IDE UK is implementing a project in Ethiopia which is working with a cooperatives of 3,415 small farmers who are producing honey and chillies.  Emilie Stephenson (her blog), the marketing and branding specialist from innocent, will be visiting the project for 2 weeks from 25^th October.

The visit is part of the innocent’s ‘scholarship programme’ and costs are totally covered by innocent.   Production of honey and chillies is steadily increasing, but Emilie will be helping with the marketing of the honey.  Emilie will also be visiting the IDE apple project in Ethiopia which the innocent foundation funded from 2006-2009.  The apple project trained farmers to produce the high value fruits for market.

Related Links:

Emilie in Ethiopia: http://innocentdrinks.typepad.com/innocent_drinks/2010/10/ethiopian-honey.html

Since April 2010, IDE Vietnam has been implementing a 3-year project with the help of funding from the innocent foundation.  In the poor upland district of Hiep Duc in the Quang Nam province, one third of the population is living below the poverty line. 90% of the population is dependent on agricultural activities.  Low productivity of rice production has been observed as a main cause of poverty.

IDE have been undertaking work to help rice-farmers through this project.  The aim is to introduce Fertilizer Deep Placement technology (FDP) in order to increase rice yields.  The 3 year project has the following objectives:

• To help 4,000 rice farming families increase their rice yields by 30%
• Help set up a local private sector network to produce and supply fertilizer pellets.
• Support market development of FDP to the whole district without external funding.

Despite setbacks from a severe drought this the summer, the project has seen some considerable success.  Local marketing strategies employed by this project have ensured this including:

Mass marketing activities have been implemented such as leaflet distribution to homes, information dissemination on local the TV station, district/commune loud-speaking systems, and posting of FDP posters. A quick assessment by IDE indicates that about 50% of the population in project communes are aware of this information.  In addition, some farmers have even learned how to apply FDP from the information disseminated in this way without going to a training session.

IDE is also undertaking targeted marketing activities.  A total of 30 demo plots were set up during the crop to train poor farmers on FDP application.

The results so far are impressive. 89 farmers have adopted FDP so far.  This is considered an good result by the local authorities. No previous project has ever achieved such a level of adoption without providing hand-outs to farmers.

Ms. Ngoc, pictured above with her daughter, is a poor single mother of two from the Que Tho commune.  This year due to severe drought, she could only grow rice crops on her one-sao plot, (equivalent of about 500sqm) instead of two-sao.  After hearing about the Fertilizer Deep Placement technology, she decided to buy enough for one-sao.

Three weeks later Ms Ngoc told IDE:  “Thanks God, after three weeks, the rice began to grow amazingly fast! It’s really incredible!”

Despite the drought, the harvest was even greater than normal! Ms. Ngoc got 360 kg of rice on that one-sao, 80 kg more than the previous year when there was no drought.

Related Links:

http://www.innocentfoundation.org/

http://ide-vietnam.org/default.asp?sel=three&OneID=4&TwoID=5&ThreeID=11

http://ide-uk.org/news/real-stories/vietnam-%E2%80%93-2010/ms-ngoc-vietnam/

UK based fruit drink company innocent drinks (through the innocent foundation) works with organisations in developing countries where its fruit is sourced building secure futures through sustainable farming.

Between 2006 and 2009 IDE-UK and innocent partnered on a project that helped small farmers in Ethiopia  grow apples which were  sold at market to generate additional income.  So far, the project has helped 226 farmers get started in the apple business; it’s a great example of IDE’s method in action.

In April 2010 the innocent foundation and IDE UK have initiated a further three-year project together in Vietnam.  Read more about the new project.

>> More about the partnership with the innocent foundation