“There’s potential for affecting a lot of people’s lives through agriculture,” said Natalie Miller, CEO of GreenFingers Mobile. “There are 250 million small farmers in Africa, but the number of people who depend on it for their livelihoods is 6 times that - so you’re looking at a big chunk of the population of Africa!”
She’s right - 70% of the population of Africa earns a primary living from agriculture. About 90% of that segment represents subsistence farmers, producing crops mainly to feed their families and bringing in little to no additional income.
Blog posts tagged with agriculture
Catherine successfully started and grew a farming business with the help of a Kiva loan to purchase cows and goats. She now sells milk, and uses the manure from the animals to improve yields on her coffee crops.
The income from her business has brought stability to her life and has allowed her to put her children in private school She...
What would you do on a rooftop in New York City? Get a tan? Watch fireworks on the 4th of July? Have a beer with friends? Keely, a young female farmer from South Dakota, discovered that New York City’s rooftops are great places to grow the best hops for beer making, along with other organic greens, and also to create community around urban organic farming...
Continue Reading >>Zambia
Revolutionizing education in Zambia
Who are they?
iSchool Zambia is a social enterprise working to change the education system in Zambia. The company has copied the entire Zambian primary school curriculum (in English and the 7 local languages) on Android tablets they... Continue Reading >>
Farmers are awesome, aren’t they? We certainly think so! That’s why we held a Flash Fund from Sept 8-12 to help fund 500 farmers’ Kiva loans. Kiva farmers come from all over the world but are united in their passion for cultivating opportunity from hard work.
Among the 1150 were young farmers, like Sibonisiwe in Zimbabwe, who owns a...
As the leaves change color, the air cools and farmers everywhere begin to gather their harvest, you know autumn has arrived in the U.S. In every culture, harvest season is regarded as a time of bounty and prosperity and is celebrated through holidays and festivals. This week, Kiva is celebrating farmers and all the hard work they do around the world by flash funding 500 farmers in 5 days! Join the effort by making a loan to a farmer.
Ghana
Supporting Citrus Farmers and Greening the Environment
Who are they?
ASA Initiative is an MFI that provides loans for green energy and agriculture. They give green loans to entrepreneurs to sell clean energy cook stoves that run on waste materials produced by communities. Agricultural loans support citrus farmers in Ghana to expand their farms, hire labor, transport goods to the market, and ultimately increase their household income.
You’ll love them if…... Continue Reading >>
A bit about Myanmar…
Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in Asia, but it has seen major political and economic reforms in recent years that have many hopeful for a brighter future. For decades Myanmar was controlled by authoritative leadership that committed gross human rights violations. Myanmar’s people have lived through much oppression, but progress in this young democracy is being made to ensure human rights and develop transparency in governance. The next test of this will...
At Kiva we are proud and excited to offer our lender community the chance to... Continue Reading >>
With Halloween behind us and harvest season coming to an end, the dormant months begin for many agricultural workers around the world. After planting, sowing and nurturing their crop, farmers see the harvest months as a measure of their productivity -- and hopefully -- a time of prosperity.
Given all these conditions, many farmers in Suriname find themselves scraping by at the subsistence level.... Continue Reading >>
Kiva loves supporting youth empowerment. Providing young people with training and support to pursue their dreams is a major part of our mission, which is why we’re so thrilled to bring PENYA aboard.
With high youth illiteracy rates and insufficient formal employment opportunities, Zimbabwe is one of the toughest places for youth to thrive. Ten years of economic recession from 1998 to 2008, governmental land reform... Continue Reading >>
Kiva is thrilled to welcome Advans Côte d'Ivoire as our newest field partner!
Known as Advans CI, the organization is the fifth microfinance institution established by Advans SA, a multi-national microfinance group already working in Cameroon, Ghana, Pakistan, Cambodia, and more places.
Advans CI, founded in March 2012, is on a mission to provide credit and savings products -- in addition to other financial services -- to micro, small and medium enterprises in Côte d'Ivoire. After just one year, it's served over 3,000... Continue Reading >>
Chocolate. Dark brown, delicious, sweet, creamy, cocoa-loaded delights. Brownies, cookies, mousse, tarts, cakes, ganache. Candy bars, truffles, and bonbons.
This is the chocolate that we all know and love. Given as gifts between couples, used to celebrate special events, and craved by the masses sitting at school desks and... Continue Reading >>
This is one facet of a new U.S. movement coined “Slow Money.” As the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits an all time high, and more and more people struggle to find work and equitable pay, it’s... Continue Reading >>
One of the most populous countries in West Africa, it was named after the Niger River which runs through the country. Although playing a vital role in Africa’s economy, Nigeria has a high poverty rate of about 70% and an unemployment rate of over 23%. The number of unbanked people in the country is one of the highest in Africa, and access to banking services is particularly limited in rural areas.
Luckily, some... Continue Reading >>
In Uganda, as is the case in many African countries, women face a wide range of challenges including discrimination, low socioeconomic status and often violation of basic rights. Discrimination reduces their chances of becoming educated and economically self reliant. Moreover, women often become reliant on abusive men at home.
The same situation is seen among young women -- they become exposed to sex at an early age either for economic survival or for other reasons, and... Continue Reading >>
The very nature of education is long-term, whereas agriculture can involve both short- and long-term loans. Longer-term agricultural investments include microforestry, organic conversion and field renewal, to name just a few.
MFIs and other... Continue Reading >>
Blog posts tagged with agriculture
“There’s potential for affecting a lot of people’s lives through agriculture,” said Natalie Miller, CEO of GreenFingers Mobile. “There are 250 million small farmers in Africa, but the number of people who depend on it for their livelihoods is 6 times that - so you’re looking at a big chunk of the population of Africa!”
She’s right - 70% of the population of Africa earns a primary living from agriculture. About 90% of that segment represents subsistence farmers, producing crops mainly to feed their families and bringing in little to no additional income.
Catherine successfully started and grew a farming business with the help of a Kiva loan to purchase cows and goats. She now sells milk, and uses the manure from the animals to improve yields on her coffee crops.
The income from her business has brought stability to her life and has allowed her to put her children in private school She...
What would you do on a rooftop in New York City? Get a tan? Watch fireworks on the 4th of July? Have a beer with friends? Keely, a young female farmer from South Dakota, discovered that New York City’s rooftops are great places to grow the best hops for beer making, along with other organic greens, and also to create community around urban organic farming...
Continue Reading >>Zambia
Revolutionizing education in Zambia
Who are they?
iSchool Zambia is a social enterprise working to change the education system in Zambia. The company has copied the entire Zambian primary school curriculum (in English and the 7 local languages) on Android tablets they... Continue Reading >>
Farmers are awesome, aren’t they? We certainly think so! That’s why we held a Flash Fund from Sept 8-12 to help fund 500 farmers’ Kiva loans. Kiva farmers come from all over the world but are united in their passion for cultivating opportunity from hard work.
Among the 1150 were young farmers, like Sibonisiwe in Zimbabwe, who owns a...
As the leaves change color, the air cools and farmers everywhere begin to gather their harvest, you know autumn has arrived in the U.S. In every culture, harvest season is regarded as a time of bounty and prosperity and is celebrated through holidays and festivals. This week, Kiva is celebrating farmers and all the hard work they do around the world by flash funding 500 farmers in 5 days! Join the effort by making a loan to a farmer.
Ghana
Supporting Citrus Farmers and Greening the Environment
Who are they?
ASA Initiative is an MFI that provides loans for green energy and agriculture. They give green loans to entrepreneurs to sell clean energy cook stoves that run on waste materials produced by communities. Agricultural loans support citrus farmers in Ghana to expand their farms, hire labor, transport goods to the market, and ultimately increase their household income.
You’ll love them if…... Continue Reading >>
A bit about Myanmar…
Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in Asia, but it has seen major political and economic reforms in recent years that have many hopeful for a brighter future. For decades Myanmar was controlled by authoritative leadership that committed gross human rights violations. Myanmar’s people have lived through much oppression, but progress in this young democracy is being made to ensure human rights and develop transparency in governance. The next test of this will...
At Kiva we are proud and excited to offer our lender community the chance to... Continue Reading >>
With Halloween behind us and harvest season coming to an end, the dormant months begin for many agricultural workers around the world. After planting, sowing and nurturing their crop, farmers see the harvest months as a measure of their productivity -- and hopefully -- a time of prosperity.
Given all these conditions, many farmers in Suriname find themselves scraping by at the subsistence level.... Continue Reading >>
Kiva loves supporting youth empowerment. Providing young people with training and support to pursue their dreams is a major part of our mission, which is why we’re so thrilled to bring PENYA aboard.
With high youth illiteracy rates and insufficient formal employment opportunities, Zimbabwe is one of the toughest places for youth to thrive. Ten years of economic recession from 1998 to 2008, governmental land reform... Continue Reading >>
Kiva is thrilled to welcome Advans Côte d'Ivoire as our newest field partner!
Known as Advans CI, the organization is the fifth microfinance institution established by Advans SA, a multi-national microfinance group already working in Cameroon, Ghana, Pakistan, Cambodia, and more places.
Advans CI, founded in March 2012, is on a mission to provide credit and savings products -- in addition to other financial services -- to micro, small and medium enterprises in Côte d'Ivoire. After just one year, it's served over 3,000... Continue Reading >>
Chocolate. Dark brown, delicious, sweet, creamy, cocoa-loaded delights. Brownies, cookies, mousse, tarts, cakes, ganache. Candy bars, truffles, and bonbons.
This is the chocolate that we all know and love. Given as gifts between couples, used to celebrate special events, and craved by the masses sitting at school desks and... Continue Reading >>
This is one facet of a new U.S. movement coined “Slow Money.” As the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits an all time high, and more and more people struggle to find work and equitable pay, it’s... Continue Reading >>
One of the most populous countries in West Africa, it was named after the Niger River which runs through the country. Although playing a vital role in Africa’s economy, Nigeria has a high poverty rate of about 70% and an unemployment rate of over 23%. The number of unbanked people in the country is one of the highest in Africa, and access to banking services is particularly limited in rural areas.
Luckily, some... Continue Reading >>
In Uganda, as is the case in many African countries, women face a wide range of challenges including discrimination, low socioeconomic status and often violation of basic rights. Discrimination reduces their chances of becoming educated and economically self reliant. Moreover, women often become reliant on abusive men at home.
The same situation is seen among young women -- they become exposed to sex at an early age either for economic survival or for other reasons, and... Continue Reading >>
The very nature of education is long-term, whereas agriculture can involve both short- and long-term loans. Longer-term agricultural investments include microforestry, organic conversion and field renewal, to name just a few.
MFIs and other... Continue Reading >>