Country: Uganda

Traditional skills meet frontier tech as a Global Cooperative, powered by Croppie, puts data, technology, and decision-making back into the hands of farmers.

In an era of growing climate challenges and food insecurity, digital platforms are proving to be a useful means of advising farmers on solutions about weather, waste, finances, and farming models as scientists and activists call for a reform of the global food system.

Now smallholders, one of the global communities often most vulnerable to climate change, could become the game-changers as technology captures their ancestral farming skills.

Producing roughly a third of the world’s food, these farmers—who are among the most experienced stewards of the land—have been largely excluded from the sourcing of data for the digital platforms which provide them with timely agronomic advice, financial services, and digital training.

*_{A Producers Direct agent supports a female farmer from northern Peru as she learns to use Croppie.}*

Croppie, a new digital platform from Producers Direct, which has a mission to build farmer-led solutions that enable smallholder farmers in Latin America and East Africa to thrive, claims to harness this farmer-powered data in a digital ecosystem. Mixing their age-old wisdom with cutting-edge tech such as AI, satellite imagery, and predictive analytics, farmers worldwide can use it to turn their farms into sustainable, climate-resilient businesses.

By providing real-time, personalized advice to farmers, Croppie aims to address some of the most pressing environmental challenges in modern agriculture. It helps farmers make informed decisions that respect their land, traditions, and ecosystems, by delivering advanced climate-smart advice through lo-fi channels like WhatsApp and SMS. The goal is empowerment—facilitating better decision-making at the individual level while promoting collective action and knowledge exchange globally.

What sets Croppie apart is its fundamental principle that the platform is made by farmers for farmers, rebuilding and rebranding their collaborative experience as a hub of innovation, service delivery, and peer-to-peer learning. It integrates various data sources, aggregating information from certification records, cooperative records, farmer data, and third party data, establishing a versatile platform that adapts to farmers’ needs.

In what the initiative sees as a significant departure from traditional top-down technology models, Croppie empowers farmers by placing them at the center of innovation, participating in the design of tools, and developing tailored solutions that directly address their needs. By being co-creators of the data they generate, smallholders can transform into leaders within a decentralized food system.

Central to Croppie’s mission is minimizing agriculture’s impact on the environment. Using sophisticated analysis of satellite imagery, weather data, and on-farm specifics, Croppie helps farmers to refine or rethink their practices and avoid harming fragile ecosystems.

Its climate-smart guidance helps to reduce excessive use of water and fertilizers, for example, maintaining soil health and significantly cutting down agriculture’s environmental footprint. It helps to boost productivity through strategic planning, which reduces the need for land expansion, curbing emissions and safeguarding essential carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots.

Producers Direct’s approach highlights a new paradigm in agriculture, the power of smallholder farmers to become pivotal agents of change in the global food system.

As smallholders find greater control over both their methodologies and data, the ripple effects could transform their communities significantly, setting new standards for resilience and sustainability.

Learn more about Croppie.

Written by Gilly Smith
Photos provided by the Croppie

Country: Uganda

Food sovereignty is a democratic system that puts the power of food production and distribution back in the hands of the people who produce and distribute it. Narratives around food production in developing countries—in particular, across the African continent—are fraught with legacies of colonialism, racism, and injustice that have translated into real issues. The prevailing narrative that Africa has a broken food system that must be repaired has resulted in wresting power out of the hands of the most intimate stakeholders. Farmers’ seeds are considered obsolete, and to be replaced by high-yielding varieties. Land managed by farmers is labeled unproductive, resulting in land grabbing and costly and polluting agrochemicals, among other issues.

My Food is African by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is attempting to change this narrative. The initiative’s main goal is to create an environment where Africans can achieve food sovereignty by producing and consuming their own food. AFSA, based in Uganda, is implementing the initiative in 11 African countries, including Uganda, Tunisia, Senegal, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

_{Building a movement of youth to champion agroecology and food sovereignty during the First Thousand Youth Summit on Agroecology and Food Systems in Addis Ababa, October 2024.}

The My Food is African initiative works by shortening food supply chains to strengthen territorial markets and promote the consumption of culturally acceptable foods, thereby reducing transportation costs. It also limits the need for processing and packaging, significantly reducing plastic pollution. With agroecology at its core—the integration of traditional knowledge with scientific insights to create sustainable farming practices that work in harmony with nature—the initiative claims to produce food without chemical pesticides and fertilizers, major contributors to the climate crisis. Instead, it employs alternatives such as biofertilizers and biopesticides made from organic ingredients that do not harm the environment, along with practices like crop rotation, intercropping, mixed farming, and push-pull strategies that align with natural systems.

According to the initiative, they also stand out for their cultural component that encourages the revival of heritage, including the protection of sacred sites like forests, grasslands, and wetlands. My Food is African builds on the existing knowledge systems of small-scale farmers, particularly in seed and participatory crop breeding, thereby revitalizing diverse plant species and contributing to biosphere integrity. Indigenous crops and practices are highly adaptable to local climate conditions, ensuring a consistent and reliable food supply even amid climate change. Indigenous food production plays a crucial role in safeguarding biodiversity. Indigenous agricultural practices prioritize maintaining the balance of local ecosystems, ensuring soil health, conserving water, and preserving habitats.

_{Ugandans showcasing the traditional method of cooking bananas, locally known as “matoke,” during the AFSA 4th Biennial Food Systems Conference in Cameroon, November 2022.}

The My Food is African initiative will be rolled out on four levels: local, regional, nationally, and across the continent. Still in its early phases, the initiative maintained that local activities may include establishing ecological community learning centers, conducting localized training sessions through champion farmers, organizing community seed banks, and hosting local seed and food fairs. The initiative also includes policy advocacy to create the climate for ground-level effective implementation, narrative change through communication to counter the green revolution narratives, and local and regional convenings to mobilize chefs and artists to support the initiative. At the other end is the continental scale; the initiative plans to be integrated into broader pan-African frameworks and institutions. The future is bright for agriculture across the African continent—and My Food is African is here to help write the path forward.

Learn more about My Food is African.

Written by Sarah Souli
Photos provided by My Food is African.

Country: Uganda

Organic grains could provide a vital solution to water efficiency in agriculture, particularly in water-stressed regions.

Waterbank is a natural water retention polymer that can hold up to 100 times its weight in water. Crucially, it enables soil to retain water for longer and plants to thrive without the need for farmers to irrigate frequently even in the hottest parts of the world. Afrotym, the initiative behind the Waterbank product, claims this unique attribute helps reduce irrigation costs by almost 50%.

The product works by absorbing moisture during irrigation or rainfall and gradually releasing it to plant roots over an extended period, ensuring a consistent water supply even during dry spells.

According to Afrotym, what makes Waterbank truly unique is its ability to tackle water scarcity without the need for expensive infrastructure or energy, a key advantage for more than 220 million smallholder farmers in Africa who can’t access costly irrigation systems.

Unlike conventional solutions, Waterbank claims to be the pioneering organic moisture retainer made from agricultural waste, offering a sustainable and eco-friendly approach to water management. This innovative product can absorb and retain sufficient moisture in the soil for up to three months, giving crops a reliable water source even in prolonged dry periods.

Fully biodegradable, it breaks down naturally after its three months of water retention. Farmers can easily mix it into the soil during planting or transplanting, with no need for specialized equipment or technical expertise.

Agriculture uses 69% of global water supplies and 90% in low-income countries, according to the FAO, making it the most water-intensive sector. Afrotym’s innovative contribution helps soils retain moisture and prevent leaching, which often results in soil erosion and the loss of essential nutrients and microorganisms. Restoring the rich biodiversity of microorganisms essential for healthy soil ecosystems could be a game-changer in many parts of the world.

The impact on local communities could also be life-changing; women and young people who often spend all day hand-irrigating crops could be free to invest their time in income-generating activities or education, fostering gender equality and empowering communities to thrive.

Written by Gilly Smith
Image provided by Afrotym

Nominate yourself or someone else, it takes three minutes and could change the world!

Nominate