Coffee farms in Uganda and Kenya are typically run by smallholder families that work with a diverse range of crops and sometimes livestock. However, current service delivery model (SDM) systems only focus on a main crop, and in this case, it is coffee. This is limiting as the whole scope of a farm-system is not addressed. Alongside this, coffee prices have been significantly low in recent years, negatively impacting farmers’ incomes in both countries.
The IKEA Foundation and IDH recognise the combined impact of these challenges for smallholder farmers. Which is why they have teamed up through a 4-year program that looks to improve income resilience of 20.000 farmers by enabling increased stable income as well as regenerative agriculture at farm level in Uganda and Kenya.
We support IDH to help service providers move away from looking at only increasing yields of one single crop, and start considering the importance of seeing the farm as one integrated system. Supporting smallholder farmers in a holistic way will spark opportunities for the farmer to diversify and increase their income and to invest in taking better care of their main asset: the soil and their land. In turn, this will benefit the export crop traders, as their supplier base will become more resilient and more reliable. We are excited to see this triple win -for the trader, for the farmer and for the planet- come to life!
Understanding the farm-system as a whole is essential to reflect farm reality and to increase long-term value for livelihoods and the environment. As such, this program marks the start of leveraging an innovative blended service delivery model for a holistic SDM approach.
IDH and IKEA Foundation will be working with at least six coffee sector partners and additional service providers, off-takers of other crops, and learning partners to bring together a consortium that implements blended service delivery, and that utilizes learnings for improved blended service delivery. IDH is currently designing these partnerships and plans to forge successful coalitions to drive further action.
This program hopes to share insights on tangible enablers for a transition to regenerative agriculture and its impacts on farmer income in the near future.
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