Margaret Wanjiku’s 2025 was shaped by a problem most people never think about—until the food runs short. Across Africa, bee colonies are collapsing at alarming rates, putting crops, incomes, and food security at risk. Through Pollen Patrollers, the all-women-led company she founded, Wanjiku has spent the year turning that quiet crisis into practical action.
In 2025, Pollen Patrollers scaled a blend of old wisdom and new practical technology. The team deployed smart hives fitted with low-cost sensors that track temperature, humidity, sound, and foraging activity—early warning signals that tell beekeepers when a colony is in trouble. That data is analysed using AI, sending simple, real-time alerts that allow beekeepers to act before hives collapse. For farmers, the company expanded its precision pollination services, using data to map farms and ensure crops are properly pollinated, row by row.
The impact was tangible. Farmers working with Pollen Patrollers reported stronger harvests and better-quality yields—sometimes improving by as much as 50%. Beekeepers, many of them women, saw their incomes rise by roughly a third. By the end of the year, more than 3,000 farmers and beekeepers across rural Kenya had been reached, not through pilots or demos, but practical tools they could use regularly
Though possessing a background in science, Wanjiku’s strength has been her closeness to the problem. Pollen Patrollers grew because she meets farmers where they are—training local youth, working closely with women farmers, translating pollination into decisions farmers can act on. That hands-on approach helped the company earn deeper trust and form stronger partnerships along the agricultural value chain in 2025.
Wanjiku has done something rare in African agri-innovation: she made a fragile, overlooked ecological process legible and manageable at scale. Beyond improving yields, her work is strengthening a piece of food-system infrastructure that millions depend on, even if they never see it.
