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Tackling the COVID-19 Hunger Crisis in Africa: How Digital Networks Can Empower Small Farmers and Avert a Looming Disaster
COVID-19 is bringing even wealthy nations to their knees, but it’s dealing the deadliest blow to the world’s most vulnerable people – including smallholder farmers in Africa. And as Leesa Shrader at Mercy Corps points out, this is rapidly turning a health crisis into a hunger crisis. She explores how tech-powered solutions can help them survive the pandemic and build resilience for the future.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus
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Tech Helps Cashmere Herders, Hazelnut Farmers Fight Soil Erosion in Asia
Nakimo benefited from a programme by social enterprise Mountain Hazelnuts that aims to find sustainable uses for fallow land and prevent soil erosion - an increasing challenge for small-scale farmers in the Himalayan nation.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Viewpoint: Coronavirus Shows Smallholder Farmers Need Help to Thrive
The Covid-19 has revealed how vulnerable the agri-food value chain is to abrupt external shocks, hence the urgent call for stakeholders to help build resilience in the sector.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Scaling Solar Irrigation to Fight the Global Food Crisis: Why Subsidies Could be the Solution
COVID-19 has triggered a global food emergency, as the number of people facing starvation could double to 265 million by the end of 2020. Samir Ibrahim at SunCulture explores how solar-powered irrigation systems can help smallholder farmers combat this crisis by drastically improving their yields – and discusses three reasons why smart subsidies can address the affordability barrier.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Energy
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Who Should Get COVID-19 Funding? How MIT D-Lab’s ‘Urgency Index’ is Helping it Deploy Grants to the Entrepreneurs Who Need Them Most
Entrepreneurs in emerging markets face unprecedented challenges during COVID-19, and there are many organizations working to support them. But as Jona Repishti at MIT D-Lab and Sagar Tandon at Moonshot Ventures explain, it can be hard to determine which of these enterprises are most in need. They explore the process that D-Lab's Bridge fund uses to target its grants for maximum impact.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Investing
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A New Test for Old Technology: How COVID-19 is Sparking Innovation in PayGo Financing for Biodigesters
Biodigesters transform animal manure into high-quality fertilizer and biogas, replacing the need for wood-burning cooking stoves – and PayGo financing enables smallholders to afford them. But as Laura Harwig at Feed the Future explains, COVID-19 has made it harder for farmers to make their payments. She explores how the biodigester company ATEC* has adapted its PayGo model to help farmers weather these challenges.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Technology
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This Agricultural Enterprise Is Helping Nigerian Farmers Expand Their Business
In 2015, farmer Sule Yohana joined Babban Gona, a social enterprise organization with a focus on providing expansion services to smallholder farmers in Nigeria.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: DFC Approves $1 Billion of Investments in Global Development
Projects support developing countries reeling from COVID-19 and include first transactions using equity and technical assistance
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