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3 Apps Helping Vertical Farmers in Africa

Farmers in AfricaEstimates predict there will be over nine billion people on the planet by 2050. Of that increase in population, half will be born in Africa. In order to feed the world, food production must increase by 70% in that time. Farmers in Africa are looking for ways to adapt.

When investigating this problem of the future, it is interesting to note that nearly three-quarters of farm production happens on a small scale. There is roughly a small-scale farmer that produces a bulk of this food, and many of them are in need of assistance. The agrarian way of life is common, but not very prosperous across Africa. There is already an abundance of demand, but many African farmers are struggling to produce. Digital innovations are spreading and now helping farmers become more efficient. Here are three apps helping farmers in Africa boost their potential.

WeFarm

WeFarm is a networking app, comparable to LinkedIn or Facebook, but designed specifically for African farmers. A majority of their customer base is in Kenya and Uganda with over a million members in the two countries.

WeFarm helps to disseminate information among farmers. It gives a platform for farmers to connect and crowdsource solutions form their peers. By creating an ecosystem for these farmers to communicate and share best practices, farms will grow to be more efficient.

Many people living in more remote regions of Africa do not have adequate internet access. WeFarm can be used to communicate without internet access. The app facilitates communication across SMS which is much more prevalent than internet access in rural areas for some African countries, so more farmers can get plugged into the conversation.

CowTribe

CowTribe is an award-winning app and a boon for livestock farmers in Africa, particularly in Botswana where cattle account for 85% of agriculture.

This app helps owners take care of their animals’ health very effectively. The app monitors health record, reminds about due vaccinations, connect farmers with vaccinations, and can connect farmers with veterinary assistance. With CowTribe, every $1 spent on vaccination leads to $29 of revenue per year.

As of now, the app keeps track of 240,000 cows belonging to 29,000 different farmers. There are millions of farmers who can benefit from this app, and the membership rate is anticipated to grow 40% year over year.

Modisar

Modisar is another prize-winning app that has brought a new level of sophistication to its farmers in Botswana. The app requires a computer or laptop but can run without an internet connection, which is again very useful for remote, rural regions. Modisar is a platform that helps a farmer understand and better manage their farm. It maintains farm records, keeps track of inventory and livestock, and sends reminders for tasks that need completion. One of the greatest features Modisar offers is an expense and profit tracker. This allows farmers to see their financial history and can educate them on how to increase profits in the future.

Modisar also maintains a library of articles relating to best farming practices, so that farmers have other resources to troubleshoot and further educate themselves. The database also has a photo gallery of different diseases, that a farmer may consult when an unknown infection springs up in the crop. Modisar won the Orange Social Venture Prize in 2014 and has continued helping farmers since.

There is a menagerie of apps helping farmers in Africa with new ones releasing every year. There are seemingly many identical apps in the growing library of farm assistants, but many operate in different regions and have their own unique following. Agriculture, one of the oldest human endeavors, coupled with digital technology growing many small farmers in African countries.

– Brett Muni
Photo: Pxhere

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4 Technological Solutions Alleviating Poverty

Technological Solutions Alleviating Poverty
Providing cheap, accessible and reliable technological solutions can alleviate poverty in developing nations. Technological innovations have proven to provide small-scale farmers with agribusiness and expansion opportunities for education services. They also provide growth in energy production and water security. Affordable innovations are therefore essential to improve the lives of those in need. Here are four technological solutions alleviating poverty in developing nations.

4 Technological Solutions Alleviating Poverty

  1. Digital Devices – Global citizens have more access to digital devices than ever before. In developing nations, the overwhelming usage of digital devices allows for the precise gathering of data. This collection of data provides opportunities to improve the health and food sector. For example, the Harvard School of Public Health effectively explained why and how diseases spread in Kenya. Researchers utilized statistics from digital devices to effectively locate the spread of diseases. In developing nations, digital devices can also help to connect small-scale farmers. For example, WeFarm is a free digital network that connects farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. WeFarm uses artificial intelligence to connect farmers with similar questions and answers. It also promotes the sharing of information, innovations and solutions. Therefore, farmers have seen an increase in earnings, pricing and quality of products. Similar to WeFarm, Esoko also promotes agribusiness in African countries. Esoko is a web-based program connecting small farmers to large-scale markets. Esoko sends SMS messaging offering price notifications, market opportunities and supply totals. The implementation of Esoko has decreased the cost of local farmers’ transactions. It has also increased consulting abilities and the income of small farmers. Therefore, digital devices are successful technological solutions alleviating poverty.
  2. Online Learning – Additionally, online learning is one of the other technological solutions alleviating poverty in developing nations. Improving educational opportunities is essential for a nation’s overall growth. Unfortunately, specific regions of developing nations do not have access to in-person education services. Therefore, online learning bridges this gap. The African Virtual University (AVU) is a nonprofit organization delivering higher education courses to citizens in Sub-Saharan Africa. AVU offers online learning courses from 50 universities. AVU’s mission is to improve the quality of education, provide women with educational opportunities and stimulate economic growth. In 2011, 25,000 students from 17 African countries enrolled in AVU. AVU has successfully impacted African economies by producing citizens with degrees in business or technology.
  3. Fog Catchers – People utilize fog catchers in regions where there is minimal rainfall. Fog catchers use a fitted mesh to catch water droplets. Droplets then funnel through drainages and into filters. The water that this equipment catches goes toward agriculture, laundry and other appliances. In Lima, Peru, a team from the Youthinkgreen nonprofit organization trained locals to build fog catchers. Locals expect to save over 50% of their water usage a day.
  4. Hydropower – One strategy of hydropower is to implement a versatile dam. Dams increase water security with the expansion of water storage. Hydropower also provides communities with clean, cheap and consistent energy. In the Hubei Province of China, four poor counties received hydropower development projects. The project’s mission was to use technological solutions to alleviate poverty in these counties. The project directly funded various poverty agendas of each county. An assessment of the project found that the ability of hydropower development to alleviate poverty was significant. The counties’ income levels even exceeded China’s poverty line.

Overall, affordable technological solutions alleviate global poverty in developing nations. Technology must be easy to use and consistent with the intension of generating economic progression. As technology continues to develop, services should become less exclusive and therefore more available to developing countries.

– John Brinkman
Photo: Flickr

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Easy Ways to Help End Global Poverty Through Tech

Technology and PovertyTechnology advancements have made it easier than ever to participate in global poverty reduction efforts. From smartphone apps to browser extensions and charitable websites, keep reading to learn the easiest ways to help fight global poverty.

Apps That Help Fight Poverty

Smartphone apps may be the easiest form of providing assistance. Most people carry a cellphone with them wherever they go, so the ability to connect and help others is literally right at their fingertips. The five apps listed below are just a few examples of how technology can help to reduce poverty.

  • OLIO – OLIO is a food-sharing app based in the U.K. that allows people and local businesses to post food items nearing their best-by or sell-by date for other people to pick up. To date, over 1 million people have joined the app and 1.8 million portions of food have been shared. To post items, download the app, add a picture and description of the item, list when and where it can be picked up and wait for someone to claim it. To request items, scroll through the local listings, request what is needed and arrange to pick up through a private message.
  • Chowberry – Chowberry is an online Nigeria-based app, similar to OLIO, that has the goal of “reach[ing] millions of food-deprived individuals with affordable nutrition through innovation and enabling technologies”. Chowberry works with orphanages and faith-based organizations, as well as everyday customers to deliver soon-expiring food products to those most in need.
  • Share the Meal – Share the Meal was created by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The WFP helps 80 million people with food assistance and is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting against hunger. Download the app, donate 50 cents (or more) in a few seconds and feed a child for the day. You can even check the app to see where the meals will be distributed.
  • WeFarm – WeFarm is a farmer-to-farmer digital network that allows farmers to connect to other farmers in various parts of the world, without the use of the Internet. More than 1 million farmers have been helped using WeFarm and over 40,000 questions and answers are sent in each day. Farmers can text their local WeFarm number a question they have, and other connected farmers can respond with their answers and suggestions.
  • Donate a Photo – Donate a Photo is an app created by Johnson & Johnson that allows users to “donate” a photo for a cause. Simply take a picture of any subject, choose what cause to donate it to and upload it. For every photo donated, Johnson & Johnson will donate $1 to a certain charity. So far, there have been more than 4.5 million photo donations benefiting more than 200 causes including Save the Children, RED (fight for AIDS) and A Leg to Stand On.

Browser Extensions That Help Fight Poverty

Browser extensions are another easy way to help others. Unlike apps, which require a little effort to use, extensions require none other than downloading them. Although there are several extensions to choose from, Tab for a Cause is probably the most well known. As creator Alex Groth says, this is a way “where everyone can be giving to charity regardless of your monetary worth at that time.”

Tab for a Cause – Tab for a Cause is a web app/browser extension that works off of opening new tabs. Each time a new tab is opened, the page displays blogs and articles related to various issues to help raise awareness and education as well as ads to help generate revenue which is then donated to different organizations and charities. Tab for a Cause has partnered with Water.org, Room to Read, Human Rights Watch, Conservation International, International Peace Institute and Save the Children. To date, Tab for a Cause has raised $791,766 for various charities.

Websites That Help Fight Poverty

The following sites offer ways to help fight global poverty in the easiest ways possible in many cases at no additional cost to the website user.

  • FreeRice – FreeRice is a website that allows users to essentially play a game to donate food and money to those in need. Each question answered correctly refreshes the page and provides a new sponsored ad which in turn generates money donated to the World Food Programme. Although most donations go towards providing grain for vulnerable families, the company also provides other types of food assistance, “depending on where needs are greatest.” So far the organization has donated the equivalent 202 billion grains of rice to families experiencing hunger.
  • The Hunger Site – The Hunger Site is a partner of GreaterGood, an organization that raises money through online auctions for charities around the world. Although The Hunger Site works like a store with items available for purchase with proceeds being donated, they have a quick, easy and free way to help as well. At the top of their page, they have a “Click to Give” button. Clicking this button donates a specific amount of money from sponsored advertisers to provide food for areas in need, and since 1999 the organization has funded more than 714 billion cups of food. GreaterGood has several offshoots of this campaign, with similar sites for breast cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes research, literacy awareness, animal shelter donations and a few others. Overall, since 1999 and through the use of these websites and their online auctions, GreaterGood has raised and donated over $50 million to charities around the world.
  • Amazon Smile – Amazon Smile is a project of Amazon that works exactly the same and offers the same products. The difference is that when shopping through Amazon Smile a portion of the proceeds will be donated to a charity of the shopper’s choice, without any additional cost to the shopper. As of 2018, Amazon had announced that it had made over $100 million in charitable donations since the Amazon Smiles program was launched in 2013.

– Jessica Winarski
Photo: Flickr

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Five Apps That Help Fight Hunger

Apps That Help Fight HungerHunger is a crisis facing many countries and communities around the world, with about 821 million people experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity. According to the United Nations, the biggest risk to worldwide health is hunger and malnutrition. Several programs already exist to help fight this issue such as food banks, food stamps, shelters and agencies like World Bank and the International Fund for Agriculture Development. However, there is an up and coming way for anyone to be able to provide assistance—smartphone apps. These five apps that help fight hunger offer various ways to give help with little more than the tap of a finger.

Five Apps That Help Fight Hunger

  1. Share the Meal – The U.N. World Food Programme created Share the Meal. The WFP helps 80 million people with food assistance and is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting against hunger. Download the app, donate $0.50 or more and feed a child for the day. The WFP then receives the funds, provides the meal and will even show in the app where the meal will go.
  2. Feedie – Feedie is an app that partners with the Lunchbox Fund to provide a meal to underserved children around the world. Over 12 million meals have been given through the app as well as through donations. Download the app, find a participating restaurant, take and share a picture of the meal and the restaurant will make a donation that equals the cost of one meal.
  3. OLIO – OLIO is a food-sharing app based in the UK that allows people and local businesses to post food items nearing their best-by or sell-by date for other people to pick up. To date, over 1 million people have joined the app and 1.8 million portions of food have been shared. To post items, download the app, add a picture and description of the item, list when and where it can be picked up and wait for someone to claim it. To request items, scroll through the local listings, request what is needed and arrange to pick up through a private message.
  4. Chowberry – Chowberry is an online app, similar to OLIO, based in Nigeria that allows consumers and organizations to find food products listed by retailers that are nearing their sell-by date. Chowberry works with orphanages and faith-based organizations, as well as everyday customers. Sign up for the website and scroll through several participating stores and listed items to find needed items.
  5. WeFarm – WeFarm is a farmer-to-farmer digital network that allows farmers to connect to other farmers in various parts of the world, without the use of the internet. More than 1 million farmers have been helped using WeFarm and over 40 thousand questions and answers are sent in each day. Farmers can text their local WeFarm number a question they have, and other connected farmers can respond with their answers and suggestions.

Hunger is an ongoing issue that millions of people face every day. These five apps that help fight hunger offer several different solutions to both those in need and those that are able to help. From donating a few cents, to listing discounted products, to connecting farmers around the world and more, helping those dealing with hunger can be a quick and easy process requiring nothing more than a cellphone.

– Jessica Winarski
Photo: Flickr

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What Is Famine?

What Is Famine
The only time many of us think of food is when we are hungry. Unfortunately, many countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, Uganda, and Yemen are not afforded that opportunity due to many catastrophes that affect the growth of crops and other food sources. Thanks to the supergroup called United Support of Artists (USA) for Africa, circa 1985, famine became a global concern. Artists such as Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, and Quincy Jones contributed to the charitable, Billboard-charting single We Are the World. Fast forward to over 30 years later, the following question is still a valid one: what is famine?

What is Famine?

Famine is not just food shortage. Chris Hufstader from OXFAM America states that it’s also a widespread food scarcity where poverty leads to malnutrition and death. Food scarcity is determined under a set of criteria and ranking called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The IPC is a tracking system that monitors the availability of food in various countries for governments to foresee and become proactive to avoid a food crisis. The IPC is set up into five phases:

  • Food security: a state of having dependable access to food to maintain a balanced diet.
  • Food insecurity: when five to 10 percent of a population has limited access to food.
  • Acute food and livelihood crisis: a plight where there is 10 to 15 percent of a community that experiences a severe absence of food and the only way to reach nourishment is by selling necessary items.
  • Humanitarian emergency: when 15 to 30 percent of a population is at an extreme absence of food and countless people meet there demise because of it.
  • Famine: when 30 percent of a population experiences an absolute lack of food.

Origins of Famine

To know what is famine is to see the origin. Just like many things in life like war, slavery, and any form of injustice there is a cause and effect. According to Joel Mokyr of the Britannica, famine originated in the 19th century in Ireland. The cause of hunger stemmed from a consecutive year of potato crop failure due to an infestation that targets the leaves and roots of these plants. It was later called the Great Famine. The Great Famine was so severe it was given three alternate names: Irish Potato Famine, Great Irish Famine, or Famine of 1845-1849.

Although crop failure is one of many reasons to why famines occur, there are several reasons why scarcity exists. For instance, Joe Hasell and Max Roser from Our World in Data states that the lack of serviceable food markets to support and ensure reliable transportation of goods to aid malnourished countries is an issue. Without efficient shipping from the marketplace, support cannot be released. Also, inflation on prices in food markets leads to marginalizing poverty-stricken countries to afford the food sold. According to Hasell and Roser’s source from the Markets and Famines novel, Martin Ravallion, increase in prices stems from floods that transpired throughout the famine which developed a supply and demand. Panic buying and price speculation, however, contributed to the actual cause of food shortage.

Solutions Exist

Understanding famine, the history, and the causes of this travesty leads to many solutions that can ensure that no one goes unfed. WeFarm CEO and Founder, Kenny Ewan, presents one such solution in providing farmers worldwide with the necessary communication for success. Programs like this begin to counteract every potential food scare and prohibit further damage to populations.

– Christopher Shipman

Photo: Flickr

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WeFarm: An Agriculture Startup Ending Poverty

WeFarmClimate change is a threat to humanity for a number of reasons. One of the most integral pieces of a functioning society is access to food and the means to cultivate it. As climate change continues to threaten weather patterns, soil, water, and air quality, it will be extremely important that farming practices are as up to date, sustainable, and efficient as possible. There are around 500 million small-scale farmers working today that live in extremely poor conditions. Access to technology and support for farming practices is scarce for farmers in remote locations or those who live in extremely poor circumstances. WeFarm, a peer-to-peer service is working to connect farmers in these situations to better arm them with knowledge and resources from other farmers around the world.

WeFarm is dictated by a few key principles. One of which is that information sharing will improve livelihoods. Millions of people are already armed with the tools to access information sharing technology such as cell phones. This “peer-to-peer” model has great power in that generations of farmers now have a platform to share information and expertise.

The concept of WeFarm came out of an experience abroad that led its founder to notice that agriculture-based societies were missing adequate information. There was so much knowledge to be shared, even between close communities, just no useful way to bring that information together and disseminate it to the public.

An important aspect of WeFarm is that no Internet connection is needed. SMS capabilities allow users to communicate by phone. Currently, about 90 percent of small-scale farmers around the world have access to such technology. With this statistic suspected to rise in the future, WeFarm is an effective and innovative platform in the agricultural world.

– Casey Hess

Photo: Flickr

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WeFarm : Connecting Farmers Through Mobile Phones

WeFarm

There are over 500 million smallholder farms in the world. Most of these farmers live on less than $1 a day and are highly vulnerable to severe climate change and other factors that can hurt their farms. On top of that, many of these farmers do not have access to the Internet to learn about ways to help their farms or even to help other farmers.

One company, WeFarm, has developed a way to connect farmers without having to have an Internet connection. WeFarm has implemented a free, peer-to-peer service for farmers to share information via SMS, rather than through the Internet.

WeFarm explains how this works with a simple example: “Rose’s crops are suffering from a disease, so she sends a simple, free text to the local WeFarm number.” Rose’s question would then be posted online and sent to certain WeFarm members via SMS. From there, Rose would receive answers within minutes, according to WeFarm, without having to leave her farm or needing an Internet connection.

Because of the use of SMS, these farmers can use simple mobile phones to access this information. Especially now that over 90 percent of smallholder farmers now have access to a basic mobile phone. Over 290,000 farmers have registered with WeFarm. Of 387,000 questions asked, over 540,000 answers have been given. In the six years that WeFarm has been operating, they have made it much easier for farmers to access crucial information, with the only cost being purchasing a basic mobile phone.

As of now, WeFarm is only available in three countries: Peru, Kenya and Uganda. Their website even shows a live feed of questions as they are asked and answered, along with a map to show where the questions originate from.

Although WeFarm is still young and growing, they have created an extremely helpful concept that can be implemented in many parts of the world without an Internet connection. WeFarm has created a way – by using a basic mobile phone – to share necessary information at a low cost to farmers around the world; its success thus far brings hope that WeFarm’s progress will spread to other countries and help farmers all over the world.

– Rebekah Covey

Photo: Flickr

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How Small Farmers Connect Without the Internet

Small Farmers WeFarm InternetNowadays, it seems everything can go viral on the Internet in seconds, from a social justice movement to a funny cat video. But what do people in developing countries do to share ideas, ask questions and communicate with their peers who live in remote areas without the Internet as a permanent fixture in their lives?

For small-scale farmers in developing countries, the slightest challenges can quickly become insurmountable. Issues like climate change, access to profitable markets and below-average growing seasons hit small farmers much harder than their larger counterparts.

According to the Huffington Post, there are currently about 500 million smallholder farmers around the globe. On average, these agriculturists live on less than $1 a day.

In order to survive year after year, many small farmers have developed low-cost, effective solutions to the everyday problems they face. Until recently, these solutions could travel no farther than word-of-mouth could take them.

In 2014, WeFarm was founded with the mission of becoming “the internet for people without the internet.” The organization offers peer-to-peer communication amongst farmers in developing countries. Users can ask and answer questions using SMS or text messaging. The service is offered to smallholder farmers free of charge.

The service translates queries and advice so that small farmers from around the world can communicate and share the valuable information they have accumulated through their personal experiences. So far, over 100,000 answers have been provided to the 43,000 farmers registered to the program.

The founders of WeFarm thought strategically about how to make information available to all the small farmers who live without the Internet. Six billion of the world’s seven billion citizens have access to a mobile phone but only 25 percent of the global population has an Internet connection. SMS is a far more trafficked channel of communication for the world’s poor, compared to email or Internet messaging.

WeFarm has big plans for the data collected by the service. The organization sees the questions farmers are asking and answering as an opportunity to address some of the major issues inhibiting food production around the world.

The data gathered by WeFarm’s service is sold to major food producers to give them a sense of the daily struggles faced by small-scale farmers. The buyer companies can use this information to better analyze the issues and develop long-term strategies to address them.

According to Zoë Fairlamb, a spokesperson for WeFarm, “Small scale farmers produce 70 percent of the world’s food globally. Global brands rely on what small scale farmers are producing, yet they have next to no visibility on what is going on at the bottom of the supply chain. A lot of food is wasted in this way through very preventable diseases.”

Though WeFarm has already taken significant strides toward a more sustainable farming system, this is only the beginning for the organization. According to the Huffington Post, WeFarm is currently seeking investments in order to expand and reach one million farmers by the end of 2016.

As a connector of major players in the food industry and small farmers across the globe, WeFarm is in a unique position to change the way the world grows food and transfers information.

As Fairlamb put it, “WeFarm wants to be about changing [the] conversation and giving [farmers] a voice, showing their knowledge is valuable and giving them a way to share that information.”

– Jennifer Diamond

Sources: Huffington Post, WeFarm, Global Citizen, Space Innovation Congress
Photo: National Geographic