Jonathan Barnow, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at TechnoServe, writes about the role that the private sector has in helping farmers and entrepreneurs recover from the COVID-19 crisis.
In northern Mozambique, climate change, regional insecurity, and COVID-19 have combined to create immense challenges for farmers like Jacinta Fernando. A TechnoServe program is teaching these farmers how to grow soybean for the first time — a profitable cash crop that can help them improve their financial security and food security during times of crisis.
Ariana Day Yuen is a former TechnoServe Fellow who served in Ethiopia in 2015. After her time as a Fellow, she stayed on with the TechnoServe Ethiopia team for nearly three years. Today, she is the founder of an agroforestry enterprise that partners with smallholder farmers – starting in Ethiopia – to sustainably grow, process, and market premium forest-based products.
Cristina Manfre, TechnoServe's Global Gender Director, discusses three priorities for improving the resilience of women farmers and entrepreneurs during the recovery from COVID-19.
Businesses in the center of the value chain are crucial to the food system, but these intermediary links are under threat from the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from TechnoServe's COVID-19 survey data, Nupur Parikh, Director, Strategic Initiatives, and Brent Wibberley, Director, Food Processing and Nutrition, break down how the pandemic has impacted agricultural value chains.
Cristina Manfre, Global Gender Director, TechnoServe identifies three priorities for improving the resilience of women farmers and entrepreneurs ahead of the next crisis.
Drawing from TechnoServe's COVID-19 survey data, Nupur Parikh, Director, Strategic Initiatives, and Brent Wibberley, Director, Food Processing and Nutrition, break down how the pandemic has impacted agricultural value chains.
As India grapples with a second wave of COVID-19, farmers around the country face another related challenge: maintaining their livelihoods in times of great economic uncertainty. TechnoServe is helping smallholder farmers like Dhirendra Mishra increase their incomes by connecting them with large buyers through participation in farmer producer companies. With this additional income, farmers can invest in their families and communities.
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.
