIN)

Website

https://alin.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

1987

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) is a Kenya-registered international NGO, founded in 1987, that delivers climate resilience, agricultural productivity and digital inclusion services to rural communities in the arid and semi-arid lands of East Africa through Maarifa knowledge centres, FARMIS/SOKO+ digital platforms and community-owned broadband networks.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Rural Community Development Services

NAICS

Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Agricultural Services (700)

akta.pro primary industry

Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) & Farm ERPs (AFAAAFAA)

Keywords

• Rural community development
• Agricultural extension services
• Community knowledge centers
• Climate resilience programs
• Offline digital education

Headquarters

HQ city

Nairobi

HQ country

Kenya

HQ region

Africa

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Supply Chain, Others

Revenue model

1. Donor Grants and Funding: ALIN operates as a non-profit organization primarily funded through grants and donations from international development organizations, foundations, and government aid agencies. Major funders include Gates Foundation, GIZ, Oxfam, UNDP, and various embassies.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

ALIN runs a network of community knowledge centers (Maarifa Centres) and deploys digital tools serving smallholder farmers, pastoralists, and rural communities across East Africa. Its core offerings include digital farm records and market access platforms (FARMIS-Kenya, SOKO+), offline educational servers (RACHEL), community broadband networks (ALINET), and climate-resilience knowledge programs targeting arid and semi-arid regions.

Product overview

ALIN operates a portfolio of interconnected digital tools and community knowledge infrastructure focused on agricultural productivity, climate resilience, and digital inclusion in East Africa. The core offerings include: (1) FARMIS-Kenya and SOKO+ — farm record management and market linkage platforms under the Sokopepe social enterprise brand; (2) RACHEL — offline educational content servers for schools and Maarifa Centres; (3) ALINET — community-owned broadband networks; and (4) Maarifa (Knowledge) Centres — physical ICT access points providing community services. These products are supported by publications (Baobab newsletter, Joto Afrika magazine) and the citizen journalism platform Laikipia Rural Voices. ALIN does not offer a unified SaaS platform but rather a constellation of standalone tools addressing specific rural development needs, connected through shared infrastructure (Knowledge Centres) and data (farm records feeding market platforms).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Sokopepe: Social enterprise providing farm records management information system (FARMIS) and market access services (SOKO+) for smallholder farmers in Kenya
• ALINET
• Maarifa Centre
• Laikipia Rural Voices (LRV)

Products and services

• Maarifa (Knowledge) Centres Physical community knowledge hubs providing access to information, training, internet, and digital tools for rural communities in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. They serve as delivery points for agricultural, climate, educational, and market information programs.
• FARMIS-Kenya Digital farm records management platform that enables smallholder farmers to capture and analyze farm production data, supporting better planning, productivity tracking, and access to credit.
• SOKO+ Online trading platform that connects smallholder farmers and producer groups to buyers, providing market price information and aggregation of agricultural produce for sale.
• Sokopepe (Social Enterprise) ALIN's social enterprise brand bundling FARMIS-Kenya and SOKO+ services to deliver farm records and digital market access to smallholder farmers.
• RACHEL Offline Educational Server RACHEL (Remote Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning) is an offline plug-server delivering educational content including Wikipedia, Khan Academy videos, e-books, and other open educational resources to schools and communities without reliable internet.
• ALINET Community broadband and telecenter network providing affordable internet connectivity and ICT services to rural communities in East Africa through community-managed access points.
• Internet Now! Initiative Programme initiative aimed at broadening community access to information and communication technologies across East Africa, bridging the digital divide for rural communities.

Quantifiable outcome

• 16,000 farmers trained on farm record keeping and market access
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration12 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• OxfamcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-term partnership supporting ALIN's climate justice and democracy programs. Oxfam IBIS funds the Democracy, Just Societies and Climate Justice Programme in Kajiado and Kilifi counties. Also supported Internet Now! project in Uganda.
• Association for Progressive Communication (APC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupported development of ALINET community network and RACHEL offline education projects. Provided subgrant for deploying open educational resources in schools.
• South South North (SSN)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerALIN serves as VCA Kenya Knowledge Partner supporting Voice for Just Climate Action programme. Collaborates on knowledge management, communications, and capacity development.
• Humanitarian OpenStreetMap TeamcoreTechnology or IntegrationCollaborative partnership for OpenStreetMap community mapping projects in Sipili and Laikipia County. Conducted hybrid training on open street mapping for local youth.
• Kenya Platform for Climate Governance (KPCG)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to build capacity of civil society organizations and communities to advocate for climate-conscious fiscal policies at county level.
• Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in Universal Periodic Review (UPR) climate change recommendations project for civil society engagement.
• East African Center for Human Rights (EACH Rights)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in UPR climate change recommendations project supporting civil society from Kilifi and Kajiado counties.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• One Acre Fund: One Acre Fund bundles financing, training and inputs for smallholder farmers across East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda). Comparable to ALIN/Sokopepe in serving the same smallholder farmer segment in Kenya and Uganda with productivity and market-access services.
• iShamba: iShamba is an SMS and mobile-based agricultural information service targeting Kenyan smallholder farmers with agronomic advice and market prices. Functionally analogous to ALIN's FARMIS farm-records and SOKO+ market-linkage offerings, serving the same Kenyan smallholder farmer base.
• WorldReader: WorldReader delivers digital reading content to underserved communities across Africa and the developing world via e-readers and mobile. Directly comparable to ALIN's RACHEL/Maarifa centre approach of bringing curated digital educational content to communities without reliable internet.
• Digital Green: Digital Green uses video and ICT to deliver agricultural extension to smallholder farmers globally. Directly comparable to ALIN's FARMIS/SOKO+ mission of digitising and disseminating agricultural knowledge to remote farming communities.
• Learning Equality: Learning Equality builds Kolibri, an offline-capable education platform for low-bandwidth environments, the most direct technical analogue to ALIN's RACHEL offline educational content servers deployed to remote Kenyan schools.

Broad incumbents

• TechnoServe: TechnoServe is a large international non-profit working on agricultural productivity and market access for smallholder farmers across East Africa and globally. Overlaps with ALIN's Sokopepe/FARMIS/SOKO+ value proposition but operates at significantly greater scale and breadth.
• Farm Africa: Farm Africa is a UK-headquartered NGO focused on agricultural development, climate resilience and market access in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC). Targets the same smallholder farming and climate-adaptation themes as ALIN but with substantially larger institutional capacity.
• Practical Action: Practical Action (formerly ITDG) is a long-established international NGO that uses technology to address poverty in developing countries and actually hosted ALIN's East African office before ALIN's 2001 independent registration. They share the technology-for-development philosophy but at much larger global scale.

Emerging players

• SunCulture: SunCulture provides solar-powered irrigation and agricultural technology to Kenyan smallholder farmers, including solar drip systems deployed in Kajiado County. Comparable to ALIN's GIZ-funded solar irrigation work (360 households) and serves the same Kenyan arid-lands smallholder segment.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/VijijiMaarifa
• Facebookfacebook.com/AridLandsInformationNetworkAlin
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/arid-lands-information-network-alin-
• Instagraminstagram.com/alinea_2023
• Xx.com/Alineafrica

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Arid Lands Information Network