The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hasannounced a campaign to support small-scale cashew and cocoa farming insub-Saharan Africa to alleviate hunger and poverty. The foundation says itsmain goal is to help more than 350,000 farmers ?increase their incomes so theycan build better lives for themselves and their families.? The effort includesfoundation grants and other financial support from the private sector, NGOs andlocal governments. Three experts involved in the program told reporters aboutwhat it hopes to achieve.
The foundation?s director of agriculturaldevelopment, Rajiv Shah, says the Bill and Melinda Gates approach focuses onthree simple principles. One is reaching small farmer households, especiallythe women, since they do most of the work and care for the children. The secondprinciple is increasing the earnings of farm families by improving agriculturalproduction. This goal is accomplished by increasing their earnings throughbetter product quality, packaging and access to markets.
?The third principle is that together with ourpartners we focus relentlessly on results? We track the incomes earned at thefarm level; we track whether children are going to school and whether theirnutrition and diets are improving. And ultimately we want to set clear goalsand milestones and allow our partners to adjust the specific implementation ofthe programs in order to reach as many small farm households as possible...andhelp them move themselves out of poverty and hunger,? Shah says.
Shah also says the foundation has similarinvestment plans in the coffee and dairy sectors of East Africa. He says thefoundation is already helping small-scale farmers sell their crops to the WorldFood Program.
Bill Guyton, another expert involved with theprogram, is the president of the World Cocoa Foundation. He says the GatesFoundation partnerships have helped more than 3,000 farmers in 15 countries grow cocoa moreproductively, profitably and in a way that?s environmentally safe. But he saysoutdated farming practices and a lack of strong farmer organizations make ithard for farmers to realize their full potential,
?This new program with the Bill and MelindaGates Foundation really will help to address some of the problems and look atsolutions in the sector. Thanks to this partnership, we?ll be able to dramaticallyexpand our efforts to promote economic and social development as well asenvironmental conservation in West and Central Africa cocoa-growingcommunities."
Guyton says the program will teach farmershow to improve their business skills and the quality of their products. He saysit will help farming organizations meet the needs of their members, in part byimproving their access to information.
Also working with the Gates Foundation is Andreas Proksch, the Africa directorof G-T-Z, a German international development group. He says the market has notyet benefited the region?s 2.5 million cashew farmers, most of whom earn lessthan a dollar a day. He adds that the poor quality of cashews and the uncertainsupply discourages food companies, retailers and processors from seriouslyinvesting in local cashew farming. But he says with the Foundation?s new Africainitiative, things will change, ?Within four years, we have the objective togenerate more than 50 percent additional income for around 150,000 small scalefarmers through increasing the production yields and the quality of the cashew,as well as through building an African processing sector and stimulatingprimary market consumer demand.?
Proksch says the project?s vision is to work?from seed to sale? ? that is, with all levels of production, marketing anddistribution, from the farmer to the government. He says like other Bill andMelinda Gates initiatives, the cashew and cocoa projects emphasize innovationand partnership.