East Africa

Partnerships for Forests and TechnoServe are working together to protect Ethiopia's ecologically unique and biodiverse habitats while increasing the livelihoods of forest coffee farmers.

We caught up with Gloriose Uwayezu, a rural youth empowerment program participant, for an update on her brickmaking business three years after its launch.

With no maize mill available to them, women in a rural Ethiopian community opened their own mill and began providing a vital time-saving service to community members, freeing them up to participate in local economic activities.

A young entrepreneur, equipped with a new understanding, provides for his family and inspires a generation through his rock quarry business in Rwanda.

The coffee produced by a young cooperative in South Kivu recently excelled in a prestigious competition, demonstrating how determination, cooperation, and resilience can pay off for farming families in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In East Africa, TechnoServe is testing innovative models for creating a profitable agribusiness that builds wealth in small farming communities. For smallholder farmers in Kenya, an outgrower model integrating information and communications technology has the potential to double their incomes.

What if every farmer knew exactly what each of her plants needed—the amount of water, the quantity and formula of fertilizer, the type of pesticide—at any given moment? This is the promise of precision agriculture, in which micro-level data is gathered by drones or satellites and used to enhance decision-making on the farm.

In Nairobi, volunteers from Citibank mentored young shopkeepers participating in the PAYED program, giving expert advice to help them build profitable enterprises for a better future.

Evidence Driving Transformation of Smallholder Agriculture: The final report for TechnoServe’s IOM initiative details the innovative models piloted under four programs as well as lessons learned.

In East Africa, a "make-over" style reality television show is providing millions of farmers with top-notch agricultural information. In a recent episode, TechnoServe's own Charles Murage, a business advisor for the YieldWise program, made his TV debut, giving tips to reduce postharvest loss on mango farms.