Sitting here in my hotel in Lusaka, Zambia after a week of inspiration, learning more about IDE‘s work at one of our more developed African country programs.
There is so much to report.. I don’t even know where to start.
On Saturday I arrived and immediately was transported to the Henry Tayali art center, where I met with some Zambian artists to procure some artwork for IDE’s exhibit in Denver at the 910 Arts Gallery on Santa Fe, “Art of Dirt“. Memories of my NYC art consulting/art dealing & appraising career in the late 90′s, I listened to stories of inspiration and creativity by these amazing artists. I will be posting some photos of the artwork once our art auction site is live in a few weeks.
On Monday, my colleague and I visited the Zambia headquarters and formally met the staff, comprised of irrigation experts, agriculture experts, farm business advisors, monitoring and evaluation staff, and consultants who make up the incredible country program where 16,000 farmers lives will be impacted this year. This entire operation is set up to teach rural poor farmers how to install and use irrigation equipment, how to grow the highest value crops for the most amount of income, pest management, fertilizer application, and seed procurement. IDE uses the most thorough and integrated approach to educating these farmers to increase their income.
I visited countless farmers who have gone from tiny plots with no irrigation to much larger plots in one year. One farmer, Jordan, is in the beginning phases of his training with IDE and went from making 700,000 kwacha a year (about $140) to $1200 a year in ONE GROWING CYCLE.
Lloyd, another farmer who has been working with IDE for about 3 years, started with a small plot, and purchased a treadle pump, then added drip irrigation, then a motorized pump and is now the lead farmer in his 35 farmer group. All of his 5 children go to school, and 2 have graduated high school and are looking to go to college. He has increased his income FIVE TIMES over in those 3 years.
IDE is to micro-irrigation and farm business advising as Grameen Bank is to micro-credit.
The impact is astounding.
Not only does IDE help increase the yield of the crops with these farmers, but we also help them get access to markets. Brokering deals with seed companies, supermarkets for local produce, farmers markets, and more. I could just see the entrepreneurial spirit bursting out of these farmers who wanted to get bigger and bigger as they saw the power of this type of knowledge and training, and access to agricultural input products, and saw how they could make money by pooling their yield to sell to larger and larger food companies and organizations.
IDE unleashes the entrepreneurial spirit of the rural poor… and helps them become serious commercial smallholder farmers who hold the key to global food security.
Only 10% of the ‘irrigatable land’ in Zambia is being utilized. Supermarkets and food brokers are ordering food from South Africa. Not necessary. The entire country’s economy could potentially be transformed if we are able to scale in Zambia. Focus on Scaling Market Access, Replicate that in 12 country programs, scale globally.
That’s the power of IDE’s potential.
When I get home, watch out for a fundraising whirlwind to make this happen! If this inspires you as it has me, contact me and let’s get you involved with this incredible work, however you want to contribute!
More soon…