Enabling private-sector innovation in agricultural storage: Lessons from the agriGHALA warehouse receipt model in Kenya

• Kenya’s Warehouse Receipt Systems (WRS) Act, the WRS Council’s e-registry, and the entry of a private operator have created, for the first time, an end-to-end pathway from smallholder grain to bankable collateral. The legal and institutional pieces are now in place; the binding constraints have shifted to finance, infrastructure density, and farmer- level participation. • Evidence shows that WRS unlock credit by enabling farmers to borrow up to 70% of stored grain value, while improving yields, resilience, and inclusivity (Mapunda et al., 2018). • The agriGHALA pilot in Eldoret demonstrates a full end-to-end WRS model in operation, integrating certified storage, electronic receipts, financing, market access, and cooperative aggregation under one operator, anchored in partnerships with key ecosystem actors; early proof of concept includes 29 metric tonnes of cereals stored in Q1 2026 and three receipt- backed loans (KES 300,000) successfully issued and repaid. • The remaining barriers are concrete and addressable: distance from farms to certified warehouses, exclusion of women, youth, and non-cooperative members from collateralised credit, conservative bank appetite, and uneven farmer awareness of how the receipt works as a financial instrument. • Government interventions in maize markets remain the single largest scaling risk. Experience in Ghana and Zambia shows that unpredictable public stock releases and above-market state purchases can destroy WRS economics overnight. A predictable, rules-based government posture toward grain markets is a precondition for scale. • Three priority actions will move the system from pilot to scale: (i) underwrite a national WRS lending facility through AFC and selected commercial banks, with first loss cover; (ii) co-finance a network of certified satellite warehouses anchored on cooperatives; and (iii) embed WRS into county extension services with explicit gender and youth targets.