Partnering to Improve Grower Livelihoods

Since 2016, we’ve been collaborating with Solidaridad to empower growers and address food safety in China and Kenya.

Solidaridad is an international civil society organization that works in over 40 countries worldwide on fair and sustainable supply chains. Its mission is to bring together supply chain players and engage them with innovative solutions to support under-resourced producer communities, enabling farmers, miners, and workers in earning a decent income, shaping their own futures, and producing in balance with nature.

Since 2016, we have partnered with Solidaridad to implement sustainable solutions at scale that empower farming communities to achieve food security, primarily in China and Kenya. In 2020, we renewed our collaborative agreement after a successful initiative from 2018-2019 in which we trained 8,522 farmers on Good Agricultural Practices, including 55 Spray Service Providers trained on and given personal protective equipment. Additionally, we provided critical training materials for mango and coffee crops. Please see this video for more (link here).

Much needed Horticulture for Growth

We are partnering in seven counties in Kenya on our Horticulture for Growth Program to improve rural livelihoods, including food security and farmer income, support addressing climate resistance, and help with farming economics. This is especially needed in Kenya, where ~50% of Kenyans lack access to adequate food and ~55% live below the poverty line.

The specific goals of Horticulture for Growth are:

• Train 30,000 farmers to increase their adaptive capacity and yield while improving their safe use practices
• Support farmer adoption and implementation of soil health management practices, as well as production and marketing protocols
• Establish greenhouses and fruits and vegetable nurseries
• Conduct climate adaptation index measurement for crops in scope
• Train growers on improved technology adoption of crop protection and hybrid seeds
• Improve access to affordable financing packages for horticulture smallholder farmers with a target to finance 2,000 farmers in 2 years
• Create awareness and improve access to quality farm inputs and services among all 30,000 farmers
• Support the recruitment of horticulture smallholder farmers in project areas
• Train farmer groups on GLOBALG.A.P. certification, food safety, and market standards and requirements
• Link new and project retailers to Syngenta’s Retailer Engagement Program, which focuses on business acumen, product training, and sales

Outside China and Kenya, between 2019 and 2020, we partnered to implement a pilot in Colombia to promote and improve the Integrated Pest Management of the coffee berry borer by smallholders. To understand more, please read this report (in English), learn about the Integrated Pest Management training tool for smallholders (in Spanish).