COVID-19 was just the latest challenge for small-scale farmers in central Mexico. With limited technical knowledge and market connections, many have struggled for years to improve their incomes. José García Martínez was one of those farmers when he joined a TechnoServe program a year ago. Today, he is earning enough to provide security and better opportunities for his family—“a life-changing experience.”
In Central America, the number of young people entering the job market outpaces the availability of jobs. But many young people lack the skills they need to find or create economic opportunities, leading them to seek a better future elsewhere. How can thriving small and growing businesses reverse this trend?
In Guatemala, shifting weather patterns and increased natural disasters are creating additional challenges for smallholder produce farmers like Manuel Guarcas Batzibal. TechnoServe is working with these farmers to boost their climate resilience while also addressing challenges related to high production costs, price volatility, and informal market connections.
In an important ecological buffer zone of northeastern Honduras, farmers are learning how to improve their coffee productivity while preserving the natural landscape. A TechnoServe program helped farmers raise productivity by 200% while still ensuring the environmental sustainability of the largest protected land in the country.
With world hunger reaching its highest peak since 2006, solutions addressing each link in the food system are essential. Drawing from TechnoServe's work across value chains with a range of public and private partners, we are highlighting the latest challenges, insights, and promising approaches in the current effort to prevent widespread food insecurity and build greater long-term resilience.
In Nicaragua, agriculture — and livestock production, in particular — is a primary driver of deforestation. Over the years, as cattle ranching has increased, so has land degradation throughout the country. By adopting silvopastoral systems, which integrate trees, shrubs, and grasses with livestock, farmers can improve their livelihoods and restore local ecosystems.
Global coffee prices are rising after several years at near-historic lows that prompted many farmers in Central America to immigrate elsewhere. But higher prices alone are not enough to sustain progress. To ensure long-term, profitable incomes, farmers need support establishing long-lasting market connections, developing climate-resilient growing techniques, and diversifying their incomes.
When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the livelihoods of millions of entrepreneurs last year, digitalization offered small businesses around the world a promising solution. In this Q&A, TechnoServe’s Global Entrepreneurship Director, Juan Carlos Thomas, speaks with the Executive Director of the Argidius Foundation, Nicholas Colloff, and Dalberg Advisors’ Global Knowledge Lead, Kusi Hornberger, about the future of digital technology for supporting entrepreneurs.
After Hurricane Maria in 2017, Puerto Rico lost an estimated 80% of its coffee trees, crippling an entire industry and leaving many coffee farmers reeling. Today, TechnoServe is working to revive the industry by helping thousands of smallholder coffee farmers significantly increase their yields and boost their resilience to future threats.
In a year when incomes dropped around the globe, TechnoServe’s nearly 300,000 clients and their families recorded a collective income increase of $188 million. Our 2020 annual report takes a closer look at the impact our clients achieved last year despite tremendous obstacles and shares stories of their resilience.
