On March 20, 2024 Heifer International, a global nonprofit working to end hunger and poverty through sustainable farming, released a report highlighting how tens of thousands of smallholder African farmers have seen their livelihoods transformed by a tech-driven mechanisation initiative.
The report, titled ‘Mechanization for Africa: Innovative Financing for Agricultural Transformation and Youth Job Creation’, examines the role and benefits of agricultural innovation, mechanisation, and catalytic financing in empowering smallholder farming communities in Africa, while creating new opportunities in agriculture for Africa’s youth population.
“Smallholder farmers are the backbone of Africa’s food systems, accounting for up to 80 per cent of food production in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Adesuwa Ifedi, Senior Vice President, Africa Programs, Heifer International. Equipping them with the right tools and resources, including appropriate and sustainable mechanization, is essential for increased productivity.”
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ABOUT
In 1944, Heifer International’s founder, Dan West, began outlining a simple but groundbreaking plan to tackle hunger around the world.
West, a farmer from the Midwest and Church of the Brethren member, had recently returned from feeding weary refugees during volunteer service in the Spanish Civil War. He had seen firsthand that giving people food was a short-term solution, whereas providing them with animals offered a steady supply of nutritious food for an entire family. His philosophy still inspires Heifer’s work today.
Today, partnering with farmers across a range of different livestock and crops, Heifer International has operations in 21 countries around the world, working alongside local farmers, business owners and their communities, as they build inclusive, resilient economies, so communities can develop effective ways to end global hunger and poverty in a sustainable way.
To date, Heifer have supported more than 46 million farming families across Africa, Asia and the Americas, and in the past five years alone, worked alongside 2.7 million families to close the living income gap or set them on a path to doing so.
Between now and 2030, Heifer plan to support an additional 10 million people to reach a living income by scaling up their signature programs.