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Heifer International, a nonprofit organization on a mission to end global hunger and poverty, has unveiled its Digital Agriculture Champions (DAC) initiative. The initiative will deliver sustainable, cost-effective training modules for smallholder farmers across Heifer Africa, starting with Kenya. Heifer is advancing technology and mechanization to address some of the post-pandemic challenges across different Agricultural value chains in Africa; investing in digital extension systems for training as a post-pandemic response strategy that will create efficient, scalable solutions for farmers and help boost the value chains in which they work.
Heifer is also committed to mentoring the youth who often constitute the extension staff, and is focused on empowering them to become digital champions with entrepreneurship skills to ensure quality services for farmers, and sustainable business models beyond the life of Heifer project interventions. “Heifer is committed to catalysing ground-up engagement of the youth in Agriculture. The Digital Agriculture Champions initiative will foster the application of digital technology in Agriculture, delivering solutions that address challenges faced by smallholder farmers at scale,” Adesuwa Ifedi, Senior Vice President Africa Programs, speaking from Heifer Africa, region office. “The idea for the AYuTe Africa Challenge (AYuTe stands for Agriculture, Youth and Technology) was conceived by Heifer based on four decades of work as a trusted partner of African farmers—and seeing first-hand the stark difference between local farms that have access to new technologies and those that do not,” she added.
In accordance with this tech innovation drive, Heifer is working with Kuza Biashara, a digital social enterprise, as technical partner, to offer a bundled solution that provides personalized digital training and extension services to smallholder farmers in Africa.
