“Hidden hunger” is a form of undernutrition affecting millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. Food fortification is a cost-effective strategy for addressing hidden hunger, helping people to access the nutrition they need.
The TechnoServe Coalition for Smallholder Sourcing was dedicated to generating evidence on innovations in smallholder sourcing that improve outcomes for farmers and companies, as well as promoting broad-based adoption of effective innovations.
In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, TechnoServe’s Innovation in Outcome Measurement (IOM) project aims to identify breakthrough innovations capable of transforming agriculture and to develop a framework for scaling these innovations for business use.
Solutions for African Food Enterprises (SAFE) was a public-private partnership between TechnoServe, Partners in Food Solutions, and USAID that aimed to increase the competitiveness of the African food processing sector to expand availability of affordable and nutritious foods to local populations. The program benefited more than 1,000 food processors who source from more than 800,000 smallholder farmers in five countries.
With support from luxury clothing brand Edun, TechnoServe launched the Conservation Cotton Initiative in 2011. The first phase of the program benefitted an estimated 59,745 people from 2011 to 2013 and managed to establish 150 producer business groups to better link farmers to markets.
Some of the highest quality coffee in the world comes from the Sidama Zone of Ethiopia, produced primarily by 200,000 smallholder farming families, most of whom continue to live in poverty due to small farm sizes and low productivity.
With large rural populations in Africa, it can be difficult to reach farmers for training and traveling to training can be costly and time consuming for farmers. The Mobile Training Unit project is an innovative agricultural extension training approach, which allows for large groups of smallholder farmers to receive audio and visual training lessons in rural areas.
TechnoServe, in partnership with Syngenta, is working to increase productivity and improve the market for these crops through Mavuno Zaidi.
Post-harvest losses in the value chain reduce incomes for mango farmers in Kenya. TechnoServe in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation launched a pilot project in July of 2015 to address key areas where post-harvest losses can be reduced.
Business Women Connect was born out of research showing that micro-savings products are one of the most impactful tools for women entrepreneurs to access in order to grow their businesses.
