Farmers Own

Farmers Own is a system that co-ordinates small farmers to grow commercial crops and links them to mainstream markets, on a fair trade basis that enables them to raise their incomes above the poverty line permanently. Pilot projects in Kenya have proved that the system works and have trebled the incomes of 4,000 farmers. The system has potential on a national and global scale that could end poverty for hundreds of millions of people.

WHY WE EXIST
Some 80 per cent of people throughout the Third World are peasant farmers growing subsistence crops and living below the poverty line of $1 per day. In the same countries, using the same soil, climate and labour forces, and growing the same crops, big companies have made horticulture a multi-million dollar industry. Peasant farmers can grow equally superb organic food, but they lack the resources and knowledge to combine and sell their products to generate secure and fair cash incomes. Farmers Own removes that obstacle, and mobilises thousands of small farmers as a powerful commercial and economic force.

HOW WE DO IT
Farmers Own gives farmers a structure to start their own group initiatives, helps them select the most viable cash crops, provides field support to ensure maximum quality and productivity, helps co-ordinate inputs and transport, negotiates fair trade deals on their behalf, and delivers the cash to the farmers¹ own hands. Essential to any truly sustainable development process, the system is market driven, business viable, and is chosen by, managed by and owned by the farmers themselves. FO drives the concept, technically supports the effort, and bridges the marketing gap between the hoe and the dollar.