Moving Smallholder Farmers Out of Poverty at myAgro / by Karen Rieckmann

80% of the poorest 2 billion people on the planet make a living in agriculture, 93% of these people do not have access to financing. Karen Rieckmann, Program Director at myAgro, explains how myAgro aims to help these smallholder farmers with their financing. Through a scratch card-system, similar to a prepaid SIM card for your phone, farmers can buy their seeds and fertilizer in smaller amounts, where they would normally have to buy in bulk. Farmers have shown to increase their harvest by 50%, resulting in women sending more kids to school and families eating more. MyAgro’s idea is combating hunger by expanding the purchasing power at the bottom of the pyramid.