In a year filled with challenges, TechnoServe has remained committed to helping farmers and small businesses fight the impact of COVID-19. While some of our methods may have looked a bit different this year, our mission has remained the same. Our five most-read stories from 2020 illustrate just a few of the ways that TechnoServe has helped women and men in the developing world overcome obstacles to build brighter futures.
In Uttar Pradesh, India, wheat farmers like Manoj Kumar are working to achieve better lives for their families but face countless obstacles. TechnoServe is helping local farmer organizations strengthen business operations, enabling thousands of their members to access better markets and earn higher incomes.
TechnoServe programs in 10 countries interviewed smallholder farmers to see how they have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are responding to the crisis.
In India, TechnoServe is working to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers like Mottadam Jogiraju by strengthening farmer producer organizations and transforming them into sustainable enterprises that link producers to stable, profitable markets for their crops.
When Rubi Devi first started growing mint on her small farm in Uttar Pradesh, she was barely making enough money to cover basic expenses and cover the high costs of mint cultivation. However, after joining a TechnoServe program, she gained a better understanding of mint testing and marketing and now has the skills and confidence she needs to improve her livelihood.
One-fourth of the world’s undernourished people live in India, where the COVID-19 pandemic is only exacerbating the existing hunger crisis. In Andhra Pradesh, organic kitchen gardens are helping smallholder farmers like Mangamma save money and access healthy, nutritious food during this challenging time.
With millions of projected layoffs and fewer job openings, India’s graduates are facing heightened challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s how we can prepare graduates for a post-coronavirus economy.
In a world with significant poverty but limited resources, how can we ensure that each development dollar achieves as much impact as possible? The question of cost-effectiveness is one of the central challenges of international development, and part of the reason that TechnoServe measures and publishes the income gains its clients achieve, per every program dollar spent. In this series, we highlight the lessons gained from TechnoServe’s most cost-effective programs around the world and examine how even programs with lower returns on investment can yield important insights in the quest to reduce global poverty.
In Bikaner, Rajasthan, India, over 7,000 smallholder guar farmers are improving their incomes and their lives through TechnoServe’s Sustainable Guar Initiative. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team has come up with creative ways to continue delivering essential training and support to our clients. Today, we’re sharing a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re adapting our daily activities in India.
TechnoServe is helping farming families in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia respond to the pandemic, recover from the crisis, and build resilience to future threats. Our new report shows how, with the right support, these farmers can overcome immense obstacles and emerge from the crisis in a position to participate in economic recovery.
