WeFarm

There are 500 million smallholder farmers in the world, most of whom live on less than $1 a day.

Small-scale farmers are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and they face many challenges including lack of access to traditional markets, agricultural inputs and finance. Every day small-scale farmers develop a diverse range of innovative, low-cost solutions in response to the many challenges that they face. But with the majority of farmers living in remote areas without internet access, they cannot share this information with other farmers… Until now, with WeFarm.

WeFarm is a free peer-to-peer service that enables farmers to share information via SMS, without the internet and without having to leave their farm. Farmers can ask questions on farming and receive crowd-sourced answers from other farmers around the world in minutes.

Three key principles

• Information Improves Livelihoods. Information can help lift farmers and their families out of poverty. With WeFarm small-scale farmers can learn how to improve crop yield or how to start a micro-business, enabling them to increase household income.

• Connect Millions of People. With 90% of smallholder farmers now able to access a basic mobile phone, WeFarm’s goal is to connect millions of farmers around the world to the information they require. We think that everyone on the planet deserves equal access to information.

• Peer-to-Peer is a Powerful Model.Smallholders have generations’ worth of farming knowledge to share. We believe that farmers are experts. Now, they have a way to share their expertise. The time has come to give farmers a voice instead of giving ‘top-down’ advice.