Coffee farmer Teddy Namagembe

Opportunity’s approach is to help farmers move from subsistence growing to cash crop production with agriculture-specific loans, savings accounts, crop insurance, effective fertilizers, drought-resistant seeds and technical assistance. Agricultural loan officers guide farmers through the distribution process, providing linkages to agricultural markets.

By achieving their potential, farmers will be able to feed their families and become major food suppliers to the growing global population.

Teddy Namagembe (pictured right) works on her coffee farm from 7 a.m. to sunset each day to support her four children. She used to sell her coffee beans before they were ripe to make ends meet. As an agricultural finance and savings client with Opportunity Uganda, she can now wait for the beans to ripen fully and sell them at a greater profit.

Want to delve deeper into Opportunity’s agricultural finance programs? John Magnay, senior agricultural advisor in Africa, led a breakout session at Opportunity’s annual conference two weeks ago. Read about that session, in which Magnay details the tools, strategies and goals of the program that is making great strides towards improving the lives of smallholder farmers in Africa. Watch Magnay’s breakout session presentation in the video below.

This breakout session highlighted just a few of the innovative solutions to fighting poverty that have been implemented in Nicaragua, Colombia, and Ghana.

David Allman began the session talking about the program he has been a part of as chairman of Opportunity Nicaragua. At the agricultural level, the program in Nicaragua involves granting loans for farming, as well as training farmers to become local leaders and influence improvements in their communities’ infrastructure. They have also brought in a low-technology processing plant to help them add value to their crops. For instance, he showed us a yucca plant, and explained that, with the help of the low-tech processing, they were able to introduce to the farmers ways of increasing their crop yields and new usages for different product types.

In Nicaragua, they also try to promote community initiatives to build local leaders who are both competent and aspirational. They help these communities identify their own needs and find ways to implement solutions. Since then, they have created their own roofing and road repair projects, and have felt empowered enough to visit their city government and demand necessary changes. Allman finished by talking about the impact this has had on the communities, and how the citizens are so motivated by their accomplishments that they are excited to ask, “What can we do next?!”

Craig DeRoy, founder and CEO of Medeem, talked about his company’s service of bringing land rights to those who live in poverty. They work to formalize the land rights process for those who are unable to do so on their own. He explained that most countries have land records, but that they’re unused and inaccessible for the poor. Medeem has created a self-sustaining local enterprise called ParcelCert to allow for a cost-effective and accessible solution for individuals to own land and feel empowered. They have primarily been working in Ghana, and are working on a model that will be scalable for other communities.

The last presentation was by Jim Frantz. He talked about their program, “A Roof and a Floor for My Home.” Couldn’t get more direct of a title than that! The objectives of this pilot program were to 1) improve the quality of life, 2) provide access to technical expertise, 3) take advantage of lower costs of materials, labor, etc. and 4) strengthen family relations within the community. This pilot program has been successful so far, and he mentions specific cases of women who have built solid homes for their families. “There’s just something about a mother being able to provide security for her kids,” Frantz says. He also talked about a woman named Astrid Suarez who has been providing her technical expertise to the program, and unfortunately was unable to make it to the conference to share her on-the-ground local experience.

This was an interesting breakout session to learn about different partnerships Opportunity has been building in order to provide services to people in poverty. I look forward to following up on their activities and seeing the impact they continue to make.

This post was written by Barbie Lucio. Barbie is a member of the San Francisco chapter of YAO and works with philanthropists to create change and impact.

Facilitator: Dennis Ripley, senior VP, international business development

Panelists:

Ambassador Tony Hall, Director, Alliance to End Hunger

Dr. Julie Howard, U.S. Government Deputy Coordinator for Development, Feed the Future

John Magnay, Senior agricultural advisor, Opportunity International

Q & A with the Panelists

Ripley: My opening question is for John. What are you doing to help global food security?

Panel (from left): Dennis Ripley, Dr. Julie Howard, John Magnay and Ambassador Tony Hall.

Magnay: We are offering not only financial services but market inputs and agricultural services. To give you an idea, I believe that smallholder farmers in Africa are producing about 40% of their potential, in part because harvests sit in-store and either get damaged by insects or spoil. Part of the solution is also that we lend in Trust Groups, the traditional microfinance model, which does not require collateral, to better access more impoverished farmers with these services.

Hall: The Alliance to End Hunger was founded on the understanding that everyone needs to be in the room, not just NGOs or faith-based groups or government entities or corporations. We’ve got to come together to solve the problem, and build political will. Secondly, we’ve been asked to build national alliances in-country. One of the problems we see in developing nations is that so many of the people need to rely on their governments. And we also want to build domestic solutions to hunger. Today, almost 50 million people in the U.S. are going to bed hungry. We believe no one in the U.S. should go to bed hungry either. We’re working with members of Congress and other leaders to find solutions to domestic hunger.

Howard: I work on USAID’s Feed the Future initiative with administrator Rajiv Shah. With this initiative, we’re trying to model a different kind of solution to hunger and food security issues. We had gotten into a pattern of putting band-aids on this problem. We work in 19 countries, and USAID takes ownership of this but works with local and federal government and we create a platform for all donors in private sector to come together to solve these problems.

Ripley: John, if you could be czar of food security, what would you do?

Magnay: Well, in Africa, you have to do it on a regional basis, not a country-to-country basis. But, for instance, though the Horn of Africa is experiencing a drought right now, a few years ago they experienced great rainfalls and great harvests but had no markets in which to sell their products. So we need to create conditions that can handle both the times of feast and the times of famine. Regions of Africa need to sit down and work out what their regional food security needs are, and then account for that with varieties of seed, fertilizer and irrigation. It’s a complex question but we have to do something.

Ripley: Does what John said overlap with what USAID is trying to do in Africa?

Howard: The difficulty is when regions don’t work together, and small economies strive to be self-sufficient. That’s our problem. But again it isn’t our problem, we can and should facilitate it, but it needs to be something that governments and entities do for themselves to accommodate the feast and the famine months. Also, it’s important that we engage women and youth in this work. Women play a very important role in agricultural, and in ensuring that children and families are fed. So they need to be an integral part of that process.

Hall: Women are key to this process. If we access the women, the children will get fed. Also, I think that Feed the Future is one of the best government programs we’ve had for food security because it focuses on agriculture. It has the potential to turn everything around. Whatever we do, we’ve got to do it together–to bring in NGOs and faith-based groups and governments and more.

Audience question: How does climate change affect global food security?

Magnay: Today in Uganda, for instance, I see the pressure of urbanization, the impact of deforestation, the melting of East African ice caps, and the drying up of the Mara River in Kenya. I had not seen these issues 30 years ago, and they create complexity and new issues. We need to gather more data about it and monitor the situation, but we can adapt to these new changes and will find solutions to ensure food security.

Howard: We have been working to develop varieties of rice, for instance, that can help withstand flooding. It’s a complex issue but in Ethiopia and Kenya, with social programs in place, you’re seeing governments who are better able to cope with drought. It is frightening but we have a lot we can do.

This session was streamed live at opportunity.org/live. Visit opportunity.org/live throughout the conference to watch the sessions live.

Presentation by John Magnay

There are one billion people in Africa, 75% of whom are involved in agriculture, yet the continent is not capable of feeding 100% of the people.

It’s most important that we finance production because that’s where we can most impact hunger in Africa.

The Rural Model

Input microfinance services such as loans, savings and insurance; infrastructure services such as communications, power, roads and water; and market information systems.

Analysis of Farmers for Agricultural Finance Services

We’ve developed an informed lending system that involves mapping of their land, crops profile and household profile. We do in-house analysis of cost of production. We also profile our clients with household demographics to find out how much labor they can access, and the accurate size of their farm with measuring and GPS mapping.

Farmers may be as much as 50 km. away from their farmer’s group, simply because that was the only way they could access finance. So we offer them a way to access financial services much closer to their farm.

Our loan officers enter farmers’ data with mobile phones when they visit them. And when they visit farmer’s groups, they use it to note who isn’t attending meetings, because those are the farmers they need to be concerned about, and need to set up an immediate meeting with them.

When we gather enough data, we will know exactly how much land and labor clients have. Then we will be able to offer either loans or suggest that farmers rent out their land, depending on the data we’ve gathered.

Short-selling Crops

When farmers cannot pay their bills, they may resort to short-selling their crops. Then the lenders will come and strip their crops, literally, off the plants, and they will have no harvest to sell. These informal financial services can be devastating for farmers.

We offer a combination of extension services with financial tools. We offer best farming practices, including good planting processes, fertilizers, and watering, as well as agricultural loans tailored with the data and client profiles gathered, as mentioned above.

Ideal Lending

1. Well organized farmers in a group who are receiving training and extension services
2. GIS mapped and household profiles
3. Access to input and output market
4. Household safety nets with weather index insurance and credit insurance
5. Strategic partnerships to support the work

A bit about John Magnay

John Magnay, Opportunity’s senior agricultural advisor, Africa, has lived and worked in Uganda since 1977. A graduate of agricultural management from Wye College, University of London, he went to Uganda on a Ugandan government project to rebuild dairy farms and industry. After the fall of Idi Amin in 1979, he remained in Uganda starting his own business in the private sector, firstly supporting the agricultural sector with inputs and processing equipment and since the mid ‘80s buying produce for sale to relief agencies and regional trade. In 2001, he was the founder and chairman of Uganda Grain Traders Ltd, a consortium of 16 grain traders that exported the Uganda surplus maize to Zambia. In 2008, he retired from his commercial businesses and began working with Opportunity International, developing smallholder rural finance in Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi and Mozambique.

Support from the John Deere Foundation helps us provide financial services to cocoa farmers like these in Ghana.

“We are impressed with the progress that Opportunity International has made in increasing access to financial services for African farmers, food processors and retailers,” said John Bustle, vice president, John Deere Foundation. “Likewise, we are excited and optimistic about Opportunity’s ongoing efforts to create a sustainable framework for enhanced food security through increased food production, food availability at local markets and family income to purchase food.”

The John Deere Foundation grant will help Opportunity International achieve its objectives to introduce 450 new banking access sites, extend agricultural loans to over 500,000 new clients, including 95,000 farmer clients, and open 1.4 million interest-bearing savings accounts, with 950,000 of those in rural areas. Plans are also in place to hire 200 agricultural loan officers in the next three years.

With the addition of the John Deere Foundation’s support, half of Opportunity’s $37 million rural outreach program is now funded. Supporters are encouraged to help fully fund this initiative to end hunger in Africa.

Learn more about Opportunity’s innovative and holistic approach to providing small-scale African farmers with comprehensive financial tools that help them grow more crops, increase their family’s income, and feed their villages. Attend the breakout session, “Agricultural Finance: Cultivating Hope,” at the Opportunity International Conference, Oct. 14-15 in San Francisco. Visit opportunity.org/conference to learn more.

Check out a photo tour below of some of the countries we’re serving in Sub-Saharan Africa. For more on the Banking on Africa Campaign, check out opportunity.org/africa.

The John Deere Foundation has recently pledged a $2.5 million grant to Opportunity International to support its Banking on Africa Initiative. This grant supports expanded access to Opportunity’s financial services for farmers and entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa, helping to create a sustainable framework for increased food security. John Bustle, vice president, John Deere Foundation, says, “One of the John Deere Foundation’s goals is to help eliminate hunger through initiatives that help manual farmers move from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture, resulting in enhanced security for the farmers, increased and sustainable food supplies and measurable economic growth in developing nations.”

Watch this clip of CEO Sam Allen on CBS Sports:

Opportunity Malawi savings client & maize wholesaler Joseph Meke uses the M'ganga service to check his account balance every day by cell phone, makes deposits at Opportunity's Ndirande satellite branch, and uses a point-of-sale (POS) device in nearby Ntcheu to withdraw cash.

Dr. William Jack of Georgetown University used a specific example of M-PESA services in Kenya as an example of technology that decreases the cost of outreach and has a lower cost than other payment services, appealing to both banks and clients. Mobile phone banking can be utilized by microfinance institutions (MFIs) to increase their range of services while extending geographically. Another topic brought up by Paul Davis of Pragma Corp. was the utilization of branchless, or m-banking, to expand bank outreach to individuals in rural areas. This focused on Latin America, and Colombia in particular, as it has already taken hold there. In 2010, 360 million transactions per month were conducted in Colombia using branchless banking. The prevalence of mobile bank usage represents a shift in attitudes towards potential rural customers. “Cracking the nut” was the first step towards reaching larger numbers and tapping into secluded markets.

Opportunity International is at the forefront of utilizing the newest technology in the most isolated regions. Opportunity Kenya’s clients in remote locations have affordable, reliable access to their accounts and save valuable time by using mobile phone banking. Currently one third of all Opportunity loans disbursed in Kenya are via M-PESA. In Malawi, clients can use Opportunity ATMs equipped with biometrics to deposit money in their savings accounts, and 60% of Opportunity Malawi clients have access to mobile banking on their phones. Opportunity International currently has 300 banking access points across Africa, including 24 mobile banks in five countries, serving 79 communities, mostly in rural areas.

In Rwamagana, an Opportunity Rwanda client accesses her funds using biometric fingerprint technology at a mobile banking vehicle.

Looking towards the future, Opportunity has begun piloting OpenSky technology, which enables field staff to verify and input account information, enroll new clients, perform cash transactions (such as loan repayments, disbursements and deposit mobilization), and record biometric information. This implementation will allow field employees to set up accounts and provide services to clients in the most isolated areas, even without direct access to electricity or internet, using the 3G services of cell phone companies. Using this innovative technology, Opportunity International is reaching rural clients, providing the financial services they need most to work their way out of poverty.

To read the post on the USAID’s IMPACTblog, click here.

Opportunity Ghana client Beatrice Boaten smiles while standing at her farm. (Photo: Sara Joe Wolansky)

We are sitting inside a small cozy room painted in a rich blue, complete with shelves boasting an array of decorative pieces, photographs and a poster of Jesus. Floral lace decorates the refrigerator and a single window with white curtains lets light in. There is one small old-fashioned television in the corner. This is Beatrice Duku Frimpong Boaten’s sitting room in a house she inherited over 30 years ago from her father, who was one of the community chiefs in her village, Nerebhi.

Along with this house, Beatrice also inherited four acres of land. After Beatrice retired as a teacher, she decided to convert the land into a cocoa farm. She worked as a farmer for 16 years, and in March 2010, she joined Opportunity International‘s agricultural finance program through Opportunity Ghana. As a result of this program, she has received fertilizers, insecticides and learnt farming techniques that have allowed her to increase her output from an average of five bags every year to 13 to 15 bags by the end of every cocoa season. Her income has also been boosted from the increased yield. But improving her own lifestyle and paying for her children’s education is not the only thing to come out of Beatrice’s relationship with Opportunity International. She felt encouraged enough by Opportunity loan officers to gather community members to form two Trust Groups and collectively they have made a community farm, which grows cocoa, plantains, maize, cassava and other crops for the community. Proceeds from the sale of these crops go into the Trust Group’s funds, which in turn pay back the loans farmers have incurred from Opportunity.

Loan officer Abena Sarpong (pictured left) and Beatrice Boaten look over the Trust Group's membership register in Beatrice's sitting room. (Photo: Sara Joe Wolansky)

Leading and working with the community has been a major part of Beatrice’s experience after using the loans and savings program. Farming has been a valued way of life for many of the older community members and by involving everyone through Trust Groups, Beatrice said that it created a greater respect and understanding of the profession in the younger community members. Some of her children want to return from school and help on the farm. Abena Sarpong, who took us to our first cocoa farm in Bonsaaso a few days ago, is also Beatrice’s loan officer. She told us that agriculture is a very important component of Ghana’s economy (more than 48% of GDP and 70% of the rural population depends on agriculture as a source of income) and must be fully developed, which is why Opportunity has invested a lot in agricultural finance.

We visited the community farm with Beatrice and Muhammad Opuku, another member of her Trust Group. Muhammad showed us how to harvest plantain and how a new farming technique they learnt is being applied. Using this technique they planted palm trees in rows, alternating the crops that are being grown to allow for a greater variety on the farm.

When Beatrice speaks about her love for the land she has cultivated all these years, her joy is infectious. During our interview she laughed at every pause in the conversation, her eyes twinkled when we asked her to give us a tour of the farm and when we attempted to thank her in Twi: “Meda’ase,” she grinned at our pronunciation and shook our hands vigorously before we took the long road back to Kumasi.

To read this post on the SOW Boston blog, click here. To read all recent blogs we have reposted from the Students of the World’s trip, click here.

Meet Nana Owusu Acheampong of Bonsaaso, Ghana.

Wow. What a day! We left the hotel and started what would be a two-hour BUMPY ride. Actually, let me spend a minute explaining what I mean by bumpy. The road started out as paved, but that luxury only lasted about 15 minutes.  Eventually it felt more like an obstacle course for our driver than an actual road.

In the village of Bonsaaso, we were greeted by community leaders.  We were welcomed and we explained who we were.  We went through a short question-and-answer session with the leaders and then began to focus our questions on Nana Owusu Acheampong. He is the secretary of the “Blessed” Trust Group. All of the other members of the group refer to him as “Boss.” Nana is a man of about 60. He was born and raised in Bonsaaso, as was his wife and their children. He is a farmer by trade, but a philosopher at heart.

The building where we were meeting is his property and serves as a meeting ground for the community and visitors. A few years ago Nana installed a stereo so that people could have entertainment while they visited and played checkers. He quickly realized that it was costing him too much to power the stereo out of his own pocket. He came up with an idea. In addition to the stereo, he added 10 or so surge protectors. As people sat and met they could pay a small fee to charge their cell phones. This would pay for the generator, not only to charge the phones, but also to run the stereo. When we visited, there were roughly 40 phones and batteries being charged.

This is how your chocolate starts out. (A Ghanaian cocoa farmer processes his crop)

As a part of his training through Opportunity International Nana has begun to use fertilizer to increase his crop yields. Nana and his employees showed us how they harvest cocoa, take the seeds from the shell and set them to ferment. After our interview, a small group of us walked back with Nana to the village where he showed us the churches, the schoolhouse, as well as introducing us to other business men and women in the community. As Nana spoke, you could see the joy and excitement in his eyes that these things were happening in his community.

Riding back to the hotel on that BUMPY road, all I could think about was the pride that Nana had. He was proud of the work his community was doing and of their partnership with organizations like the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) and Opportunity Ghana. He is proud of the businesses he has built and that he was able to provide for his family. It’s a pride that the more economically privileged often take for granted. I know that when I wake up in the morning and walk down the hall to my air-conditioned office, I’ll think of Nana and his employees who woke up hours before me and trekked to the fields, before I complain about the the number of emails in my inbox. I’ll just say thank you for the emails and remind myself how lucky I am to have met a man named Nana from Bonsaaso.

To read Ian’s blog click here and see the SOW team’s full blog coverage here.