Our programmes

Farm Africa is helping to increase the production, incomes and climate resilience of 60,000 farmers in Embu and Tharaka Nithi in Kenya by training 50 farmer groups, each with 200 members, in regenerative agriculture.

A key feature of the project is training 250 village-based advisors (VBAs) in regenerative agriculture techniques, who then share the knowledge with more farmers across the counties to support them to grow more fruit and vegetables at home for their families. The training covers post-harvest handling, storage, kitchen garden establishment and agribusiness acumen.

The project also builds the capacity of local and national governments in developing policies on the promotion of regenerative agriculture. We will influence research institutions to adopt regenerative agriculture best practices, as well as input distributors at a commercial level.

The Waitrose Foundation wants to create better livelihoods for employees and their families, creating stronger communities and sustainable supply chains around the world. Since 2017, Farm Africa has worked with the Foundation to make their vision a reality, supporting those that grow, pick and pack Waitrose & Partners’ fresh produce in Kenya.

Farm Africa is helping to improve the livelihoods of 12,000 employees across seven vegetable and flower farms in the Waitrose & Partners supply chain by managing a series of projects that are funded by sales of Foundation produce and supplier farms in the UK.

The project focuses on five key areas including: health and wellbeing, supporting learning, environment and green energy; improved water and sanitation and access to finance.

To help farmers who rely on poultry day-to-day, Farm Africa took part in a randomised control trial (RCT) that investigated the effects of a vaccine for Newcastle disease on the production, productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Tanzania.

Based on a proposal set out by Oxford Policy Management (OPM), Farm Africa implemented the RCT and recruited and trained local vaccinators on how to administer the vaccine and monitor the results.

Despite being seen as the preserve of the poor, forest products, such as honey, gum and incense, are a potentially profitable source of income for farmers. Women, young people, refugees and displaced people are the main groups that harvest wild forest products.

Along with the Assosa Environmental Protection Association, Farm Africa worked with forest management committees, which empower farmers to set up sustainable enterprises producing and selling products like honey and incense.

The committees helped farmers build better markets, access finance for their businesses and incentivise them to conserve forests. This project helped broker agreements between forest users and the government on using the area’s natural resources sustainably.

The project aimed to contribute to sustainable food security and livelihood improvement for rural families by making sure smallholder farmers had access to the buyers and suppliers they needed to build thriving farming businesses.

Access to agricultural supplies was improved by facilitating the start-up of independent agro-dealer businesses, with these new local suppliers reporting a total of 70,000 customers by the end of the project. Crop productivity and profit was improved through improvements in post harvest technology, the introduction of cluster farming systems, and the creation of a digital market prices App, which enabled 1,300 farmers to track local market prices digitally. Access to finance was improved through the development of inclusive, low-capital intensive financing solutions which enabled 7,943 smallholder farmers to access finance for the first time.

Farm Africa worked with pastoralist women living in South Omo and Karamoja in Ethiopia and Uganda, supporting them to set up sustainable, small-scale goat-rearing enterprises to help them generate an income and provide their families with a more nutritious diet.

We established Women’s Livestock Groups, through which we provided training in goat rearing and fodder and rangeland management.

We improved women’s access to livestock by setting up a revolving goat scheme, which required each woman who received two goats from Farm Africa to give two does (female goats) to another vulnerable woman once her herd had grown, creating a cycle of improved prosperity.

In Tanzania, growing demand for cooking oil has been met largely by palm oil imports rather than increased sunflower oil production. Low working capital means that oil producers can only buy and process a fraction of farmers’ sunflowers, capping sunflower oil production at a quarter of its potential.

Farm Africa provided technical assistance to actors working across the Tanzanian sunflower sector to meet growing domestic demand for cooking oil. This project worked with agricultural cooperatives and 10,000 of their members to support farmers to establish or develop sunflower businesses.

Farm Africa worked with a consortium of NGO partners, authorities and communities in Ethiopia to sustainably manage the Bale Eco-Region, a biodiversity hotspot, and enhance the livelihoods of local people, helping to reduce poverty and the current reliance on unsustainable practices.

The programme involved supporting communities to increase forest-friendly businesses and sustainably manage livestock and rangelands. The consortium partners helped promote sustainable timber harvesting and strengthened forest coffee, honey, gum and resin value chains.

We supported women and young people to increase their incomes by developing businesses in rearing goats and producing milk, energy-efficient cook stoves and eco-charcoal.

Since 2006, Farm Africa and a consortium of partners have been working in Ethiopia’s Bale Eco-region on a participatory forest management scheme. This scheme supports local forests users and the government to manage the responsibilities and benefits of the region’s forests together.

During this project, we increased local communities’ ability to earn money from the forests while protecting its resources by piloting sustainable timber production and marketing and improving the inclusivity of forest management organisations. We engaged women and underrepresented groups to participate in project activities and helped communities reinvest their capital from the sale of carbon credits in local eco-friendly businesses.

Working in partnership with Soroti Sweet Potato Producers Association (SOSPPA) and farmers previously trained by Harvest Plus, this project ensured a consistent supply of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to help fight the effects of vitamin A deficiency.

Farm Africa partnered with Mercy Corps to equip groups dependent on aid with the knowledge, resources and access to markets they needed to become self-sufficient.

Growing Futures supported 800 young farmers in Trans-Nzoia County and 1,700 young farmers in Elgeyo Marakwet County to grow export-quality crops, set up sustainable relationships with buyers and boost their resilience to climate change and seasonal variability. The project helped young people in western Kenya set up profitable farming enterprises growing and selling vegetables that are in high demand, such as French beans, mangetouts, kale, tomatoes and cabbages.

This project in the Nou Forest in the Manyara region of northern Tanzania linked forest communities and district governments to form partnerships for more sustainable forest management. Thousands of people living in Tanzania’s Nou Forest are reliant on the forests around them to survive. But deforestation has become increasingly common as people chop down trees for timber, to sell as firewood, and to clear grazing land for their animals.

Part of the UK Government funded BRACED (Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters) programme, Market Approaches to Resilience (MAR) was an innovative three-year programme that tested market-based approaches to improve the resilience of vulnerable pastoralist and agro-pastoralist households to climate change in the Afar, SNNP and Somali regions. It was implemented by a consortium led by Farm Africa, with Mercy Corps, Lion’s Head Global Partners and LTS International Limited as partners.

A particular focus of the programme was to improve the economic participation and independence of women, who are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate shocks and trends. The MAR programme supported households, businesses and communities in better managing their resources and everyday risks. It worked with private investors to address climate risks by promoting appropriate economic opportunities, and designing financial models that help smooth risk.

Other approaches included strengthening climate information by funding weather station infrastructure and supporting participatory rangeland and natural resource management. It also supported microfinance institutions to incorporate climate risk into their risk management portfolios and help them develop innovative credit products. MAR supported financial institutions to expand mobile banking to remote areas. Overall, the MAR project directly benefited an estimated 178,620 people in Ethiopia.

Between 2012 and 2017, Farm Africa ran a project based in the central zone of the Tigray region where 80% of the population live in rural areas and levels of poverty and malnutrition are very high. This project worked directly with nearly 6,400 women and landless young people, providing them with crops, livestock and training.

Farm Africa worked with micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to provide the support they needed to evolve into profitable, growing agribusinesses. From a ketchup manufacturer to a green bean exporter, the project worked with a huge diversity of businesses engaged across the horticultural value chain.

Project activities catered to the specific needs of each business including bespoke management, financial and technical training, stakeholder mapping and facilitating mutually beneficial contracts between farmers, buyers, suppliers and traders.

We prioritised investment needs and critical areas that could spur business growth. We also worked with 15 MSMEs from the Tanzanian horticulture sector following the increasing demand for spices, fruits and vegetables in local and export markets.