Tanager congratulates Barbara Stinson in her new role as President of The World Food Prize Foundation. Ms Stinson is a career consensus-builder on issues that transcend country borders and has demonstrated a tireless commitment to address food safety and food security.
Tanager and Mars presented a webinar on the design and implementation of the Shubh Mint Project for The Living Income Community of Practice, hosted by the Sustainable Food Lab.
Usha Devi is a mint farmer in Mubarkapur village in Zaidpur cluster of Barabanki District in India. She is also a project participant in the co-created Shubh Mint Project. For Usha, Shubh Mint provides more than an economic lifeline, it empowers her to improve a difficult living situation.
For much of the world, the real face of poverty is a smallholder farmer. According to the FAO, of the 2.5 billion people living directly from food or agriculture sectors in poor countries, 1.5 billion of them are smallholder farmers, with about 65% of those living in extreme poverty and over 50% being classified as moderate poor (1). Recent SDG 1 projections indicate that 6% of the world’s population will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030 if current trends continue.
How do we bridge the gap towards achieving an end to poverty?
Tanager and Mars Wrigley Confectionery have been working together in India since 2014 to help farmers the mint supply chain increase income and boost productivity. This webinar will be a discussion and presentation on the Shubh Mint Project, currently in its third year of implementation. Experts from Mars Wrigley Confectionery and Tanager will share lessons learned from the design and implementation of this project, with an eye towards how the project has improved lives and livelihoods of farmers, including a 250% increase in net incomes from mint. This case will address a sourcing situation where a lead firm is not buying the crop which provides the majority of household income, yet provides a critical component of that income with considerable potential for improvement.
Tanager examines how “Our projects are constantly adapted to incorporate economic, social, and environmental sustainability to ultimately benefit the communities we work in.”
My name is Rosalie Bafiogo. I am 60 years old, and I live in Guru in the Centre-Ouest region of Burkina Faso.
Prior to working with SELEVER, my job was weaving fabrics in addition to taking care of my household. However, I had to give up because my vision was weak. In the meantime, I had become responsible for the promotion of breastfeeding in my village, and through that work I was made aware of the opportunity of women’s poultry farming. I wondered what more I could learn about poultry, as I had raised poultry in the past. On the insistence of the councilor of our village, our women’s group had a very interesting first meeting with a microfinance institution that was promoting the activity. We did not know that poultry could bring so much money and benefits to the family including nutrition. After this meeting, we decided to form a poultry production group, and I was chosen as secretary.
Tanager, through the Walmart Foundation-funded Andhra Pradesh Farmer Market Readiness Project, introduced Kinubudi and his Farmer Producer Group to MFN and provided training on how to use the app to connect to buyers. The MFN app is simple to use. With a few clicks, sellers upload what they have to offer allowing the buyers to then bid on the produce. Farmers select the buyer offering the best price. The Farmers Producer Group then collects the produce in bulk and delivers it to the buyer, saving the farmer even more time.
To honor International Youth Day, Tanager experts William Godfrey and Giovanni Cuero examine the project’s approach in Colombia to help deserving students succeed.
Jayesh Bhai Jaman Bhai Bhakkad is a 41-year-old farmer from Thanapipli, Junagadh, Gujarat (western India). For 24 years, Jayesh farmed cash crops like cotton, peanuts, and vegetables using traditional farming methods. Last year, Jayesh began noticing a decline in his output and income, due in part to a fungus that was attacking his peanut crop. In response, he sought out training programs from a local university, spent INR 6000 on pesticides to combat the unknown virus that was yellowing his normally green peanut plants. However, despite Jayesh’s efforts in applying the pesticide and taking classes from the local university, his crop continued to wilt.
