A hand-up, not a hand-out
Because of pineapples’ year-round harvest and high market prices, large-scale pineapple farming is attractive to nearly all Sierra Leonean farmers. The poorest farming families, however, lack the capital to invest in the resources required for planting. WHI bridges this gap between opportunity and capacity by providing the initial hand-up necessary to get farmers started, covering the cost of all training, agricultural inputs, irrigation, and machinery. Over the course of multiple successful harvest seasons, farmers will gain the means to invest back into the project. Just as they were provided with an initial hand-up, farmers’ reinvested resources help provide future farming cooperatives with the handup they need to begin planting. WHI requires the reinvestment in order to create a sustainable cycle of farmers supporting other farmers. With their high market value and ability to be harvested yearround, pineapples will play a key role in combatting and ultimately eliminating the hungry season. Overall, the program aims to introduce to smallholder farmers the concept of cultivating pineapples to be commercially exported (a first for Sierra Leone!)—creating an estimated 2,500 long-term and sustainable agricultural jobs, as well as year-round incomes for farmers. Through the “Planting Pineapples, Harvesting Hope” program, farmers have been working for many months now, preparing the land and readying all the supplies, and the first planting took place at the end of May. The project is launching with 10 co-ops and will scale up an additional 10 every harvest season. Eventually, WHI will work with 160 villages to enhance local pineapple farming by training and educating farmers to grow pineapples on a massive scale—in large farming plots or in their own villages—and improve their local institutional capacities to a level that will earn them steady income and jobs. Moreover, farmers will have access to a direct buyer and guaranteed market for their fruit. Africa Felix Juice (AFJ), the first manufacturer to export significant value-added goods from Sierra Leone since the end of the country’s civil war, will purchase pineapples grown by these smallholder farmers and produce juice concentrate to be sold all over the world. The result is a win-win for all. The best thing about the pineapple program is the span of its influence. Families, villages, and future generations will reap the benefits of pineapples through more stable communities and a stronger economy. As Sierra Leoneans look to restore our country from its broken past, pineapples offer hope for a fruitful future. (WHI’s pineapples project is made possible by GIZ, CordAid, and many other caring donors to World Hope International.) Learn more and watch a short video about WHI’s pineapple work in Sierra Leone at WorldHope.org/pineapples.
Dr. Robert Kagbo is the director of agriculture at World Hope International. A native Sierra Leonean with a PhD in agronomy and soil science, he has extensive experience in agriculture in West Africa.
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Empowering Women in Agriculture to Help Eradicate Hunger by Jo Anne Lyon
The United Nations named 2014 the “International Year of Family Farming”1 in an effort to highlight the potential that farming families have to eradicate hunger, preserve natural resources, and promote sustainable development. In addition, the Obama administration has been pushing to end hunger and malnutrition in Africa through initiatives that leverage private investments in agriculture such as Feed the Future,2 the US Government's global hunger and food security initiative that focuses on small farms and women, and the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition,3 an international effort to en-