{"id":4495,"date":"2022-11-16T13:34:56","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T12:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afd-chooseafrica-qa.cegedim.cloud\/?p=4495"},"modified":"2022-11-16T13:36:03","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T12:36:03","slug":"in-sub-saharan-africa-the-araf-fund-is-strengthening-the-climate-resilience-of-smallholder-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afd-chooseafrica-qa.cegedim.cloud\/en\/news\/in-sub-saharan-africa-the-araf-fund-is-strengthening-the-climate-resilience-of-smallholder-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"In Sub-Saharan Africa, the ARAF fund is strengthening the climate resilience of smallholder farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Financed by several partners and development finance institutions \u2013 including Proparco, via AFD Group\u2019s FISEA+ facility \u2013 the ARAF fund targets the issues of food security and climate change. It invests in start- ups offering innovative solutions to improve the conditions and climate resilience of smallholder farmers in East and West Africa. Tamer El-Raghy, its managing director, provide further details.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Tamer El-Raghy\u2019s assessment is clear. \u201cClimate change is wreaking havoc here<\/em>,\u201d warns from Nairobi the manager of\u00a0the equity fund ARAF<\/a>\u00a0(Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund) which operates in several African countries affected by climate change. Intense floods followed by long periods\u00a0of drought which degrade cultivated areas\u2026\u00a0\u201cThese disruptions weigh especially on the most vulnerable \u2013 women, children \u2013 and small-scale farmers who have very few means to protect\u00a0and boost their crops.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0This high exposure to these climate events consequently makes the performance of the agriculture sector in Kenya \u2013\u00a0 and everywhere else in Sub-Saharan Africa \u2013\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0highly unstable<\/strong>, points out this expert who graduated from universities in Cairo and New York. \u201cIndeed, over half of the people living in poverty are smallholder farmers. Yet they provide\u00a080% of the food consumed in the region.\u201d This illustrates how climate change, which hundreds of thousands of African farmers are facing, weakens local economies and exacerbates food security.<\/p>\n

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30% OF BENEFICIARIES LIVE BELOW THE POVERTY LINE<\/h4>\n

To address this situation,\u00a0the ARAF fund, which was launched in 2020 by Acumen Capital-Partners \u2013 a subsidiary of Acumen, an organization specialized in supporting social enterprises in Africa \u2013, invests in local start-ups offering innovative solutions to smallholder farmers<\/strong>. The objective is to build an ecosystem that will give farmers in East and West Africa the means to increase their incomes and improve their living conditions and resilience to climate change. This adaptation requires diversifying crops (corn, vegetables, etc.), improving irrigation and facilitating access to the most climate-resistant seeds and species. \u201cWe\u2019re currently investing in 6 start-ups1 and are ultimately targeting 5 to 7 additional investments by 2026,<\/em>\u201d says Tamer El-Raghy. \u201cWe target the most vulnerable farmers. 30% live below the poverty line. Through its action, ARAF seeks to reduce poverty, strengthen climate resilience\u00a0and demonstrate the impact of investment in resilient agriculture.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0ARAF is supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and is financed with $58 million from several partners and development finance institutions<\/strong>, including Proparco which took a\u00a0$5 million stake in 2021, through FISEA+, the AFD Group\u2019s facility implemented by Proparco under the Choose Africa initiative. Over the next 4 years, the fund aims to safeguard some 1,200 jobs and indirectly support a total of 2 million smallholder farmers.<\/p>\n

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The impact of the ARAF fund on farmer well-being<\/h5>\n

\"ARAF-donn\u00e9es\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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SEVERAL CROPS EVERY YEAR<\/h4>\n

On the ground, the ARAF teams regularly measure the impacts4 on the living standards of farmers and their work. \u201cThe activities of the start-ups we\u2019re supporting have already had an impact on some 400,000 farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. 43%5 of them report that they are now resilient to the consequences of climate change and 79% say that their incomes have increased,<\/em>\u201d says the fund\u2019s CEO.\u00a0The Kenyan start-up Sun- Culture, which supplies solar irrigation systems to its clients, estimates that on average there has been a 120% increase in the disposable income of the farmers who benefit from its innovations.\u00a0<\/strong>This is the case of Josephine Waweru, a farmer specialized in coffee growing. She is based in Kirinyaga County, in central Kenya, and has installed a solar pump system supplied by SunCulture. \u201cI used to use a really expensive and polluting gasoline system. I\u2019ve also been able to diversify my crops to cope better with the risks related to climate change,<\/em>\u201d says the farmer. This observation\u00a0is also shared by Jamleck Gichovi Karuri, who is based in another region in Kenya badly affected by the prolonged droughts. Thanks to a solar water pump system supplied by SunCulture, this breeder and farmer can now feed her livestock and harvest several crops every year.<\/p>\n

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TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES FOR THE BENEFIT OF AGRICULTURE<\/h4>\n

\u201cWith climate change, rainfall in Sub-Saharan Africa has declined by over 100 mm a year since the mid-1970s,<\/em>\u201d says Samir Ibrahim, cofounder of SunCulture.\u00a0As a result, Africa, which has\u00a065% of the world\u2019s uncultivated arable land, has an annual food imports bill of $35 billion.<\/strong>\u00a0Yet with the technological advances in agriculture, the continent should be able to feed its population without the slightest problem. \u201cFor this to happen, these advances must focus as a priority on helping smallholder farmers who\u00a0are the most vulnerable to climate change<\/em>,\u201d says Tamer El-Reghy. \u201cIt\u2019s both a need and an emergency.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

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