Every year, millions of smallholder farmers lose valuable harvests because crops are stored before they are dry enough. The result is reduced quality, post-harvest losses, and increased risks of mold and aflatoxin contamination, problems that threaten food security, farmer incomes, and public health.
DryCard was developed to address this challenge by providing a simple, affordable way to determine whether dried agricultural products have reached a safe moisture level for storage. While the technology has already demonstrated its technical effectiveness, an equally important question remains: What will it take to scale DryCard sustainably and reach the farmers and organizations that need it most?
To answer this question, Responsible Innovations conducted semi-structured interviews with experienced DryCard distribution partners in Kenya and Rwanda. Having spent several years introducing, validating, and distributing the technology across diverse agricultural systems, these partners offered valuable insights into market demand, adoption drivers, implementation challenges, and opportunities for commercial growth. The findings paint an encouraging picture. DryCard has clearly moved beyond proof of concept. Demand is growing, institutional interest is increasing, and the technology is already supporting agricultural value chains across multiple African countries. At the same time, the assessment highlights the practical barriers that must be addressed to unlock equitable and sustainable scale.
A Growing Market with Strong Demand
Across both Kenya and Rwanda, distributors consistently described DryCard as a solution to a challenge that farmers already recognize: knowing when crops are sufficiently dry for safe storage. Demand has increased steadily since the technology was introduced, driven by positive user experiences and growing awareness of the importance of moisture management in preventing post-harvest losses.
The evidence of market uptake is compelling. More than 2,300 DryCards have been sold through the Kenyan distributor, while approximately 5,000 were distributed through the World Food Programme’s Farmer-to-Farmer programme in Rwanda. DryCards have also been exported from Rwanda to Sierra Leone, Mali, and Burkina Faso, and from Kenya to Nigeria. Interest from institutional buyers continues to grow, including a request from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for 10,000 DryCards.
These examples demonstrate that demand extends well beyond individual farmers. Development organizations, cooperatives, food processors, and regional agricultural programmes increasingly recognize DryCard as an important component of post-harvest management.
Validation Builds Trust and Opens Markets
One of the strongest messages emerging from the interviews was that independent technical validation plays a critical role in building confidence among potential buyers. In Kenya, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) conducted validation studies after organizations requested independent verification of the technology. In Rwanda, the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) similarly evaluated and validated DryCard before promoting its wider use.
For distributors, these endorsements marked an important turning point. Institutional buyers were far more willing to adopt the technology once its performance had been verified by trusted public research institutions. Validation not only strengthened credibility but also created pathways for larger procurement opportunities.
Institutional Buyers Are Driving Scale
Although smallholder farmers remain the primary users of DryCard, the interviews suggest that the greatest opportunities for rapid and sustainable growth lie with institutional purchasers. Organizations such as farmer cooperatives, development agencies, county governments, research institutions, food processors, and export-oriented agribusinesses are purchasing DryCards at a scale that individual farmer sales alone cannot achieve.
For example, Africa Natural Products Ltd. has used DryCard to demonstrate moisture compliance during Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) certification, while AgriCycle Ltd. integrated 200 DryCards into its dried fruit and vegetable value chains. These examples highlight an important lesson for future commercialization: institutional procurement has the potential to accelerate adoption while creating stable and predictable demand.
Bundling Makes Adoption Easier
Rather than marketing DryCard as a standalone product, distributors found that adoption increased significantly when it was bundled with complementary post-harvest technologies. Successful combinations included Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags, hermetic storage technologies, moisture management packages, and broader post-harvest handling services. Bundling helps farmers see DryCard as one part of a complete post-harvest solution rather than an isolated innovation. It also reduces the marketing effort required to introduce an unfamiliar technology, making it one of the most promising strategies for future commercialization.
Education Is Just as Important as Distribution
Unlike many agricultural products, DryCard’s value is not immediately obvious through visual inspection. As a result, awareness and user education remain among the largest barriers to wider adoption. Distributors consistently emphasized that successful uptake depends on demonstrations, practical training, clear explanations of how the technology works, continued user support, proper storage of the cards, and correct use with airtight containers. These findings reinforce an important principle of responsible scaling: distributing an innovation is rarely enough. Sustained adoption requires investment in learning, behavior change, and ongoing engagement with users.
Strengthening Supply Chains Will Be Critical
Despite growing demand, several operational challenges continue to limit expansion. Distributors highlighted long procurement times for imported humidity indicator materials, limited availability of specialized laminated packaging, high inventory costs associated with bulk purchasing, and packaging challenges during regional distribution. These constraints suggest that future investments should focus not only on generating demand but also on strengthening manufacturing and supply systems that can reliably support regional growth.
Demonstrating Value Matters More Than Reducing Price
Affordability is always an important consideration for smallholder farmers, but the interviews revealed that the greater challenge is communicating DryCard’s economic value. Once farmers understand how the technology reduces post-harvest losses, protects crop quality, and can be reused across multiple seasons when properly stored, willingness to pay increases substantially. In Kenya, lowering the retail price improved accessibility, but distributors agreed that demonstrating return on investment remains the strongest driver of adoption.
Market Incentives Can Accelerate Adoption
The interviews also showed that policy and market incentives can play a powerful role in encouraging uptake. Quality certification requirements, government validation, food safety standards, export regulations, and premium prices for higher-quality grain all create incentives for farmers and businesses to adopt moisture management technologies. In Rwanda, for example, millers reward higher-quality maize, creating a direct financial incentive for producers to improve post-harvest drying practices. In Kenya, county governments have expressed interest in integrating DryCard into broader grain market and food systems initiatives. These enabling conditions provide valuable opportunities to accelerate adoption through partnerships with both the public and private sectors.
Where DryCard Can Deliver the Greatest Impact
The assessment identified several priority value chains where DryCard has strong potential for expansion. These include maize, groundnuts, millet, sorghum, beans, cassava, dried vegetables, dried fruits, and dried fish. Among these commodities, maize emerged as the highest priority because of the significant economic losses and public health risks associated with aflatoxin contamination. Helping farmers safely store maize has the potential to improve household incomes while reducing exposure to unsafe food.
The Road Ahead
Perhaps the most important conclusion from these interviews is that DryCard is no longer a technology seeking validation; it is a technology seeking the most effective pathway to scale. Independent validation has established credibility. Institutional buyers have demonstrated demand. Successful deployments across multiple countries show that the technology works in diverse agricultural contexts.
The next challenge is understanding how to scale responsibly and sustainably. Future research will focus on identifying the most effective commercialization and distribution models, understanding adoption barriers across different customer segments, evaluating bundling strategies, strengthening training and behavior change approaches, improving regional supply chains, and identifying business models capable of supporting financially sustainable growth.
By shifting the focus from technical performance to market adoption, commercialization, and responsible scaling, DryCard is well positioned to become an important tool in reducing post-harvest losses, improving food quality, and strengthening resilient food systems across Africa.