Have you ever wondered where the cabbages, potatoes, tomatoes and green beans sitting on supermarket shelves come from? In Mozambique if you shop at Shoprite, Africa's largest food retailer, which has operations in 16 countries, you'll be buying vegetables produced locally by small-scale farmers.
Two years ago, in 2005, Giang Thi Hoa, 41, and her husband, Li Mi Na, 54, decided to leave their home in the mountains of Meo Vac district, Viet Nam, in search of a better life for themselves and their four children. In the mountains, the family lived in extreme poverty
In the decades since Mauritius gained independence in 1968, it has joined the ranks of the middle-income countries. Severe poverty is rare in comparison to other parts of Africa, but there are pockets of poverty in the northern and eastern parts of the island of Mauritius and on Rodrigues Island, which is substantially poorer. An IFAD-funded programme, started in April 2000, is helping more than 15,000 poor smallholder farmers, artisanal fishers and microentrepreneurs diversify their incomes and improve their way of life.
Maryline Legoff is a rural entrepreneur. She is 35 years old and a single mother with a 5-year-old son. Maryline lives on the island of Rodrigues, 640 kilometers off the island of Mauritius. For Maryline and the 38,000 people who live on Rodrigues, fishing is a way of life. But their livelihoods are threatened by declining fish stocks.
A collection of interviews from rural poor people in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Guatemala, Laos, Morocco and Peru who describe the greatest obstacles they face in getting their goods to market.
Nine Latin American entrepreneurs, representing artisans from poor rural communities, attempt to sell their goods in one of Europe's toughest fashion capitals.
Sharing, discussing and learning from successful and less successful experiences is the ultimate goal of all learning organizations. Since 2001, with the support of IFAD, a Latin American training organization specialized in rural development has promoted an innovative learning approach known as ‘learning routes’. Participants of a learning route on market access in poor rural territories visited the business enterprises of five associations in Ecuador and Peru and took valuable lessons back to their own activities and communities.
Lucy Mansa is a cocoa farmer who makes her living by growing and selling cocoa beans. She lives in a small village in Ghana called Fenaso Domeabra.
Most of the cocoa beans grown in Ghana are sent to the UK and other countries in Europe where they are made into chocolate. The price farmers receive for their cocoa beans is often very low and few of them can afford to buy chocolate.
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