Meet the East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation

Meet the East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation

‘You have to share your knowledge if you want to make the world better.’ – Simon Groot

For 20 years, East-West Seed has invested in farmer training. It focuses on profitable and sustainable vegetable production in smallholder communities. Trained farmers can often double their incomes and provide local areas with higher volumes of safe vegetables all year-round.

In 2016, EWS formalized its training model with the establishment of East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation (EWS-KT), a nonprofit organization, to showcase advanced farming practices and technologies to smallholder vegetable farmers struggling with poor yields in underdeveloped markets. EWS-KT is active in nine countries in Asia and Africa and maintains a close cooperation with Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands.

EWS-KT offers extended and individualized training of key farmers, who implement improved farming techniques in their fields; hands-on training events for neighboring farmers, held at key farmers’ demonstration plots; and Field Days, which are training and networking events for farmers, community leaders, agro-input dealers, and others. Since 2015, EWS has trained approximately 529,000 farmers in 11 countries.

Women and youth

In many countries, women and young people are underrepresented in farming. EWS-KT leverages the dynamics of women and youth as smallholder farmers.

EWS-KT’s goal is to increase youth participation so that at least 40 percent of key farmers supported are below the age of 35. Active social and digital media engagement helps EWS-KT to connect with more young farmers and raise their interest in vegetable farming.

To encourage gender balance and active engagement of women at training events and to ensure that new horticultural knowledge is effectively spread within the community, the goal is to ensure that 50 percent of the key farmers supported are women. Radio programs with female presenters and dedicated women-only caller lines help to increase participation by women farmers.

Outreach

Since 2015, EWS-KT has increased its outreach to more than 5 million people through social media, podcasts, YouTube, and other platforms, as well as traditional media outlets such as radio. Radio is particularly effective for reaching farmers in rural, low-literate, internet-poor areas. EWS-KT continues to expand its radio presence in Africa, with a weekly call-in show in Nigeria accessible to more than 2.5 million listeners. Local Facebook and WhatsApp groups spread farming advice and build online communities of local smallholder farmers and partners to increase knowledge sharing and connectivity. EWS-KT’s global Facebook and LinkedIn accounts reach broader global partners and external audiences.

EWS-KT continuously explores ways to reach smallholder farmers through mobile and digital-platforms. As many farmers in rural areas use

traditional cell phones rather than smartphones, EWS-KT is also exploring options to share technical content through SMS. A Tanzania-based pilot enables farmers to learn improved production techniques for five different crops, with all lessons delivered via SMS.

To support this, EWS-KT launched a public dashboard to monitor and analyze data collected by technical teams, using a mobile app. Interactive maps enable access to farm records and cost-return data for different crops over different seasons. These data allow farmers to see the variance in cost and returns and make appropriate business decisions.

Partners

While East-West Seed provides funding for operational costs, EWS-KT also seeks co-investment from like-minded organizations. EWS-KT develops partnerships with local organizations, private-sector parties, nongovernmental organizations, technology companies, financial access organizations, and academic institutions. Across its projects, EWS-KT has maintained a long-term partnership with Wageningen University & Research.

EWS-KT has launched several exciting projects with new partners focused on women’s leadership and poverty reduction in Cambodia, livelihood and food security in Indonesia, community economic empowerment in Myanmar, horticultural skills training and mobile phone based learning in Nigeria, coffee and vegetable intercropping in the Philippines, expansion of pumpkin growing in Uganda. EWS-KT endeavors to reach 1 million farmers in the next five years, with a focus on building resilient livelihoods and nutritional security.