Current Event: Education & Empowerment Will Lead to Sustainment

Moving towards a sustainable world starts with education, investment, and empowerment. It is crucial that businesses and individuals are not only moving towards sustainability, but that that they are pairing with others to create a network and movement towards it as well.
The Business Call to Action (BCtA) is a multilateral alliance that challenges companies to develop innovative business models that achieve commercial success and development outcomes. It is a UN-supported anti-poverty program that has a commitment to provide income-earning opportunities and expand access to services to disadvantaged populations in Africa and Asia.

A food-processing company called Equator Kenya recently joined the Business Call to Action in goal of improving their production process of the African Bird's Eyes Chilies, Equators primary crop. The Business Call to Action promises to provide climate-smart technologies, training and market linkages to 8,000 smallholder farms along the Kenyan coast.
The stimulator behind this partnership is the objective to reduce crop risks due to climate change. Reducing crop risks will in turn increase farmer incomes as well as their farm yields and quality. Currently there are about 7,000 smallholder farmers and in some areas nearly 80% of the farmers are women. Most have a low seasonal income and are illiterate.
Through the joining of BCtA, Equator Kenya has introduced a low-cost water-effiicient drip-irrigation kit to it's farmers. The results of the kit are huge:

• Production up 54% since the introduction of the kits in 2014
• Kits have created year-round income for farmers, allowing them to produce 10 months of the year (as opposed to 4-5 months)

These results are expected to increase farmer yields by 20 fold.
Furthermore, Equator will distribute 8000 more kits that incorporate environmentally sustainable blended fertilizers and bio-pesticides. This movement will progress as Equator educates and trains their farmers on pest management, soil fertility management and erosion control to protect against the threats of climate control.

The results that come from this partnership benefit all parties involved: the business (Equator Kenya), BCtA, the farmers, and the greater scope of people and land surrounding them. The focus on education and empowerment is key to developing and progressing towards a sustainable world and BCtA is just the start.

Source:
http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/ict_big_data/mike_hower/climate_smart-tech_improving_livelihoods_kenyan_women_farmers