Like many smallholder farmers, Happy Mujawimana lacked the resources and the knowledge to efficiently manage her small piece of potato garden. It was often affected by evident consequences of climate change such as prolonged dry spells and pests. Given such unpredictability, her priority had always been to meet the basics of having enough food for home consumption and to save sufficient potato seeds for the following season. 

The Climate Resilient Agribusiness for Tomorrow (CRAFT) project organises learning events in partnership with key line government ministries, climate scientists, researchers, farmer organisations, and private financiers to bring participants together to reflect on adopting climate smart agriculture practices and technologies, share lessons learned, identify areas of improvement, and build synergies for more collaborations.

According to USAID’s recently released Guide to the Use of Digital Financial Services in Agriculture, an estimated 1.5 billion smallholder farmers worldwide produce approximately 80 percent of the global food supply. Together, they face an estimated $430 billion shortfall in critical financial services needed to support production.

As the world’s population continues to increase, food growers – especially smallholder farmers – need to find ways of producing food sustainably. This requires them to use available resources like water in a more climate-friendly way, without damaging the environment to sustain food production.