May 12, 2015
Who Are Smallholder Farmers
In this engagement with the Rockefeller Foundation, IDEO.org first investigated how smallholder farmers experience post-harvest loss and then worked with community to uncover opportunities to better support them.
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By some estimates, 42% of the food grown across Africa spoils before it ever gets to market. On a continent where malnutrition and starvation are serious blights, it’s a double blow that nearly half of the food that might fill local bellies literally dies on the vine.
At IDEO.org, we worked with the Rockefeller Foundation to understand smallholder farmers’ experience of post-harvest loss, how they currently deal with it, and where Rockefeller might most effectively intervene. From poor transportation to flooded markets to a few storage options, the problem is immense and multifarious. But by digging in with smallholders across the continent, we refracted this massive problem back to Rockefeller through a human-centered lens.
In the first of two videos we made while working on post-harvest loss across sub-Saharan Africa, our team asks and answers the question: Who are Africa’s smallholder farmers? By spending time where they live and work, and interviewing scores of them, we were able to gain a firsthand understanding of what motivates farmers, what holds them back, and what opportunities exist to improve their lives.
In the second of our two videos on the lives and circumstances of smallholder farmers, we share the opportunities we saw to help farmers get a leg up. From processing crops to forming small collectives, we saw a host of opportunities for Rockefeller to intervene on farmers’ behalves. Here’s what we recommend.
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