By Janet Kanters

India-based biosolutions company Absolute has begun commercial operations for its agricultural business, INERA, in Kenya, launching an initial portfolio of six biological products as it expands into Africa.

INERA is partnering with a Kenyan agricultural company experienced in floriculture, exotic herbs and horticulture to distribute its products and build the business locally. The company said Kenya will also serve as a base for expansion into other African markets, with additional launches under consideration in East and West Africa through 2026 and 2027.

The initial portfolio covers biological nutrition management and plant physiology and climate resilience. The products are intended to support nutrient availability and use while helping crops maintain performance under environmental stresses.

“Africa will be one of the world’s most important agricultural regions over the coming decades, but its productivity gains cannot come from simply replicating input-intensive models built elsewhere,” said Agam Khare, founder and group CEO of Absolute. “The opportunity is to help farmers produce more from every acre while using nutrients and water more intelligently and rebuilding soil biology.”

Khare said Kenya represents the company’s first step toward bringing its technology to farmers across Africa and other global markets.

The company plans to build its Kenyan operation around local grower and agronomist relationships rather than relying solely on exports. Products will be evaluated across different crops, soils and growing conditions as INERA expands its presence.

Kenya’s combination of smallholder agriculture and export-oriented horticulture was a factor in the market selection. Agriculture accounts for about 24 per cent of Kenya’s GDP, while the country’s horticultural exports were valued at KSh136.6 billion in 2024, according to figures cited by Absolute.

INERA said challenges including declining soil fertility, nutrient depletion and greater climate variability are creating demand for technologies that can support productivity and crop performance. The company also sees potential for biological crop protection as Kenya reviews and withdraws some conventional pesticide products.

Those crop-protection technologies are not part of the initial six-product launch. INERA said its pipeline includes microbial, peptide and RNA interference-based products that remain subject to local regulatory and commercialization processes.

AI and biological discovery

Absolute is using two proprietary platforms to develop its agricultural pipeline.

Its Nature Intelligence Platform (NIP) contains biological material sourced and characterized from natural ecosystems, including extreme environments. The company looks to these organisms for biological functions that could have agricultural applications, such as tolerance to heat, salinity, nutrient shortages and disease pressure.

Nature+ is the company’s AI-based platform for analysing biological data and identifying or designing potential proteins and other biomolecules. Promising candidates are then tested experimentally before moving into product development and field trials.

The approach is being applied to a pipeline spanning microbial products, peptides, proteins, secondary metabolites and RNA interference technologies. These are being developed for applications including crop nutrition, biostimulants, seed treatments and biological crop protection.

INERA said it has conducted more than 50,000 field trials and farmer demonstrations across a validation network covering more than 100 acres and 10-plus agro-climatic zones.

The company is also expanding beyond Africa. Its plans include growing its commercial presence in the United States and Southeast Asia during 2026 and 2027.