As the linchpin of most developing economies, agriculture offers vast potential to increase incomes of the rural poor. TechnoServe works on many fronts to turn this potential into reality, helping farmer groups and other growers, as well as processors and traders, to tap into larger, more lucrative urban and export markets. We have helped increase the incomes of millions of poor rural families, focusing on the following subsectors.

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Featured Work > Nicaragua

Rising to the Top

TechnoServe helps Nicaraguan dairy farmers to capitalize on a growing export market.

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Featured Work > Swaziland

Pepper Farm Creates a Brighter Future for Swazi Residents

TechnoServe helps a Swazi Mission hone its farming techniques so that it can harvest and sell chili peppers, creating revenue that benefits HIV/AIDS patients and orphans.

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Agriculture & Agribusiness › Artemisia

Although malaria is preventable and treatable, it kills about one million people each year in sub-Saharan Africa. The most effective treatment for malaria, Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs), are based on an extract of the herb Artemisia, which has traditionally been produced in Asia. TechnoServe is helping thousands of farmers in Tanzania to grow Artemisia and sell it to a regional extraction plant, thus helping Africans to fight malaria while enhancing rural incomes. Millions of doses of ACTs are being produced from the farmers' annual harvests.

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Agriculture & Agribusiness › Cashew

African farmers produce about one-third of the world's cashew nuts, but nearly all of them are processed elsewhere. To make the crop more profitable for Africans, TechnoServe is working in Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana and Kenya to improve farmer productivity, establish efficient local processing plants, and improve the business environment. On a wider basis, TechnoServe has helped form the African Cashew Alliance and the African Cashew Initiative to coordinate the industry's competitive growth and sustainability. These efforts have already created thousands of processing jobs and boosted the incomes of more than 100,000 farmers.

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Agriculture & Agribusiness › Cocoa

TechnoServe is helping thousands of small farmers to benefit from the expanding and evolving global demand for specialty cocoa. In Ghana, we are training cocoa farmer groups to operate as businesses and increase their productivity. In Honduras we are encouraging a shift toward the growing of more profitable "fine" cocoa for the increasingly sophisticated international market and a move toward the production of finished goods such as chocolate bars.

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Agriculture & Agribusiness › Coffee

The coffee industry affects the livelihoods of 25 million farm families worldwide. TechnoServe has been helping coffee producers in Africa and Latin America for nearly four decades; our current emphasis is helping producers move into more lucrative and less volatile "specialty" coffees. We are working with coffee farmer groups in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, helping them increase yields, improve the quality and quantity of their beans, market their coffee more effectively, and improve the business environment. We are also helping growers achieve global recognition by organizing Cup of Excellence® competitions. These initiatives are enabling thousands of farmers to sell to overseas buyers such as Starbucks, Peet's Coffee & Tea and Nestlé Nespresso. Reporting for TechnoServe's coffee work is powered by think-cell.

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Agriculture & Agribusiness › Dairy

Dairy farming is an important source of income for many small farmers in developing countries. TechnoServe is working in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Kenya, helping dairy producers to improve their productivity and quality, and helping processors to modernize their plants and introduce new, higher-value products to respond to the challenges and opportunities of globalization. New farmer-owned bulk collection and cooling centers enable rural farmer groups to sell to major urban processors; these centers also serve as hubs for farm supplies and veterinary and financial services. These efforts are transforming communities by boosting incomes for thousands of rural residents.

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Agriculture & Agribusiness › Horticulture

Growing urbanization and changing diets are increasing the demand for fruits and vegetables in many countries. The global plant and cut-flower industry is also growing. These trends present significant business opportunities for horticultural producers in developing countries. TechnoServe has been working with thousands of farmers across a broad range of products, to help them benefit from these developments. We have horticulture activities ongoing in Africa in Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda. Horticulture programs are also underway in Latin America and the Caribbean in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Haiti.

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Agriculture & Agribusiness › Livestock & Feed

Livestock is critically important for both nutrition and income in poor rural areas. TechnoServe is fostering the growth of Swaziland's pork industry and Mozambique's poultry industry by helping establish industry bodies to promote industry cooperation and advocate for policy reform for sustained growth. In Mozambique, we are helping small-scale growers and larger processors become more productive, facilitating market links and spurring the development of a local feed industry. We are also working with industry and government leaders to develop safeguards (and contingency plans) against avian flu and other animal diseases. TechnoServe is also helping a poultry cooperative in South Africa to expand.

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Agriculture & Agribusiness › Tea

TechnoServe is helping groups of smallholder tea farmers in Tanzania to increase their yields and crop quality by approaching their main cash crop from a commercial perspective. We are also helping them register with Fair Trade, whose price premiums support community projects.

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Agriculture & Agribusiness › Other

TechnoServe provides assistance to producers and processors of a variety of other high-potential agricultural products. In Guatemala, we are working with a mushroom producer. We are helping small businesses in El Salvador to export ethnic Salvadoran products to the United States. In South Africa, we are helping develop sugar-cane businesses and we are working with a company that processes products from the fruit of the indigenous marula tree. In Uganda we are helping matooke banana farmers and traders to tap into growing urban markets. In Ghana, thousands of farmers are receiving training to better grow and sell a variety of crops such as groundnuts, rice, maize and sorghum. We are also working to grow the honey industry and develop an organic cotton industry in Swaziland.