Coffee-growers in Peru have been receiving a helping hand from a homegrown programme that provides credit for purchasing fertilizer. The “Family Program”, which was set up by coffee exporter Comercio & Cia in 2003, has been giving farmers interest-free credit for three consecutive years, whose crop production is then sold back to Comercio & Cia
Cocoa beans from the Criollo tree, native to Nicaragua, are prized by gourmet chocolate makers for their exceptional aroma, flavor and quality. Fine cocoa typically commands a price anywhere from two to five times higher than conventional cocoa. Yet Nicaragua exports fewer than 1,000 tons of cocoa a year, almost none of it fine cocoa.
In
Two years ago, farmers of jocote, a fruit native to Central America, were struggling with high post-harvest losses and low prices set by middlemen. The situation was so bleak that several of the jocoteros considered selling the farms they had owned for decades. But with TechnoServe’s assistance, the farmers learned to grow and harvest their
The fruit of the oil palm, a tropical palm tree, is a key agricultural product in Honduras. However, many small-scale producers of the crop lack the equipment and organizational capacity necessary for their business to thrive.
In 2007, TechnoServe began working with APROVA, a cooperative of 154 farming families who were earning little for the palm
In the wake of Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake, TechnoServe is partnering with The Coca-Cola Company on the Haiti Hope Project, whose objective is to create a sustainable Haitian mango industry and play a role in the nation’s long-term recovery efforts. TechnoServe will help Haitian mango farmers grow their crops more efficiently, produce additional crops to boost
As part of GCARD 2010, Farming First hosted a session entitled ‘Better Benefiting the Poor through Public-Private Partnerships for Innovation and Action.’ Within the discussions, our panel of experts addressed several case studies that present different ways that partnerships have helped to empower smallholder farmers around the world.
Ivo Mello – Confederacion de Asociaciones de
