ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT 2016 FARM AFRICA ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT 2016 FARMAFRICA.ORG Investing in smallholder farming is the number one way to combat poverty in rural Africa. Prosperity depends on making agriculture work better, using AGRICULTURE natural resources well, and Developing creating stronger markets agricultural expertise for what farmers produce. for long-term change. Farm Africa specialises in growing agriculture, protecting WELCOME TO FARM AFRICA’S SECOND ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT, the environment and developing businesses in rural Africa. LOOKING BACK AT A MILESTONE YEAR FOR THE ORGANISATION. Our programmes are managed DESPITE OPERATING IN A CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENT, WE’RE in partnership with local ENVIRONMENT PROUD TO HAVE REACHED A RECORD NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN communities, who actively Safeguarding the participate in all decisions about 2016, WITH 1.9 MILLION PEOPLE ACROSS EASTERN AFRICA environment for the work. We’re committed BENEFITING FROM OUR SUPPORT. years to come. to empowering women as decision-makers in all the communities we work with. But we didn’t just help people. This report focuses on our work to Environmental protection is central support rural African communities’ BUSINESS to ensuring we have a lasting impact. access to appropriate and affordable Boosting business Over the last ten years, we have supported financial services. Savings, credit to drive prosperity. communities to sustainably manage just and insurance are tools Farm Africa over one million hectares of forest and is increasingly using to build rural rangeland, an area half the size of Wales. communities’ prosperity and resilience We will continue to add to this, hectare by to climatic and environmental shocks. hectare, year on year, knowing that once communities have the opportunity to earn I hope you are inspired by the stories money from protecting the environment in this report that show how we are the incentives are stacked in favour driving prosperity in rural Africa through of conservation. agriculture. We can only carry out our work thanks to the support of people like A recent ground-breaking achievement you: heartfelt thanks to everyone who was official verification that the trees has generously contributed to our work. saved by our forestry projects in Bale, Ethiopia over the period 2012 to 2015 have reduced carbon emissions by 5.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This impressive Richard Macdonald CBE figure could generate sales of carbon credits Chair 2 Letter from the Chair worth upwards of $18 million, 60% of which 3 Farm Africa’s strategy will benefit the local community – read more 5 Where we work on page 15. 7 Why finance matters 9 Micro-credit and savings Our work building farmers’ links to 10 — How goats boosted food security profitable markets also saw significant in Tigray, Ethiopia expansion. In January 2016 we launched 11 — How savings built resilience in Ethiopia a fish farming project helping Kenyan 12 — Access to credit for youth in farmers improve the production and Kenya: Growing Futures marketing of fish. 13 Getting markets moving 13 — Stimulating trade in Tanzania and Uganda In April 2016 we initiated a new project, 15 Sustainable finance from ecosystems funded by the UK Government, helping 15 — Generating carbon credits in Ethiopia’s Tanzanian and Ugandan rice, maize and Bale Eco-region beans farmers better market their crops to 16 — Selling forest products in Tanzania high-value buyers – read more on page 13. 17 Micro-insurance for pastoralists 19 Thank you 21 Financial summary 01 02 FARM AFRICA ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT 2016 FARMAFRICA.ORG FARM AFRICA’S STRATEGY THANK YOU FOR THE WARM WELCOME I’VE RECEIVED SINCE JOINING FARM AFRICA IN FEBRUARY 2016. OVER MY FIRST YEAR I WAS EXCITED TO GET STUCK IN WITH DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING A NEW STRATEGY FOR THE PERIOD 2016-2020. The new strategy builds on the to better understand our impact from organisation’s successful track record different models of intervention. We will of more than three decades of overcoming continue to sharpen our insights on how poverty by developing small-scale farming. to achieve the best results in a variety of It outlines how we will work with local different environments. communities to transform rural Africa by investing in three areas: developing REACH MORE PEOPLE agricultural expertise, sustainably Small changes are not enough. managing the environment, and boosting That means scaling up. By 2020, we farmers’ businesses by linking them to will increase our footprint from four markets. Today, almost half of the world’s to six countries, and double the number extreme poor live in sub-Saharan Africa. of farmers we work with, reaching 3.6 The vast majority work in agriculture in million people a year. We will create rural areas. By specialising in sustainable more programmes that are effective farming, we maximise our effectiveness across regions. in tackling poverty in rural Africa. Over the next three years, Farm Africa’s inspiring INNOVATE team of world-class experts in agriculture, We will build on our strong track record natural resource management and market of innovative thinking. We’ll work to trigger engagement will: systemic change, and build links between our work in different locations, so that our SHARE OUR EXPERTISE programmes work in synergy, increasing We will document our tried and tested our regional impact. approaches in subjects ranging from forest management to climate-smart RAISE OUR VOICE agriculture to access to finance, so they We will harness the power of digital can be effectively replicated, not just by communications to engage with new us, but by others who share our vision. audiences, share the lessons we learn and shine a spotlight on the stories of farmers GET MARKETS MOVING whose lives we’ve changed. We’ll scale Farmers’ abilities to build thriving up our partnerships with corporate and Farm Africa’s work aligns businesses depend on well-functioning institutional partners alike. DRIVING markets. We will build farmers’ links with the UN’s Global Goals PROSPERITY THROUGH PHOTO: FARM AFRICA / NATHAN SIEGEL with the private sector, ranging from I hope we can count on your support for Sustainable Development AGRICULTURE. STRATEGIC PLAN (SDGs), which aim to end 2016-2020 agricultural input suppliers to finance as we work to unleash the potential of extreme poverty, hunger, brokers to export companies acting farmers across eastern Africa to grow inequality and injustice, and as gateways to international markets. their incomes in an environmentally fix climate change by 2030. sustainable way. We are committed to working 02 LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE with the business community, FARM AFRICA’S 2016–2020 Rigorous evidence of what does and governments and others to STRATEGY CAN BE DOWNLOADED AT doesn’t work is the foundation of all make these goals a reality. WWW.FARMAFRICA.ORG/STRATEGY our work. In 2016 we further developed Nicolas Mounard our monitoring and evaluation systems Chief Executive 03 04 FARM AFRICA ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT 2016 FARMAFRICA.ORG WHERE WE WORK 1 FARM AFRICA WORKS IN FOUR COUNTRIES IN EASTERN AFRICA: 6 ETHIOPIA, KENYA, TANZANIA AND UGANDA. OUR PROJECTS VARY HUGELY, RANGING FROM HELPING CROPS FARMERS TO BOOST 8 HARVESTS, LIVESTOCK KEEPERS TO IMPROVE ANIMAL HEALTH, AND FOREST COFFEE GROWERS TO REACH EXPORT MARKETS, BUT CORE TO ALL OF THEM IS A FOCUS ON TACKLING POVERTY ETHIOPIA HEAD ON, WHILE PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT. 5 4 7 6 7 3 FARM AFRICA’S PROJECT 2 LOCATIONS IN 2016 ETHIOPIA 6 1. Food security in Tigray 2. Forest management expansion 3. Preserving ecosystems in Bale 4. Making forest coffee profitable 5. Climate-smart agriculture 6. Market approaches to resilience 7. Community timber plantation development 19 8. Sustainable production and KENYA marketing of forest products UGANDA 15 KENYA TANZANIA 13 9. Sorghum and green grams 16. Sustainable forest management 19 10. Sustainable seed production 17. Orange-fleshed sweet 12 11. Urban farming potato production 9 12. Integrated community 18. Sesame production and marketing 14 11 empowerment 10 13. Aqua Shops REGIONAL 14 14. Market-led aquaculture 19. Regional trade of staple foods 15. Growing futures NUMBER OF 16 2,000,000 1,900,000 PEOPLE REACHED 1,800,000 The people we reach 18 19 come from a range of 1,750,000 backgrounds, and the term ‘farmer’ is often an inadequate way 17 1,500,000 to describe them. 1,500,000 1,400,000 Our projects touch the TANZANIA lives of men, women and children, who may rely on 1,250,000 specific ecosystems we have helped to transform, or who merely have 900,000 1,000,000 benefited from the growth in a specific value chain Year through obtaining a job. 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 19 05 06 FARM AFRICA ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT 2016 FARMAFRICA.ORG THIS REPORT EXPLORES DIFFERENT WAYS FARM AFRICA WHY FINANCE HAS HELPED SMALLHOLDER FARMERS AND AGRIBUSINESSES GAIN ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE FINANCE. WE DISCUSS VILLAGE MATTERS BANKING, MAKING MONEY FROM NATURAL RESOURCES, SELLING CARBON CREDITS GENERATED THROUGH FOREST PROTECTION, HELPING FARMERS SELL INTO HIGHER VALUE MARKETS, AND OUR EARLY EXPERIENCES IN DEVELOPING MICROINSURANCE PRODUCTS IN THE ETHIOPIAN LOWLANDS. Financial services such as savings Market Approaches to Resilience (MAR) accounts, loans and insurance may not project in Ethiopia, which is funded by be the most obvious of needs for families the UK’s Department for International living in poverty in rural Africa, many of Development (see more information on the whom lack access to basic services such MAR project on page 17) has trained 3,472 as clean water, secondary education or people in remote communities in financial adequate healthcare. But in a continent awareness, deepening their understanding where droughts, floods and erratic of how they can manage their cashflow rainfall regularly take their toll on and investments better. agricultural yields, millions of farming families risk being plunged into extreme And we help farmers reduce risk by poverty when their harvests fail, simply diversifying their incomes and insuring because they have no financial buffer to their assets against shocks.