-
Serving Smallholder Farmers in the Digital Age: Why it Requires Treating Data Like an Asset
As mobile technology becomes nearly ubiquitous, the next wave of users is expected to come from rural regions, where smallholder farmers produce the majority of the food yet often live in poverty. In these areas, data-driven agriculture is already creating a new economy – one in which data itself is the currency that can help lift farmers out of poverty. Bobbi Gray and Ellen Galdava discuss an upcoming Grameen Foundation paper, supported by USAID and FHI 360, on this quickly shifting dynamic.
- Categories
- Agriculture
-
We’re Undervaluing Value Addition: How Ag Processing Will Fortify Food Security, Incomes and Development
The world's cocoa farmers get only 3 percent of the value of a chocolate bar, and Africa, home to 60 percent of the world’s arable land, is a net importer of food that could be processed at lower cost on the continent. The problem is that agriculture producers in emerging markets grow the crops only to watch as others grab the profits. The solution, says Donna Rosa, is to improve the solid food processing industries in developing countries.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship
- Tags
- agribusiness, agriculture, Base of the Pyramid, business development, entrepreneurship, farmers, farming, global agriculture, government, lending, microcredit, microfinance, MSMEs, small and medium enterprises, smallholder farmers, social enterprise, social entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship, social impact
-
Most Influential Post Nominee: There’s No App to Fix Farming – A Lifelong Smallholder Shares What Social Business is Getting Wrong
When it comes to farming, the social business world is getting it all wrong, says Gaita Kariuki, a lifelong smallholder and CEO of Selina Wamucii, a Kenya-based fresh produce startup. From overselling the impact of off-grid solar and access to loans, to underestimating the importance of middlemen, he says much of the social business sector's approach to agriculture makes little sense to smallholders.
- Categories
- Agriculture
-
Processed food is a global health crisis
Released at COP23, “Chronic Disease, Changing Diets, & Sustainability: The Globalization of Western-style Eating & Its Implications” sheds light on the intersection of diet, public health, and environmental sustainability, with case studies from China, South Africa, India, Mexico and Brazil.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
-
Making Tech Work: How Local Know-How Can Improve Digital Financial Inclusion Solutions in Challenging Markets
Technology can eliminate inefficiencies, collect valuable information and expand access to critical services. But technological solutions often replace indigenous, ad-hoc approaches which – though they may appear incomplete and messy – reflect the knowledge and relationships of the parties involved. Asa Nyaga at BFA explores how Farmerline, a Ghana-based tech company serving smallholders, aligned the product design of a new app with the ideas and understandings of its target users.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Inclusive Fintech, Technology
-
Making it Rain: Solar-Powered Irrigation and the ‘Household Productivity Ladder’
Solar energy can be put to many constructive uses in emerging market households, but SunCulture focuses on helping smallholder farmers move water. Why? Because it has the greatest impact on a key area: household productivity. Their CEO Samir Ibrahim shares the story of a SunCulture customer, whose experiences highlight the value of solar-powered irrigation to 2.5 billion farmers living on less than $2 a day.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Entrepreneurship, Technology
-
Helping Farmers Rebuild After Civil War Isn’t Charity; It’s Good Business
As an agribusiness owner in Africa, GADC founder Bruce Robertson has grown weary of the silver bullet solutions proposed for transforming rural economies. In 22 years in Uganda, he has yet to see a quick fix. But private enterprise has enormous potential to improve rural lives when donors and businesses collaborate, he says, explaining GADC's "replicable model with huge potential for expansion."
- Categories
- Agriculture, Impact Assessment
-
Impact investors flock to sustainable agriculture
"There's total momentum right now around people rethinking about how their money is being put to work," said Kate Danaher, senior manager of social enterprise lending and integrated capital at RSF Social Finance. "Impact investing as a whole is growing very quickly, and my guess is that if you polled everyone interested, the most popular sector is sustainable food and ag." In fact, according to the Global Impact Investing Network's most recent survey (PDF), 63 percent of impact investors said they were putting their dollars into food and agriculture, and impact investment in the sector has grown at an annual rate of 32.5 percent since 2013.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
Parent Organization
