Booking and production software for seedling nurseries in Kenya
Sell next season’s seedlings before they are sown.
Buyers book against future batches, pay a deposit by M-Pesa, and are told when their trays are ready. You see what is free to promise on every farm and date, so the long-rains peak does not oversell you.
- No overselling: bookings reserve capacity atomically
- M-Pesa, KRA eTIMS and KEPHIS records built in
- Buyers book on USSD, SMS, WhatsApp or the web
- English and Kiswahili
Trays on this batch
What keeps you on the phone
Sound familiar?
Bookings in a notebook, deposits in M-Pesa messages, sow dates on a whiteboard and tray counts in someone’s head. Then the rains start and everyone wants seedlings in the same fortnight.
Sold the same trays twice
Two clerks promise the last 40 trays on the same Tuesday. One buyer goes home without seedlings.
Capacity is reserved the moment you book
Deposits you cannot match
A paybill message says “Wanjiru, 2,400” and nobody knows which booking it was for.
Matched by booking reference
“Are they ready yet?”
Buyers call every day because the ready date moves with altitude and weather and nobody tells them.
Messages at 7 days, 2 days and dispatch
Whose seedlings are these?
A buyer’s crop fails and the question is which batch, which seed lot, which sow date.
A code on every tray, a check on every phone
Month-end retyping
Sales, M-Pesa lines and KRA invoices are keyed in again for the accountant, and eTIMS waits.
An invoice on every sale, an export every day
Agripropagate records each of these as it happens, so the nursery runs on one record your team and your buyers can trust.
How it works
From the plan to the delivered tray in four steps
Each step is one person doing their normal job. Agripropagate carries the record to the next person.
Plan the batches
- Recipes per crop, variety, season and site
- Capacity per farm and date, aware of altitude and ready windows
- Batches and work orders created from the plan
Buyers book
- On USSD, SMS, WhatsApp or the web
- Trays held for a limited time, then released
- Deposit set by buyer profile, paid by M-Pesa
Grow to plan
- QR tray labels and daily task lists, offline
- Germination counts and spray records
- Seed lots and inputs costed per seedling
Deliver and invoice
- Collection codes and zone-and-day runs
- Proof of delivery with a one-time code and a photo
- KRA eTIMS invoice and a daily export for your accountant
What is inside
One system from the first booking to the delivered tray
Booking, money, growing, delivery and compliance usually live in five places. Here they share one record. The cards show how each part looks; the figures in them are samples.
Sell and get paid
Book against future batches
Every farm and date shows what is available to promise, so you never sell the same tray twice, even in the long-rains peak.
- Capacity per farm and date, with altitude and ready windows taken into account
- Holds that expire, so unpaid bookings free their trays
- Deposits set by buyer profile: smallholder, commercial, institutional or group
- Waitlists that offer freed capacity to the next buyer
- Naivasha · 12 DecAvailable
- Thika · 19 DecLast trays on hold
- Thika · 26 DecWaitlist open
A hold lapses, the first buyer on the waitlist is offered the freed trays.
Get paid by M-Pesa, matched for you
Deposits and balances arrive on the channel the buyer already uses, and land against the right booking.
- M-Pesa STK Push, paybill and till (C2B), matched by booking reference, then by phone and amount
- Deposit and balance reminders sent for you
- Refunds by M-Pesa B2C, only after approval
- A finance queue and a daily export for your accounting system
- Airtel Money is also supported
- BK-4821 · STK PushPaid, matched
- Paybill · ref BK-4830Matched by reference
- Till · 0712 *** 678Matched by phone and amount
- Refund RF-112 · B2CWaiting for approval
A KRA eTIMS invoice on every sale
Invoices and credit notes go straight to KRA eTIMS, with no double entry.
- Direct eTIMS invoices and credit notes
- When the network drops, invoices queue and retry on their own
- Every invoice tied to its booking and payment
- Credit note CN-0021Sent
- INV-0938 (no network at the site)Queued, retrying
Grow to plan
Production that follows the bookings
Recipes, batches and work orders, down to the bench and the tray.
- Recipes per crop, variety, season and site
- Batches and work orders created from bookings
- QR tray labels, and daily task lists in English or Kiswahili that work offline
- Germination counts and spray records
- Bench and house occupancy at a glance
Stock and traceability, to the buyer’s phone
Know what you hold and where every seedling came from. Buyers can check too.
- Seed lots with KEPHIS labels, and inputs with unit cost
- Live seedlings, allocated against surplus
- Buyers verify seedlings by SMS code or QR: variety, nursery, batch and sow date
- Recall lists when a seed lot has a problem
- VarietyAnna F1
- NurseryNaivasha site
- Batch · sownB-2611 · 3 Nov
Deliver and reach buyers
Delivery and collection
Trays leave in the right order and arrive with proof.
- Collection codes for buyers who pick up
- Runs planned by zone and day
- Proof of delivery offline: one-time code, tray count and photo
- Stop 3 · 40 traysDelivered
- Stop 4 · 12 traysNext
- Collection code482 913
Proof of delivery works offline: one-time code, tray count and a photo.
Buyers book on any phone
Not every buyer has a smartphone or data. USSD and SMS cover booking, paying, status and date changes; WhatsApp and web serve buyers who opt in.
- USSD and SMS for booking, paying, status and date changes
- WhatsApp and web for opted-in buyers
- A message schedule: booked, 7 days, 2 days, dispatch, delivered, and care tips at 3 and 14 days
Walk-in counter
Sell surplus over the counter in under a minute, with or without signal.
- Surplus only, so allocated trays are never sold by mistake
- Under a minute per sale, and it works offline
- Kale, 100 seedlings (surplus)KES 1,000
- Allocated stockNot for sale here
Run the business
Many farms, one business
All your sites in one installation, with each person seeing what they need.
- Farms and zones, and staff roles per farm
- Two-step sign-in and a full audit trail
- Your own installation, in the cloud or on your own servers
- Built around the Kenya Data Protection Act
- Naivasha · ManagerTwo-step sign-in
- Thika · Nursery leadTwo-step sign-in
- Head office · FinanceTwo-step sign-in
Each person sees only the farms they work on. Every change is in the audit trail.
Compliance and analytics
Be ready when an inspector asks, and know which batches make money.
- Inspection packs (PDF and CSV) for HCD and KEPHIS
- Certificate expiry reminders
- Dashboards for germination rate, cost per saleable seedling, on-time-in-full and booking conversion
- Germination ratePer recipe
- Cost per saleable seedlingPer crop
- On time, in fullPer run
- Booking conversionPer channel
0 oversold
trays: capacity is reserved at the moment of booking
4 channels
USSD, SMS, WhatsApp and web for your buyers
2 languages
English and Kiswahili for your team
Offline
task lists, proof of delivery and counter sales keep working
1 installation
per client, for all your farms. Your data is never mixed with anyone’s
Who it’s for
Built for nurseries that sell on dates, not on the day
From a two-site vegetable propagator to a grafted-avocado nursery with a waiting list.
Nursery managers
See free capacity per farm and date, approve deposits and refunds, and watch the long-rains peak without a spreadsheet.
Nursery staff
Daily task lists in English or Kiswahili, QR tray labels, germination counts and spray records, even without signal.
Smallholder buyers
Book, pay and check status on any phone with USSD or SMS. No app, no data bundle.
Commercial and institutional buyers
Book large quantities on dated batches, pay a deposit, get an eTIMS invoice and verify what arrives.
Groups and co-operatives
One booking for the group, a deposit that suits group buyers, and one delivery run to the collection point.
Pricing
Your own installation, quoted after a demo
Each client gets its own installation and its own database, and one installation runs all of your farms. So the price depends on your setup, and we quote it once we have seen it.
What shapes the quote
The number of farms and sites, the channels your buyers use (USSD, SMS, WhatsApp), and whether you host in the cloud or on your own servers.
What you get
Every part of the product listed above, for all your farms and staff. No modules to unlock.
What happens next
Book a demo. We look at your batches and buyers with you, then send a written quote.
Trust
Your nursery’s data stays yours
A booking record is only worth keeping if you and your buyers can rely on it, and if you can take it with you.
Your own installation
One installation and one database per client, in the cloud or on your own servers. Your data is never mixed with anyone else’s.
Roles per farm
Staff see and do only what their role allows on the farms they work on. Sign-in is in two steps.
Buyers protected
Buyer details are kept under the Kenya Data Protection Act, and messages go only to buyers who agreed to them.
Nothing quietly changed
Every change goes on an audit trail. Payments and invoices are corrected with credit notes and refunds, never edited.
Offline where it counts
Task lists, proof of delivery and counter sales keep working without signal and sync when it returns.
Records for inspectors
KEPHIS seed labels, spray records and certificate dates are kept in one place, and packed into a PDF or CSV on request.
Still being built
Agripropagate is in development. Everything on this page is specified and planned, and we are building it in phases. Ask us in the demo which parts you can use first, and which come later.
Looking for farm management for outgrowers and crops? That is Farm to Fork, also from Lightswitch.
FAQ
Questions we are asked
How does it avoid overselling?
Every farm, crop and date has a capacity. A booking reserves its trays in one step, so two people cannot take the same last trays. Unpaid holds expire and free the capacity, and a waitlist offers it to the next buyer.
How much does it cost?
There is no public price. Each client has its own installation, so we quote after a demo, based on your farms, channels and hosting.
Can buyers without smartphones use it?
Yes. Buyers can book, pay, check status and change dates over USSD and SMS. WhatsApp and web are for buyers who opt in.
How does the M-Pesa matching work?
Payments through STK Push, paybill or till are matched to a booking by its reference. When there is no reference, we match by phone number and amount. Anything unmatched goes to a finance queue for a person to decide.
Is it ready for KRA eTIMS?
Agripropagate is specified to send invoices and credit notes straight to KRA eTIMS, and to queue and retry when the network is down. Ask us in the demo how far each part has got.
Does it work without signal at the nursery?
The parts staff use on site are built to work offline: daily task lists, proof of delivery and walk-in counter sales. They sync when signal returns.
Can my team use it in Kiswahili?
Yes. Daily task lists and buyer messages are available in English or Kiswahili.
Where does our data live?
In your own installation with its own database, in the cloud or on your own servers. Every client is kept apart, and we build around the Kenya Data Protection Act.
Is everything on this page available today?
It is all specified, and we are building it in phases. Tell us what matters most to your nursery and we will say what you can use first.
Free demo
Karibu. See your own batches in Agripropagate.
Thirty minutes on Zoom, on the phone or at your nursery. Bring a real crop, a real booking and a real deposit, and we will walk them through together.