SoftFarm user guide
Everything you need to use SoftFarm day to day, written for the people doing the work — not for engineers.
SoftFarm helps you sell to Europe without losing a consignment to a chemical you did not know was a problem. It does two things: it checks a product before you buy it, and it keeps the records that prove your produce is clean.
Pick the guide for the work you do.
I grow produce
Check pesticides and fertilisers before you spend money on them, keep your spray diary, and be ready when an inspector comes.
- Check a product before you buy
- Record crops, sprays and harvests
- Get ready for an inspection
- Send produce to your buyer
I pack and export produce
Receive from your farmers, pack and palletise, ship to your buyers, and find out instantly where any carton came from.
- Receive and check produce
- Pack, palletise and store
- Manage orders and documents
- Trace a problem to its source
There are two apps
Which one you use depends on your work. They are separate, and you sign in to each with your own account.
| If you are a | Use | Go to |
|---|---|---|
| Farmer or farm manager | The farm app | grow.softfarm.co.ke |
| Exporter or packhouse | The exporter portal | xport.softfarm.co.ke |
If you are a farmer supplying an exporter who also uses SoftFarm, your two accounts can be linked. When you send produce, it arrives on their side with your spray records already attached — you do not have to send anything separately, and they do not have to type it in again.
Why this matters
Europe has strict rules about what can be found on food. If a chemical they do not allow is detected on your produce — even a very small amount — the whole consignment can be turned back.
The hard part is that a product can be completely legal to buy and use in Kenya and still be banned in Europe. The shop will sell it to you. Nothing on the label tells you. You only find out months later, when the consignment is rejected and the money is gone.
Check every new product on your phone before you pay for it. It takes about ten seconds and it is the only moment where the problem is still cheap to fix.
Using it on a phone
Both apps work in a phone browser. You do not install anything — open the address in Chrome or Safari and sign in. Everything in this guide can be done from a phone in the field.
You can use SoftFarm in English or Kiswahili. Change the language from the menu at the top of the screen at any time.
If you get stuck
Start with Common questions. It covers the things people ask most: forgotten passwords, results you did not expect, and what to do when the app says it could not read a label.
If that does not answer it, call or message us — English or Kiswahili.