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90% of the world’s farms are family farms and 84% of the world’s farms are small (2 ha or less). The world’s smallholder farmers produce about one-third of the world’s food (by value) using farming practices that are often no longer well adapted to contexts due to climate change. Smallholder farmers deal with challenges of low productivity and low incomes caused by climate change and poor access to information on the latest and best farming practices. This challenge is heightened for sustainable agricultural approaches that often have to be locally adapted and are usually more knowledge-intensive than conventional approaches.

Innovative digital tools and approaches provide smallholder farmers with an opportunity to develop pathways to improve their access to support services and knowledge on best practices to increase their productivity, income, sustainability and ultimately resilience to climate change.

Grameen Foundation and farmbetter are partnering on a five-year research for development project by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) implemented by German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) [to pair farmers with these innovative tools]. In addition to approximately 50,000 smallholders, Agripath’s primary beneficiaries include 250 extension workers from public and private advisory services in the five target countries. The project will also engage with partners in at least six neighbouring countries to scale its results.

This post excerpts the original article, published on the Global Resilience Partnership site.

Read more about the project on the Global Resilience Partnership site