OUR WORK

Empowering Farmers Foundation (EFF) is a nonprofit organisation that works to improve the livelihoods of agricultural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa through initiatives in food security and income generation, climate resilience and adaptation, and value addition.

The Foundation partners with small-scale producers to improve their yields and their income. EFF promotes the ‘farming as a business’ concept by providing smallholder farmers with necessary inputs (including high yield variety certified seeds), access to business skills training, climate-smart crop-specific good agricultural practices to enhance their productivity.

EFF has experience with a range of value chains encompassing cash crops like Robusta coffee and sugarcane, vital staples such as finger millet and rice, as well as valuable tree nuts (with an emphasis on cashew), pulses, oilseeds, legumes, and sunflower.

Discover Our COUNTRIES OF OPERATION

Agriculture serves as the backbone of Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia, playing a pivotal role in their economies and livelihoods. These countries rely heavily on agriculture for food security, employment, and income generation, especially in rural areas where the majority of the population resides. Smallholder farmers constitute a significant portion of the agricultural workforce, highlighting the sector’s importance in poverty alleviation and economic development. Moreover, agriculture contributes significantly to these nations’ export earnings, fostering trade relations and bolstering their international standing. Given its multifaceted impact, investing in agricultural development in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia is crucial for sustainable growth and improving the well-being of their populations.

KENYA

KENYA


In Kenya, EFF has been working since 2020 in Kilifi County. Initially focussed on reviving the cashew value chain in the coastal producing regions, EFF has planted over 600,000 Tanzanian polyclonal cashew saplings across 16,000 households. The Foundation’s activities have grown to encompass interventions targeting tackling malnutrition by promoting the production of finger millet as a healthier and indigenous alternative to maize. Being a drought prone region, EFF’s interventions are climate adaptive: the crops we focus on are drought-resistant, and farmers are trained in regenerative agricultural practices with special attention to water conservation and soil fertility.

Emily Matole
emily.matole@eff.dev

MOZAMBIQUE

MOZAMBIQUE


EFF Mozambique is the newest chapter of the Foundation. Managed by a small team of 3 professionals operations started in August 2022 and are gradually expanding, as is the team. Focus areas of intervention, in alignment with EFF’s overall strategy and the country’s development agenda, are food security, climate resilience and adaptation, and inclusive growth targeting smallholder farmers, and rural and coastal communities in selected provinces.

These interventions are characterised by strategic partnerships with local stakeholders, the provision of training and capacity-building programs, and the promotion of climate smart-agricultural practices that address the usage and conservation of natural resources. The overarching goal is to ensure that beneficiaries are empowered and their poverty level reduced.

Nadia Paschetta
nadia.paschetta@eff.dev

TANZANIA

TANZANIA


As one of the first countries where operations started, EFF Tanzania is committed to transforming the lives of smallholder farmers through targeted interventions that see farmers at the centre of the value chain, while having direct and indirect linkages with other players in the agricultural sphere. By strengthening the knowledge and skills of smallholder producers to adapt and become more resilient to a changing environment, enhancing farmer organisation management, and fostering linkages with input providers, the market and financial services, EFF has empowered over 15,000 smallholder farmers to shift from subsistence to semi-commercial farming. The key has been to promote more efficient production techniques of food crops, to ensure food security, while improving the cultivation of commercial crops that increase household income and spending power. Focus value chains include maize, cowpea, rice, sesame, coffee, pigeon pea, chickpea, green gram, soybean, sunflower, sugarcane and cashew nuts.

Babette du Marchie Sarvaas
babette.dmsarvaas@eff.dev

ZAMBIA

ZAMBIA


EFF Zambia has been operational since 2018 and has been active in advancing the revival of the country’s cashew industry through extensive projects in both the Western and Eastern Provinces. These initiatives have involved collaborating with ETG to conceptualize and implement a statewide program aimed at rejuvenating the cashew sector. Despite its introduction in the 1940s, cashew experienced a decline until recently being recognized as a priority project by the national government for economic diversification, poverty reduction, and food security. In parallel, EFF has established seven Seasonal Open Markets (SOMs) in the Eastern and Central Provinces of Zambia, strategically designed to enhance food security and resilience by mitigating postharvest losses, reducing transaction costs, and alleviating market uncertainty.

Poorva Pandya
poorva.pandya@eff.dev

Agricultural Productivity: Enhance agricultural productivity through sustainable and climate-smart practices, improved access to quality seeds, fertilisers, and modern technologies, and training for small-scale farmers. b. Irrigation and Water Management: Promote water conservation techniques, efficient irrigation systems, and integrated water resource management to ensure a reliable water supply for agriculture. c. Diversification: Encourage crop diversification to enhance food availability and household nutrition by promoting the cultivation of smart food crops and high-value crops for increased income generation. d. Storage and Distribution: Strengthen post-harvest management and improve storage infrastructure to reduce household food losses; and promote efficient aggregation systems for improved inputs distribution and access to markets. e. Market Linkages & Financial Services: Support the establishment or farmer cooperatives/ organisations for effective produce aggregation and market linkages, and provide technical assistance to enable small-scale producers to access domestic and international markets and financial services, fostering income generation and economic growth. f. Skills Training and Capacity Building: Facilitate agronomic training, entrepreneurship development, and business management skills to enhance the capacity of smallholder farmers and communities to generate sustainable incomes.
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