Impact

The primary UN Social Development Goals of Prosper on Farms are:

SDG 1. No poverty

By increasing farmer incomes and job opportunities in agriculture. Prosper on Farms achieves higher farmer incomes through increasing their crop yields and all year round production it provides through providing farmers access to irrigation.

World Bank* (2020) – “Agricultural growth was found to be five times more effective in reducing poverty than non-farm growth in low-income countries but 11 times more so in Sub-Saharan Africa (Christiaensen, Demery, and Kuhl 2011; FAO 2012).”

SDG 2. Zero Hunger

By increasing agricultural productivity, yields, incomes, and reducing post-harvest food losses starting at the smallholder household level. This ensures that there will be more food available for human and livestock consumption.

Each drought year, 8 million Zimbabweans need food aid. Due to drought, 8 million Zimbabweans required food aid in the 2019/2020 season, and again in 2024. In 2024, WFP said  Zimbabwe’s food insecurity is on par with nations at war.

Yet when rains are good Zimbabwe can feed itself and has excess grain to export. Prosper on Farms will end this food insecurity through increasing access to irrigation.

Zimbabwe’s annual grain consumption requirements are 2 million tonnes.

Only 175 000 hectares of farmland are under functional irrigation in Zimbabwe, out of 2.5 million irrigable hectares of agricultural land.

Over 50% of Zimbabwe’s irrigation schemes are dysfunctional. United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development.

In Zimbabwe Prosper on Farms incorporates a conservation agriculture, climate smart agriculture, method branded Pfumvudza. A 2019 FAO study on Pfumvudza said,

The Pfumvudza model does not only have potential to improve the food security of rural households but also provides reasonable return on investment. Preliminary calculations based on the yield performance of the pilot Pfumvudza plots under the programme revealed that for every British Pound that the programme invested in extension and advisory services towards the Pfumvudza model, the incremental value of the grain produced is £9.2. In other words an investment of £1 produced outputs worth £9.2. The incremental production alone can provide enough grain for almost four months for a family of six.

Thus Pfumvudza is not only very effective in addressing food insecurity but also provides the most efficient way of utilizing resources in the fight against hunger and indeed poverty

SDG 3. Good health and well-being

Through a diversified and balanced diet. The biggest expenditure of people at the bottom of the pyramid is food.

Prosper on Farms first makes sure that the food requirements of the farming families are taken care of first before food is sold to the market.

In contrast, loan providers do not care to do this at all. The access to irrigation brought by Prosper on Farms allows the families to start harvesting vegetables within 60 days, significantly improving their access to nutritious foods.

According to WFP (PDF), in Zimbabwe:

Maize is cultivated by 80 percent of rural households, but there is an annual cereal deficit of 382,000 mt. Maize yields of 0.79 mt/ha are far below the regional average. Groundnuts and sorghum are the second and third most cultivated food crops; tobacco and cotton are the most cultivated cash crops. Maize prices are set by the government Grain Marketing Board, but consistently late payments lead many producers to sell in other markets or shift to cash crops such as tobacco that are less regulated. Post-harvest difficulties lead to significant food losses: 60 percent of rural households store crops in unimproved facilities. Although 63 percent of the rural population are aware of health risks associated with eating spoiled food, most maize that has changed colour, smell or taste is nonetheless consumed.

FAO says, “Smallholder farmers, most of whom have access to less than two acres of land, produce more than 80% of the food in sub-Saharan Africa.”

FAO “estimates yearly global quantitative food losses in Sub-Saharan Africa at roughly 20% for cereals, 40-50% for root crops, fruits and vegetables, 27% for oilseeds, meat and milk, and 33% for fish.”

One of the best ways to prevent the 20% of food losses of cereals, which are the most imported food into Africa is a metal silo. About the metal silo, FAO says;

The household metal silo is a key post-harvest technology in the fight against hunger and for food security. It is a simple structure that allows grains to be kept for long periods and prevents attack from pests such as rodents, insects and birds. If the grains have been properly dried (<14 percent moisture in the case of cereals and <10 percent in the case of pulses and oilseeds) and the household metal silo is kept under cover, there are no problems of moisture condensation in its inside. Household metal silos generally hold between 100 and 3 000 kilos. A household metal silo with a capacity of 1 000 kilos can conserve the grain needed to feed a family of five for one year. A small or medium farmer with more than one silo can store surpluses for off-season sale when prices are more attractive, thus increasing household income.

All the technologies that have been mentioned above, and those that have not, cost money that smallholder farmers who live on less than US$1.25 a day, mostly in the form of food aid, don’t have. Prosper on Farms enters into production partnerships with farmers to enable them to acquire these technologies without going into debt themselves.

SDG 4. Quality education

Smallholder farmers under Prosper on Farms can afford to send children to school and buy them books, and learn on the job and from our tutorials. Not only is affordability a benefit, Prosper on Farms requires and complels beneficiaries to send their children to school, not use child labour, not engage in child marriages and exploitation, otherwise if they don’t Prosper on Farms will pull its support and ban the offenders. Farmers can also order school textbooks for their children from Prosper on Farms and have them delivered to their nearest post office.

SDG 5. Gender equality

According to the Zimbabwe Agriculture National Policy Framework, agriculture “provides livelihoods to approximately 70 percent of the rural population (54 percent of which are women).” 70% of the agricultural workforce of Zimbabwe are women.

Over 90% of all the farmers who applied to Prosper on Farms for an irrigation system are male.

In their application for irrigation systems, almost the same percentage of applicants indicated willingness to let Prosper on Farms give ownership of the irrigation system that will be used on their farm to a person of a different gender from the person who owns the land where the irrigation system will be installed or used.

Through Prosper on Farms, women are going to be the majority owners of the means of irrigation, while men are going to continue being the owners of the land. That way we will achieve diversity in the ownership of agricultural means of production.

International Renewable Energy Agency (2016) Solar pumping for irrigation: Improving livelihoods and sustainability states:

The benefits of solar pumping solutions, especially in the non-access context, include a strong gender dimension, since a large number of women are engaged in rainfed agriculture and they produce two-thirds of the food in most developing countries. It is women, predominantly, who fetch the water for food production – a laborious and time-consuming activity. In the market gardens of Mazuru, Zimbabwe, each woman walks nearly 4 kilometres or more each day to carry buckets of water from the dam site to irrigate their gardens, which grow spinach, cabbage, beans, tomatoes, and other crops (Magrath, 2015). Watering can take a gruelling six hours, leaving little time for other essential work, such as hoeing, weeding and tending to the plants, in addition to household chores. A diesel pump used to provide water to the garden but the women couldn’t afford the rising fuel costs, and eventually the pump broke down.

Market garden members, from their community fund, have bought a solar water pump so that the women in the community can now fill their tanks each day at mid-day to water their gardens – taking no more than an hour or two. … These experiences illustrate the disproportionately greater benefits of solar pumping solutions for women. Energy for pumping can affect the economic activities of a man and a woman in different aspects, especially in relation to whether or not the water used is for “men’s crops” or “women’s crops”. Solar energy can be particularly useful and cost effective to grow the types of crops that women traditionally grow the most – fruit and vegetables, much of which goes directly back to feeding the family, thus improving health and nutrition. As has been the case in the deployment of many rural energy solutions, gender characteristics play an important role in terms of energy decision-making.

SDG 6. Clean water and sanitation

Prosper on Farms also provides access to borehole water, and the means to protect currently unprotected wells to avoid groundwater contamination. Can and rope wells can be converted into solar-powered boreholes.

World Bank* (2020) “A survey of more than 17,000 farmers in India showed that farm households with wells or surface water access (compared with farm households without such access), contained 35 percent higher land-use intensity, 35 percent more livestock (cattle and buffaloes), 61 percent more income derived from milk and eggs, and 86 percent more in sales of poultry and livestock (World Bank 2018).”

SDG 7. Affordable and clean energy

Prosper on Farms installs solar power for productive use and smallholder household use. Productive use includes irrigation, lighting, cooking, cold storage, grinding, and powering home and industrial appliances.

Zimbabwe has an average of 300 days (or 3000 hours) of sunshine every year.

The Zimbabwe National Renewable Energy Policy says:

Zimbabwe currently has a national electrification rate of 42%. While electricity has reached 83% of the urban households, rural electrification is still around 13% as per the National Energy Policy of 2012. The country has an installed capacity of about 2,300 MW, with Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), a generation subsidiary of ZESA, owning around 95% of this. More than 50% of electricity is generated from hydropower power while the remainder is from thermal power plants. Bagasse, mini hydropower and small sized grid connected solar systems have an installed capacity of about 130MW. Against this background, the actual power generation capacity in 2019 averaged below 1000MW against a peak demand of about 1700MW. The limited generation capacity is attributed to water availability issues, old equipment which needs rehabilitation and limited coal supplies. […]

However, statistics indicate that most of the population living in rural areas do not have access to electricity. As per the National Energy Policy, electricity access rate is thirteen percent (13.0%) in rural areas and eighty three percent (83.0%) in urban areas. Electricity is also used for cooking with very low penetration at thirty percent (30%), with over sixty-five percent (65%) of households depending on firewood (ZIMSTAT, 2014). Overall, forty two percent (42%) of the population has access to electricity.

SDG 8. Decent work and economic growth

Access to irrigation through Prosper on Farms closes the yield gap, increases yields, and enables all year round farming, which means higher incomes, mnore reliable and predictable income streams, better paying agricultural jobs, and job oppoortunities in the downstream sectors of agroprocessing and across the supply chain.

World Bank* (2020) – “Agricultural growth was found to be five times more effective in reducing poverty than non-farm growth in low-income countries but 11 times more so in Sub-Saharan Africa (Christiaensen, Demery, and Kuhl 2011; FAO 2012).”

The Zimbabwe National Water Policy (2012) says:

Water utilisation by the agriculture sector is currently on the decline. Since agriculture is the major consumer of water, because of this decline, the capacity of ZINWA and Catchment Councils to raise revenues is likewise seriously curtailed. The revenues realised depend on a healthy irrigation sector that in turn relies on the levels of investments in irrigation rehabilitation and development. Investment in irrigation has however not been forth-coming resulting not only in the deterioration of installed irrigation infrastructure in all the farming sectors of the country but also depressed development of new irrigation schemes to fully utilise the country’s available water resources. While a fully functional irrigated agriculture sector has the capacity to consume 82% of the country’s water resources, water usage by the sector is currently estimated at 20% in most catchment areas, except Runde and Saves catchment. These catchments are currently dominated by the thriving sugar industry. The decline in water use has compromised the financial viability of ZINWA and Catchment Councils as a result under-mining their capacity to undertake water resources development and management. The impact of the de-pressed revenue to ZINWA, Catchment Councils and sub-Catchment has been the loss of experienced human resources and with it the compromised ability of the institutions to perform their mandates (for example dam maintenance and water billing). …

In other words, our work to increase access to irrigation to farmers from less than 10% to 100% will boost the revenues of the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) which will then be able to fund its own activities of providing clean water in cities which have been frequently hit by cholera and other water-bortne diseases. ZINWA will then generate enough income from water users in agriculture and industry to fund its operations.

SDG 9. Industry, innovation, and infrastructure

Provision and development of infrastructure for irrigation, power, food production, manufacturing, service industries, and supporting industries. Farmers will have wht they need so long as Prosper on Farms will make a profit to help more farmers.

According to the Zimbabwe Agriculture National Policy Framework;

Agriculture occupies a central place in the Zimbabwean economy for employment, incomes and poverty reduction. It contributes 15-18 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 23 percent to the total formal employment, and provides livelihoods to approximately 70 percent of the rural population (54 percent of which are women). It also supplies about 63 percent of industrial raw materials with the share of agriculture in manufacturing value added at 60 percent, and the share in export earnings at 30 percent. Fifteen out of the 31 industry clusters in Zimbabwe depend on agriculture for feedstock. Agriculture-related employment supports a third of the formal labour force.

… Maize, tobacco and cotton account for more than 50 percent of the agricultural GDP, with tobacco leading the pack with 25 percent, followed by maize at 14 percent, and cotton at 25 percent. Ten percent is accounted for by the beef and fisheries sectors, whilst about 24 percent is devoted to the rest of the livestock like sheep, goats, pigs, poultry and ostrich. Within the milieu of commodities; tobacco, cotton, sugar, horticulture, tea, and bananas collectively account for about 40 percent by value of national exports. The performance of the agricultural sector therefore has a direct bearing on overall national economic performance, and on human development especially with regard to national and household food and nutrition security.

SDG 10. Reduced inequalities

Through increased incomes and access to irrigation, water, food, and energy through innovative business models. Prosper on Farms’ busines model is designed to realistically lift farmers out of poverty and not just to increase incomes.

SDG 11. Sustainable cities and communities

By recycling materials used in agriculture such as irrigation pipes and drip tapes, plastics, and metals. Prosper on Farmers also encourages farmers to practice sustainable farming methods and to reduce their reliance of synthetic inputs.

SDG 12. Responsible consumption and production

By ensuring that solar-powered irrigation uses low-power pumps to avoid overabstraction of groundwater. Farmers are also encouraged to use water harvesting methods and ground water recharge techniques. Prosper on Farms heavily encourages recycling and eliminating waste in the first place.

SDG 13. Climate action

The Southern Africa Drought Resilience Initiative (SADRI) (of the World Bank) Drought Resilience Profile of Zimbabwe (PDF) (undated) says:

Zimbabwe is one of the world’s most drought-prone countries which experiences frequent and severe droughts. Severe drought episodes were observed in 1991-1992, 1994-1995, 2002-2003, 2015-2016 and 2018-2019. Drought vulnerability and exposure vary substantially within the country with the south-western provinces of Matabeleland North and South showing high vulnerability and exposure levels. Of late, droughts have been crippling the nation and have contributed to the already low life-expectancy levels and high levels of emigration. The country also faces numerous development challenges that exacerbate its vulnerability to drought, including high levels of food insecurity, competition over scarce resources and ongoing political instability. Chronic food insecurity affects 10% of the population, even in years with sufficient rains. The poor rainfall season in 2019-2020, with the late start of rains in most districts of Zimbabwe, resulted in a delayed or no green harvest, and reduced water availability for livestock (leading to high livestock mortality) and households. It also forced many households to become more reliant on markets to access staple food. High prices of food items and other basic commodities mean that for many rural households normal purchases are no longer possible, and reliance on external assistance and social networks for food has become the norm. This has also led to fewer casual labour opportunities and an increase in labour migration to South Africa and other countries. The country is also prone to mid-season droughts, even in a rainy season (non-drought years). This is one of the most critical challenges for smallholder farmers who practise rain-fed agriculture, and are greatly impacted by mid-season droughts.

Our climate action is through training farmers the practice of climate-smart farming (conservation agriculture) and providing farmers access to irrigation without putting them into debt to improve their climate resilience.

SDG 17. Partnership for the goals

Partnering organizations and institutions that have similar social development goals.