What is the Farm Business Advisor approach?
|
iDE UK's wonderful volunteers Chiara, Alex and Sheri have created a simple video to explain the approach...enjoy!
|
Why do Farm Business Advisors provide advice to farmers?
| |
Making the transition from subsistence farming to farming as a business is tough for farmers in many parts of the world. Without proper technical knowledge, making investments in new technologies like drip or treadle pump irrigation equipment or seeds and fertilisers, doesn't necessarily lead to success...
Read my Business Innovation blog on how the Farm Business Advisor approach is helping to provide farmers with the knowledge they need to make their investments a resounding success.
|
Meet Farm Business Advisor Foster Mutale
|
Foster Mutale from Chapula village in Zambia, Africa really demonstrates what it takes to be a successful Farm Business Advisor. She quietly embodies many of the qualities of a successful entrepreneur; she is tenacious, resourceful and intelligent. Through her dedicated hard work she helps over 200 local farmers to access the products they need to improve their incomes. Read more about how Foster won local farmers support through grass roots advertising AND how she managed to create profitable linkages with the largest buyer of fruit and veg in Zambia.
|
Q & A with iDE Cambodia's Country Director Mike Roberts and the iDE UK team
|
 |
iDE Cambodia's Country Director, Mike is the brains behind the Farm Business Advisor approach
|
What is the thinking behind the FBA approach?
"Before 2004 irrigation was very much the centre piece of iDE Cambodia's efforts...Yet we started to notice that farmers had many other problems aside from irrigation, such as poor access to seeds, fertilisers and advice on how to grow better and get their produce to market. Also the cost of buying irrigation equipment such as treadle pumps was at times prohibitive to the poorest farmers."
"I wanted to develop a model that would help smallholder farmers overcome a whole host of constraints that they face using the private sector, and came up with Farm Business Advisors in 2005."
Which product sells the most?
"60% of sales are Fertiliser Pellets, Fertiliser Deep Placement (FDP) which improve rice yields by 25% in Vietnam. Find out more about iDE's FDP project in Vietnam.
What is the best thing about the approach?
"Even the poorest farmers can buy a packet of seeds for £1 - £2, and often the quickest gains can come from this, which can lead to greater investment on other products."
|
Help iDE UK scale up the FBA approach across Africa
| |
The revolutionary idea of creating Farm Business Advisors is key to improving food security in Asia and Africa. It has already won various awards, including the
After developing the approach in Cambodia we are already replicating the approach in Zambia, Mozambique and Burkina Faso. Also, we recently took part in the Innovation and Development Hackathon at Cambridge University which involved working with some of the brightest young minds in the world, to see how we could implement the approach across all our Africa programmes by 2020.
To achieve this ambitious target WE NEED YOU! For £500 you can pay for the training of a Farm Business Advisor like Foster, who works support around 200 poor farming families. This will change the lives of more than a 1000 men, women and children, which many would consider to be the achievement of a lifetime. Investing in a Farm Business Advisor is remarkable value for money; for every £50 a farmer invests in Farm Business Advisor products, they get £250 back.
You can become a donor online or you can give up to £10 by texting GROW14 £10 (or any other smaller amount) to 70070. Or if you want to meet other successful Farm Business Advisors from Zambia and learn more click here.
|
|
Thank You!
| |
This new monthly newsletter aims to bring you - our supporters - up to date with our latest innovations, programmes and approaches that are making a real difference in developing countries. By involving you directly in our work we hope to encourage you to think and analyse some of the issues we face on a daily basis and become more actively engaged with helping us to catalyse change for rural poor people.
|
|
|
|
|
|
OUR MISSION
|
To create income and livelihood opportunities for the rural poor.
iDE UK is a member of the worldwide iDE family of non-profit organisations that share the same mission and goals.
|
|
WHAT WE DO
|
At iDE, we work with farmers and aspiring entrepreneurs living in poor rural areas all over the world. With them, we invest in what's possible. We empower them to develop their land, create new business and establish market-based economies.
We find beauty in the simplicity of good design. Through innovative technologies we provide people the chance to build a long-term livelihood. We listen. We foster adaptive learning. We engage participation. We help them to discover, develop and produce their own technologies and find smarter solutions.
Together, we cultivate communities through improved access to water for health and agriculture. Our productive water solutions create and increase both food production and incomes. And with innovative drinking water and sanitation technologies, we give rural households the basis for healthier and more dignified livelihoods.
|
|
ACHIEVEMENTS
|
In the 30 years since iDE was founded we have lifted over 20 million people out of poverty and facilitated an annual net income increase of more than £150 million in the hands of the world's rural poor. iDE supports in excess of 140,000 households a year with a net annual increase in income of £200. Thereby doubling or trebling their income on a sustainable basis.
|
|
OUR OFFICE
| |
Our address is
2A Accommodation Road
London NW11 8ED
Tel: 0208 905 5597
Do drop by if you are passing and have donuts
|
|
JOIN US ONLINE
| |
|
|
|
