We teach farmers current agricultural technologies

Our training is designed to build on what farmers already know. We disseminate the
latest scientific agricultural approaches in ways that are easy to understand and which
the farmer will readily adopt and pass on to other farmers. We encourage this farmer-
to-farmer transfer of knowledge to maximize the impact of our work.

AC’s team of Crop Specialists work hand-in-hand with our farmers providing regular
extension services throughout the cropping season.Our hands-on approach ensures
dramatic yield increases and improvements in produce quality.

We also provide farmers with post harvest handling skills to reduce post harvest losses
and increase profitability.

Below are pictures of our Agricultural Field Training & Agricultural classroom training

West African farmers benefit from in-field trainings

Training participants in Koaran, Burkina Faso are praising the qualities of local
workshops held in their community. Located about 250km from the capital,
Ouagadougou, this remote village is one that is benefitting from farmer-to-farmer
instruction.

Across West Africa, this educational style has proven to be effective and desirable.
Groups are usually limited to about 30 farmers, but due to enthusiasm, recent trainings
have included more than 50 participants.

These events cover a wide range of agricultural practices, underutilized crops, and
appropriate technologies such as FFF(FGW), family gardens, Moringa, biogas, and small-
scale livestock.

The advantages of these "in-context" trainings are felt by both teachers and
participants. Presenters are better able to understand the village's unique situation and
available resources; and report that participants follow closely to whomever is teaching
and ask a lot of questions.

One participant noted that these trainings were unique from other experiences they've
had:

"Everything you teach is based on tools available to us."

Others note the value of humility in training:

"[sometimes] people of the city have no consideration for us when they come to us in
the village, but [you] have been different, you are so humble and so good with us."

In-field, farmer lead trainings are resulting in increased buy-in. Leaders at the Koaran
training were impressed by the determination of the population to put immediately into
practice what they have learned. All of the participants agreed that this training would
change their village for the better.

ECHOcommunity has several available resources related to workshops and trainings:

Teaching in Field Settings
Effective Use of Workshops in Agriculture Extension
Agriculture Extension with Community-Level Workers - TN #83
(Lessons and Practices from Community Health and Community Animal Health
Programs)

Agriculture for Entrepreneurs

Transforming small farms into small businesses
People think that small farmers aren’t worth investing in because they’re too poor and
hard to reach. But we’re proving that theory wrong. We are showing that any farm—no
matter how small—can move from subsistence farming to commercial farming, if it has
the right support.

On average, the farmers we work with see an annual income gain of $386. To our
donors, we promise a minimum cost-effectiveness ratio of 10:1. That means that every
dollar invested in iDE results in at least an additional $10 of annual income for a farmer.
We are able to do this through innovative programs that create cadres of
microentrepreneurs, support small businesses, and build resilient markets that support
their sales.

Our agriculture strategy

It’s not just about dropping off a water pump or an irrigation system. Technology won’t
work in a vacuum. Farmers need a combination of technology with the services that
complement it: knowledge, credit, inputs, and markets where they can find steady
paying customers.

We strive for a continuous positive feedback loop by combining user insights, product
innovation, and business model design all in one intervention model that’s not
supported separately, but all at once. This gives us the ability to spot business
opportunities at different layers of the value chain. It takes this kind of holistic
approach, and a business mindset, to establish a self-sustaining market for poor
farmers.

Our bottom line is to make substantial increases in people’s quality of life by effectively
increasing their incomes. But agriculture is also a pathway to making strides in gender
equity, climate resilience, food security, and nutrition. Every solution we design delivers
a different balance of all these goals, as we maximize our impact and cost-effectiveness.

A market approach means that we focus more on market feedback than on

predetermined targets or “farmers reached.” Early adopters are the low hanging fruit.
Others look to them as community leaders and follow their lead. This approach requires
market feedback through M&E design that collects and analyzes sales data and business
performance, trends, mapping, customer segmentation. All are information needed to
spot an opportunity and adapt to it.

How to feed a growing, hungry planet

First, we start with listening to the farmer to learn what his or her challenges are, and
then we develop solutions to overcome these barriers.

Technology is one part of the solution. We design resource-smart technology that

customers can afford. While iDE has promoted several technologies in the past and has
a portfolio of current technologies, we realize that no single solution is appropriate for
all places or for all farmers. We use our innovation centers to evaluate and modify
current technologies and investigate new ones to meet each new environmental and
climate challenge.

We work closely with local entrepreneurs, or help locals establish new businesses if
there are none present, to manufacture, supply, and service the equipment farmers
need.

Through networks of these local businesses, we reach remote farmers and provide them
access to the things they want: better seeds, effective pest control, fertilizers, improved
soil, and labor- and money-saving technologies such as solar pumps and micro-
irrigation. They also learn about efficient agricultural practices as well as business skills
such as crop diversity, planting tactics, water storage, post-harvest storage, and market
strategies. We teach farmers to form collectives that increase their purchasing power
and attract buyers.

We have a long-term presence in each country we have selected to deliver Agriculture

solutions, but we plan our solutions to be self-sustainable so that we can exit when our
goals are met. This ensures that our clients continue to receive the market support they
require long after we are gone.

iDE is making a significant impact with our market-oriented approach in eleven

countries. We implement agriculture programs in the following countries:
Bangladesh,Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Mozambique, Nepal,
Nicaragua, Vietnam, and Zambia.