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Creating Sustainable Agriculture in the Dominican Republic

Sustainable Agriculture in the Dominican RepublicDespite being contested with a variety of obstacles, sustainable agriculture in the Dominican Republic is essential to the country’s overall success.

Located next to Haiti in the Caribbean Sea, the Dominican Republic is home to 10.6 million people who rely heavily upon its agriculture industry. The industry’s main exports are sugarcane and rice, products that employ 15 percent of the population and account for about 11 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

However, there are a variety of obstacles to overcome for sustainable agriculture in the Dominican Republic to become a reality.

Natural Disaster Relief Efforts

According to the World Food Program, one obstacle the country faces is the country’s natural disaster relief efforts, which are not enough to support small farms. Vulnerability to climate change in turn exposes the Dominican Republic to a high number of natural disasters. Droughts, along with frequent hurricanes, mudslides and floods, cause real problems for small-scale farmers who rely on their crop yield to feed their families who, according to the World Bank, make up 72 percent of farmers in the Dominican Republic. Many of these farmers have no access to insurance for their crops, leaving them nearly hopeless in the face of a hurricane.

However, as of 2013, the World Bank funded the Dominican government in providing disaster relief. The World Bank also created an insurance plan in 2007 for farmers facing crop destruction by natural disasters. The plan, Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), covers farmers for a short time period following a natural disaster and claims are paid based on the type of disaster.

Fruit Fly Outbreak

The Dominican Republic faces another threat to its agriculture besides natural disasters, but it’s much, much smaller. According to the United Nations, in 2015, an outbreak of fruit flies resulted in the loss of $40 million in exports after the U.S banned the imports of 18 different kinds of fruit.

Thankfully, for the Dominican Republic, the outbreak was contained and eradicated within 10 months with help from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA sterilized male flies using ionizing radiation, also known as Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) and released the sterile male flies, who were unable to reproduce. Despite these efforts, small-scale farmers continue to struggle.

Exportation Techniques

The most successful sustainable agriculture in the Dominican Republic comes from large, exporting plantations that have enough money to pay for new and more efficient farming technologies. Meanwhile, the other 72 percent of farmers struggle to combat natural disasters, sloping terrain and a variety of other issues.

According to Agrilinks, a United States Agency of International Development (USAID) funded program called, Farmer-to-Farmer, works toward introducing new techniques to Dominican farmers. New techniques such as ridge farming, utilizing soil testing kits and using grasses for ground cover all aim toward creating sustainable agriculture in the Dominican Republic.

By adopting more efficient techniques, farmers can improve soil conservation, and cut back on deforestation — efforts that, in turn, reduce the amount of pollution in rivers and streams.

Reliance on Imports

Another dilemma related to the agriculture industry in the Dominican Republic is its reliance on imports for a balanced diet. According to the Canadian government’s agriculture profile of the Dominican Republic, local agriculture only meets about 60 percent of the countries demand for food.

This leaves a large gap in the food demand and explains the chronic malnutrition that 7 percent of children under 5 face, according to the World Food Program. With 40 percent of children living in poverty and 10.4 percent in extreme poverty, malnutrition is a real obstacle for the Dominican Republic.

To combat these food deficiencies, the World Food Program worked with the Dominican government to supply nutritious foods to more than 1,300 health care centers. Looking ahead, the World Food Program’s 2018 projections include targeting malnourished areas and improving the availability of nutritious foods by 2025. It also includes assisting Disaster Risk Management in strengthening their readiness to natural disasters by 2030.

Despite undergoing natural disasters, poor farming techniques and infestations, in 2016 the Dominican Republic has still been able to export $111,726,338 to the United States. However, even with great exporting success, the small-scale farmer continues to face adversity.

– Austin Stoltzfus

Photo: Flickr

Projects Aim To Build Sustainable Agriculture in Indonesia

sustainable agriculture in indonesiaIndonesia is a vast country spread over thousands of islands, home to a diverse array of ecosystems and agricultural areas. With a rapidly growing population of 260 million people, the government in Jakarta is seeking solutions to improve sustainable agriculture in Indonesia and increase efficiency in a key sector that accounts for around a third of the country’s total land use.

Large industrial plantations and small-scale landholders and subsistence farmers dominate farming in the archipelago, but the pressure of rapid population growth is forcing local businesses and stakeholders to push for sustainable agriculture in Indonesia. Commercialization, industrialization and urbanization have forced agricultural businesses to face the environmental effects of pollution and deforestation and invest in more sustainable practices.

Indonesia has recently gained a reputation as a regional hub for tech start ups, most famously for the motorbike ride-hailing app Go-Jek. A new app named iGrow has gained a following after emerging at the StartupIstanbul competition in Turkey. By connecting regular citizens with Indonesian farmers, iGrow helps users invest in the farmers’ crops and plantations and promote more sustainable agriculture in Indonesia. For now, the app only allows users to invest in planting one of three different seeds, durian, peanuts and longan, but the app’s creators promise that more options will be available soon.

Jakarta is also partnering with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to research and promote sustainable agriculture in Indonesia and beyond, pioneering a food diversification program in southeastern Sulawesi in eastern Indonesia. The project aims to reduce dependency on common carbohydrates like grains and rice and instead promote indigenous sources of starch like the sago palm. An earlier collaboration with the FAO planted 5,000 hectares of sago in Papua in a similar project, and the current program targets two districts with a project to build a sago processing unit to commercially export the crop.

Elsewhere in the world, the major lender Rabobank is launching a $1 billion sustainable farming facility in partnership with U.N. Environment that will initially focus on Brazil and Indonesia. The facility will seek to advance sustainable agriculture in Indonesia and ultimately around the world, financing sustainable land use in ways that help the country achieve its climate goals under the Paris Climate Agreement.

– Giacomo Tognini

Photo: Flickr

FarmDrive Helps Unbanked Farmers in Kenya

Farmers in KenyaSmallholder farmers in Kenya are overwhelmingly denied access to traditional financial services, stunting the growth of the country’s agricultural industry. FarmDrive is an innovative startup that connects this unbanked population to new capital flows. So far, FarmDrive has facilitated 400 loans that amount to over $125,000.

There are 50 million smallholder farmers in Kenya, but less than 10 percent of this population has their economic needs fulfilled by traditional lenders. The agricultural sector makes up 32 percent of Africa’s GDP and employs 65 percent of its population, but less than 1 percent of bank lending goes to agriculture. Worldwide, there is an estimated $450 billion agricultural lending gap.

African smallholder farmers face barriers to traditional lending because they are labeled high-risk borrowers by financial institutions. Traditional banks use credit scores and bank statements to determine a loan applicant’s riskiness. However, the average farmer in Africa cultivates fewer than five acres of land and owns no collateral or financial records.

Limited credit availability leaves this population unable to improve their farming practices. Without access to capital, these farmers must forgo yield-increasing technology like fertilizer or irrigation systems.

FarmDrive combats this lack of financial visibility by calculating alternative credit scores for Kenyan smallholder farmers. The startup requires users to input their expenses, revenue and yield via SMS and creates a platform for farmers to record business activity. FarmDrive then uses a complex algorithm to combine individual financial information with additional factors like the climate in the farmer’s region. These outside inputs both verify farmer’s self-reported information and provide context for these records. For example, farmers living within arid zones will likely have smaller crop yields.

By accruing farmer data, FarmDrive eliminates some of the risk for banks. FarmDrive has partnered with African financial firms who accept their alternative credit scores and determine appropriate loans for smallholder farmers. Lending institutions thus consider both the self-reported financial history of farmers as well as exogenous variables that will affect their crop yields.

To gain access to remote farmers, FarmDrive depends on aid organizations, like USAID, and private firms that operate in the agricultural industry. FarmDrive is expanding its data collection through new partnerships with Planet, a satellite company, and The Impact Lab, a data analytics group, to potentially incorporate climate information gathered via satellite imagery into its algorithm.

Though the startup operates solely in Kenya, the founders would ultimately like to serve all 450 million smallholder farmers and 500 financial institutions in Africa. By linking unbanked farmers to needed capital, FarmDrive has the potential to revitalize Africa’s agricultural industry.

– Katherine Parks

Photo: Flickr

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2KUZE Mobile Marketplace

Mobile Marketplace
Let’s grow together. This is what MasterCard enabled with the launch of the 2KUZE mobile marketplace in January, which connects smallholder farmers, agents, buyers and banks in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Users can buy, sell and receive electronic payments for their crops through a mobile app. 2KUZE mobile marketplace makes the selling of crops more efficient for farmers, eliminating the need for them to travel long distances to markets. The platform also gives them access to a wider marketplace, allowing them to seek out the best price for their crops. Women will benefit from selling their crops through the platform, as their duties often prevent them from leaving home.

Through the app, buyers can post orders with the help of an agent. Farmers can see the orders and accept them. Agents then collect the produce from farmers and deliver it to buyers. The agents also pay farmers through a bank transfer or cash.

Eighty percent of African farmers are classified as smallholder farmers, who own small plots of land and rely mostly on family labor and grow only a few cash crops. Smallholder farmers often work with limited resources and incomes, which makes it difficult for them to improve the profitability and sustainability of their crops.

Named after the Swahili words for “let’s grow together,” the 2KUZE mobile marketplace was developed through MasterCard Labs for Financial Inclusion. There are currently 2,000 smallholder farmers in Nandi Hills, Kenya using the marketplace to sell their produce and work with agents to reach the best buyers at the best price.

MasterCard Labs for Financial Inclusion, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, collaborates with local expertise to improve access to financial services. The initiative works to empower the 500 million people previously excluded from financial services and promote more inclusive growth.

MasterCard also collaborated with Cafédirect Producers Foundation to introduce the 2KUZE mobile marketplace. This British nonprofit works with 280,000 smallholder farmers across Africa, Asia and Latin America. The smallholder farmer-led organization allows farmers to share knowledge and develop their own projects.

Cell phones are now as popular in Nigeria and South Africa as they are in the U.S. While smartphones are not as widely used in Africa as basic cell phones, the availability of low-cost smartphones has caused smartphone ownership in Africa to increase rapidly.

In 2016, the Pew Research Center reported that 40% of adults in Kenya own a smartphone or use the internet. Twenty-one percent of adults in Tanzania and 11% of adults in Uganda reported in the same study that they use the internet or own a smartphone.

– Cassie Lipp

Photo: Flickr

Growing Trade: The Uganda-Kenya Grain Partnership

Uganda-Kenya Grain PartnershipA recent trading partnership between Uganda and Kenya is expected to bring prosperity and better trade relations for both countries. The two countries partnered up to balance out the surplus of grain produced in Uganda with the growing demand coming from Kenya.

Below are three things you should know about the Uganda-Kenya grain partnership and its potential to foster renewed development and growth in the region.

1. Global efforts make the partnership possible.

The FoodTrade project was able to establish the Uganda-Kenya grain partnership through a $3 million grant from the U.K.’s Department for International Development.

The partnership links farmers in Uganda to buyers in Kenya through a secure trading channel. This will allow for more effective, efficient trading of popular grains including green grams and soy beans.

Farm Africa, the lead agency for the FoodTrade project, assists smallholder farmers produce crops efficiently and trade them more effectively. This will boost their incomes and provide locals across the continent with the tools needed to feed themselves.

2. The partnership will positively impact many living in Uganda and Kenya.

Uganda, home to 35 million people, is among the fastest growing populations in the world. 80 percent of Ugandans are employed in the agriculture sector. Agriculture makes up 23 percent of the country’s GDP.

With such a large portion of the country’s working population gaining its livelihood from farming, an avenue to efficiently trade the goods produced means Uganda’s citizens can earn a profit, thereby boosting their income.

On the other side of the coin, Kenya has experienced extreme drought in recent years that has significantly reduced its grain production. The country also struggles with a lack of arable land to produce enough crops to meet the country’s growing demand.

The World Bank’s data shows that 34 percent of Uganda’s land is usable for farming whereas only 10 percent of Kenya’s land is healthy enough to produce crops. The Uganda-Kenya grain partnership will help bridge the gap between Kenya’s demand for grain and Uganda’s supply.

3. Smallholder farmers become the focus.

The partnership allows smallholder farmers to be linked to high paying buyers in Kenya. This agreement establishes a well-functioning regional market, which allows farmers to earn more money for their products than they would on their own.

The Uganda-Kenya grain partnership will also help to cut down on post-harvest losses by establishing a clean, reliable storage system.

This means that less food will go to waste and farmers will suffer fewer losses that cut into their income. More than 70,000 smallholder farmers are expected to benefit from the partnership.

The Uganda-Kenya grain partnership opens the door for thousands to better their lives by bridging the gap between Uganda’s supply of grain and Kenya’s growing demand for agricultural goods.

Hopes are high that this new avenue for trading will establish a strong economic relationship between Uganda and Kenya, which will allow both countries to prosper and take steps towards furthering developed.

– Sara Christensen

Photo: Pixabay