Arkaro helps SFSA’s effort to bring more needs-based technology solutions to smallholder farmers.

Following the successful incubation and spin out of smallholder support programmes such as Acre Africa, Farmforce, and the Agri Entrepreneur Growth Foundation, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) is aiming to do the same for the technical validation and needs-based business accelerator programme GATE enabling scaling by public and private sectors. The SFSA works outside of the commercial area of Syngenta, remaining independent in its views and decisions.

Smallholder farmers are the most affected by the negative impacts of climate change, yet they produce 80% of food in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. 95% of farmers of smallholder farms depend on rainfed farming and yields on these crops are projected to fall by up to 25%. New technology is essential to drive productivity gains and climate adaptation for smallholder farmers and provide food security and nutritional improvements for growing populations.

GATE is for technology owners and organizations promoting climate-smart solutions for smallholders in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. GATE has already been successful in launching products and services across a wide- range of solution areas including biostimulants, precision agronomy, post-harvest loss reduction, pest, soil and water management to help build integrated solutions to smallholder farmers.?

Recognising the critical importance of developing a needs-based process and culture in the transformation of GATE,?Arkaro has been engaged to help understand stakeholder needs and develop a business model to ensure a self-sustaining future.?

Robert Berlin, Head of Agricultural Services said “for this project to be successful the GATE programme must adopt a pull approach reflecting the needs of smallholders. Arkaro’s support is already bringing methodologies and capabilities to help us better understand stakeholder’s needs, as a prerequisite to build a successful business model…”?