* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The year 2014 has been declared the UN Year Of Family Farming. In the age of “bigger is better,” small is set to make a surprising comeback in the agricultural sector. Simon Stumpf and Julia Koskella share the latest innovations from across Africa, as seen by Ashoka’s global network of social entrepreneurs, and show how small famers can seize on these big opportunities.
Generations of small farmers around the world have been fighting a losing battle with big. Bigger machines, bigger industrial farms, and bigger paychecks for fewer and fewer farmers. However, in the face of rising social, environmental and economic challenges, social entrepreneurs are creating large-scale solutions that challenge conventional agriculture and help small farmers compete.
The biggest trends paving the way for a small-farming comeback come in two very different sizes: micro and small. You’ll see them pop up throughout this post but let’s call them out now: a growing recognition of the importance of micronutrients across the food system, and innovations in aggregation and access that help small farmers compete.
Now, here are six tools you’ll need in order to take advantage of the emerging trends:
A soil sensor: $6 in Kenya
Decades of depending on petrochemical fertilizers to prop up our soils has contributed to degradation of overall fertility. Soils enriched with added phosphates, nitrogen, and other does little to meet the micronutrient needs of plants or consumers. Butthe tools for measuring the full spectrum of micronutrients in soil, food, and our bodies are becoming increasingly accessible to average consumers, and are set to fundamentally change agricultural markets. African farmers will soon be able to buy Soil IQ, a wireless soil sensor that turns a reading of soil heath into practical farm advice sent directly to mobile phones.
A money-back-guarantee: $0
Thanks to Soil IQ, you now know that your soil is too acidic for maize but just wet enough for French beans. But what can you do when your local supplier is out-of-stock or selling expired seeds? Farm Shop – a franchise network of new and converted agro-dealers in Kenya is training and upgrading rural shops so farmers can access transparent, reliable products every time. Leveraging economies of scale, greater efficiencies, and more volume, they also offer promotions and money-back guarantees for happy customers!
A bank card: $0
With customers finally in a position to demand more micronutrient-dense food, small farmers who manage diverse, dense plots are well-positioned to meet this growing, global need. But small is still inefficient. Enter Akili Holdings, an organization working all the way along a product’s value chain. Networks of Akili farmers, transporters, processers, and distributors swipe Visa-enabled bank cards when moving produce along the value chain, thus immediately getting paid and building a digital work history. With fewer intermediaries, a greater share of the profits from key products like fresh milk or nutrient-dense moringa powder make their way to the smallest farmers.
A mobile phone: $20
There are more than 33 million family farmers in Africa. Most of these farmers are producing food at subsistence levels only and not all of them will link single-produce value chains like those created by Akili. Thankfully M-Farm is creating the equivalent of Ebay, or Etsy, for smallholder farmers in Africa. By creating a mobile-marketplace and a nationwide network of collection agents, farmers – no matter how small – are now able to fill large orders for big buyers.
2 black-and-white copies: $0.15
Supplying large orders can come with large upfront costs to buy seeds, tools and technology upgrades. But banks aren’t yet looking at small farmers as big customers for loans. ScopeInsight is set to change all this, with a new credit rating tool to assess small and medium-sized farmers. The tool assesses the strengths and weaknesses of farms, producing an easy-to-read 2-page business profile and bridging the gap from big banks to small farms.
Big isn’t necessarily bad. Our hungry world has depended on technological advances in agriculture to meet growing global demand for food, and economies of scale have contributed to declining food prices for much of the past 45 years.But, the social and environmental costs of big farming have started to take their toll, making an alternative to mainstream farming increasingly attractive. In light of greater demand for micro-nutrient dense food and innovations in aggregation and access, small farmers are set to have a big year. We’re hoping they succeed, in sustaining their family farms and also in providing increased employment, biodiversity and micronutrients to the world.
Do you know any other examples of inspiring social entrepreneurs transforming the world around them for the better? Nominate them here.
Simon Stumpf is Senior Change Manager for Fellowship and Rural Innovation and Farming projects at Ashoka East Afria in Nairobi Kenya. Julia Koskella is the Venture Manager at Ashoka UK in London.
