UMD researchers lead new project in Kenya

Njeri Kamenwa
Samuel J. Lefrak Hall located on University of Maryland Campus on Friday, Oct. 17, 2026. The hall is home to the Department of Geographical Sciences. (Mouna Camara/The Black Explosion)

Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture is collaborating with the NASA Harvest program, led by the University of Maryland, to build a system wherein satellite images and artificial intelligence are used to produce in-season agricultural data products that can be used by Kenyan farmers and government officials. It was initially reported via the Kenyan news organization Citizen TV on June 5, 2026, and then reported by Maryland Today on Sept. 17.

The project, named ADAPT-Kenya, is being funded by a $2.5 million grant from the Microsoft AI for Good Lab and a $4.9 million grant from the Gates Foundation. Its primary goal is to create maps, forecasts and datasets that will eventually be made available to the public during the fall and spring growing seasons, as well as systems that can provide early warnings for natural disasters such as droughts and floods. Beyond that, the collaboration plans to expand this system to other countries.

ADAPT-Kenya is short for AI-enabled Data for Agriculture Products and Transformation for Kenya, and it’s led by Inbal Becker-Reshef, who serves as the director of the NASA Harvest Program, a research professor in UMD’s Department of Geographical Sciences, and the managing director for the Microsoft AI for Good Lab. 

Becker-Reshef did not respond to requests for comment.

In the Maryland Today article from September, author Rachael Grahame interviewed Becker-Reshef, who said most countries don’t have a system like the one NASA Harvest and Kenya is working to build.

Becker-Reshef used the United States as an example, explaining that its Cropland Data Layer—a map that shows which crops are growing in which part of the country—is released to the public months after the end of the growing season.

By contrast, Kenyan citizens will have access to agricultural data as it comes, giving farmers, government officials, and other key stakeholders the chance to prepare in advance. By using Kenya as an example, a country that has had prior experience with this type of technology and is known for its agricultural richness, other countries can follow suit and have that data readily available.

In her interview, Becker-Reshef described the project as “very ambitious” and “something that could really substantially support a lot of data and information products.”