Built in Mogadishu, for the phone already in the farmer's hand.
M-TACAB is a Somali-owned digital agriculture platform serving 31,236 active farmers, herders and fishers since 2023 — over USSD, SMS and voice, in Somali, on any phone.
31,236
active subscribers
Who we are
A Somali company, not a donor project
M-TACAB is built and run from Mogadishu by Somalis, for Somalis. Most digital agriculture tools in Somalia are built for one project and switched off when the funding ends. M-TACAB has been operating continuously since 2023 on its own revenue base, and it will still be here when any single programme has closed.
Innovii
Technology partner — the platform, the data, the engineering.
Hormuud
Telecom infrastructure partner — reach on any handset, including Telesom and Golis subscribers via VAS partnerships.
The problem we started with
Somalia runs on agriculture. Its farmers run on guesswork.
The advice, prices and weather warnings that would make a season profitable rarely reach the people doing the work. The gap is not interest — it is delivery. Extension services are thin, rural literacy is low, and smartphone ownership outside the cities is the exception, not the rule. A farmer in Afgooye and a herder in Baidoa need different advice at different moments — and neither is going to get it from an app store.
75%
of Somalia's GDP comes from agriculture
93%
of exports are agricultural
46%
of employed Somalis work in the sector
World Bank, Somalia Country Economic Memorandum: Rebuilding Resilient and Sustainable Agriculture (2018).
What we built
Meet farmers where they are
M-TACAB is designed backwards from the handset. Everything works on a basic phone:
USSD *141*6#
Menu-driven, no data, no app — works on the cheapest handset sold in Somalia.
SMS
Daily advisories and alerts, in Somali.
IVR (voice)
The same guidance spoken aloud, for farmers who do not read.
Web & smartphone app
For cooperatives, agrodealers, NGOs and government — not a replacement for the channels above.
2023
Operating since
31,236
Active subscribers
3
Live verticals — crops, livestock, fisheries
Somali
Every message, in Maxaa (Maay from 2027)
Figures reflect M-TACAB's live platform, June 2026.
Built to last
How M-TACAB survives the funding cycle
Sustainability is designed in, not bolted on.
Telecom-grade reach
Through Hormuud, M-TACAB reaches across Hormuud, Telesom and Golis — with airtime billing that works without banks.
An inclusive paid core
Farmers pay small weekly, monthly or yearly amounts. Programmes sponsor them at first; farmers graduate to paying for themselves once they see the return.
Modules that earn
Cooperatives, input vouchers, market linkage and finance are built and ready — each activates when a partner commits. The platform is infrastructure, not a pilot.
Build once, reuse many
One farmer registry and one core serve every programme, so each new partner starts from an existing national footprint instead of building their own.
How the advice is made
Written by Somali agronomists, in Somali studios
M-TACAB's content is produced in-house by Somali agricultural experts — not translated from generic material. Advice is written per agro-ecological zone, because what works on irrigated riverine land in the Shabelle does not work on rain-fed land in Baidoa. All chemical, pesticide and veterinary guidance is reviewed by a qualified agronomist before it reaches a farmer.
Who we reach
Not only the head of the household
Somali women do much of the country's crop work and most of its small-livestock and post-harvest work, and youth make up the majority of the rural workforce — but agricultural information usually stops at the male household head. M-TACAB registers farmers individually, and voice and SMS reach a woman or a young farmer on her own handset, whether or not she reads and whether or not she is the one who owns the land.
National alignment
Aligned with Somalia's agricultural strategy
M-TACAB maps directly onto the Federal Government of Somalia's Agriculture Transformation Strategy 2025–2029 — mobile extension services, USSD and SMS delivery in Somali, and a national farmer registration system. We built the delivery layer the strategy calls for, and it is already live.
— FGS Ministry of Agriculture & Irrigation, Agriculture Transformation Strategy 2025–2029
Where we're going
One system, for decades — not project cycles
The live platform is the foundation. Cooperatives, input vouchers, market linkage, finance and programme reporting are built and waiting for partners to switch them on for the farmers who need them.
If you are a ministry, a bank, an NGO or a programme designing something for Somali farmers: the reach already exists. Talk to us before you build it again.
M-TACAB
Waaberi Mall, Floor 9, Mogadishu, Somalia
info@mtacab.so
USSD *141*6# · IVR & SMS in Somali
Technology partner: Innovii · Telecom infrastructure partner: Hormuud