Blogs

Agro-input dealers are often thought to be only interested in making money any way that is possible, otherwise known as “making a fast buck.” But enlightened dealers can combine the profit motive with a concern for customers’ well-being to earn their trust and make a business that lasts.

Richard Businge has a small shop in Fort Portal, Uganda, selling farm tools, seeds and other inputs. In 2016 Richard discovered that he could use Access Agriculture farmer training videos (...

According to the author Napoleon Hill, “all achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.” Mori Goroubera, Head of ISADA Consulting in Benin, would certainly agree with this statement. His enterprise model was selected as one of the 25 best ideas in an Africa-wide competition in 2020 for innovation and digitalisation in agriculture, short value chains and agroecological transitions of food systems.  

The winners (designated ‘idea-carriers’ by the competition) were selected by a panel formed of the African Union and the European...

Twenty-eight young entrepreneurs, including 10 women, from Egypt representing 16 teams successfully completed their training in the use of a solar-powered smart projector kit containing a library of farmer-training videos. Each team had won this smart device through a selection process as part of Access Agriculture’s Young Entrepreneur Challenge Fund initiative.

The winners of the Challenge Fund, known as Entrepreneurs for Rural Access (ERAs) will be actively involved in disseminating the technologies promoted in the videos in their local communities using the smart...

In this age of restricted travel, when webinars have taken the place of conferences, at first, I missed face-to-face meetings a lot. But virtual events do allow one to get exposed to far more ideas than before. This is also the case when digital learning is introduced to farmers. Farmers are increasingly getting information online, like videos. But the videos have to be properly designed. Unlike following a cooking recipe on a YouTube video, in agriculture, recipes must be accompanied by basic principles, so that farmers can decide how to experiment with the new ideas.

I was...