Terms of Service

ShambaIQ is an agricultural decision-support platform for Kenyan farmers. It provides:

• AI-generated soil fertility reports and fertilizer recommendations by county and crop
• Plant disease and pest diagnosis from uploaded photos (Plant Doctor)
• AI agronomist chat — Shamba Mshauri — for farming questions
• Weather forecasts and planting advice
• Crop guides and agrovet directory

These are informational tools, not professional agricultural consultancy. We do not guarantee specific crop yields or outcomes from following our recommendations.

To access personalised features you must register with your phone number. You are responsible for:

• Keeping your login credentials secure
• All activity that occurs under your account
• Providing accurate information — entering false county or crop data will produce inaccurate recommendations

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. One account per person — you may not create multiple accounts to circumvent any limits.

ShambaIQ uses Google Gemini AI for Plant Doctor, Shamba Mshauri, and fertilizer planning. AI systems can make mistakes. Specifically:

• Plant disease diagnoses may be incorrect, especially from low-quality photos
• Fertilizer rates are estimates — actual requirements vary by soil lot, rainfall, and variety
• Product prices shown are approximate and change frequently
• Advice may not account for local pest resistance or recent disease outbreaks in your area

Always cross-check with your county extension officer before purchasing inputs or treating crops. ShambaIQ provides a link to contact information for agricultural extension offices in all 47 counties.

You agree not to:

• Use the platform for any purpose other than legitimate agricultural decision-making
• Upload images that are not of plants or crops to Plant Doctor
• Attempt to circumvent rate limits, reverse-engineer the API, or scrape data at scale
• Impersonate another farmer or enter false farm data
• Use the platform to generate agricultural misinformation for distribution

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms without prior notice.

You own your farm data. Soil reports, diagnosis history, and field records belong to you. You can export or delete them at any time — see our Privacy Policy.

By using ShambaIQ, you grant us a limited licence to use aggregated, anonymised farm data to improve our soil models and AI recommendations. We will never sell individual farm data or use it to target you with advertising.

Core features — soil reports, fertilizer recommendations, and basic Plant Doctor — are currently free. If we introduce paid features, we will give at least 30 days notice to registered users before any free feature becomes paid.

Where payments are processed, they are handled by third-party payment providers (such as M-PESA or Stripe). We do not store card or M-PESA PIN details.

To the maximum extent permitted by Kenyan law, ShambaIQ and Polycar Limited shall not be liable for:

• Crop losses or reduced yields resulting from following AI recommendations
• Input costs (fertilizers, pesticides, seeds) purchased based on platform advice
• Loss of income due to platform downtime or incorrect diagnosis
• Any indirect, consequential, or special damages of any kind

Our total liability to you for any claim shall not exceed the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose (or KES 1,000 if you have not made any payment).

We aim for high availability but do not guarantee 100% uptime. The platform may be unavailable during maintenance, due to third-party API outages (e.g. Google Gemini, Open-Meteo weather), or for other reasons beyond our control.

We may update these Terms as the platform grows. We will notify registered users by SMS at least 14 days before material changes take effect. Continued use of the platform after that date constitutes acceptance of the new terms.

We will always maintain a changelog of what changed and when at the bottom of this page.

These Terms are governed by the laws of Kenya. Any dispute shall first be referred to mediation. If mediation fails, disputes shall be resolved by the courts of Kenya.

For any concern about these Terms, contact us at info@shambaiq.com. We will respond within 14 days.