Imagine that you are a poor farmer in a rural area several days' walk from the nearest town, and you don't know what the weather is going to be tomorrow ... how to best take care of your crops or animals if they get sick ... or the fair market price for your goods. This kind of "information poverty" affects millions of poor farmers and their families, making their lives difficult at best ... and dangerous at worst, putting livelihoods - and lives - at real risk. Can you help us help them?
Poor farmers in rural areas are exposed to real risks when they don't have the information they need to care for their crops, their animals ... or their families. Through Grameen Foundation's Community Knowledge Worker (CKW) initiative, hundreds of poor farmers in Uganda and Latin America are helping tens of thousands like themselves by providing real-time information through a smartphone connected to specially designed databases - increasing income and saving lives.
In our Community Knowledge Worker (CKW) initiative in Uganda and Latin America, poor farmers chosen as CKWs by their peers use smartphones connected to our specially designed databases to provide others in their remote communities with up-to-date, accurate information - including weather reports, caring for animals, planting crops, treating pests and diseases, and getting fair market prices for what they produce.
Poor, rural farmers - half of whom live on less than $1.25 per day - live on a financial knife's edge. Their income is inconsistent, and constantly at risk. Bad weather can wipe out crops, disease can destroy livestock, buyers can lie about prices in far-away towns. Access to accurate, timely information improves productivity and reduces risk for these farmers. More than 62,000 poor Ugandan farmers have benefited from the services provided by more than 1,200 CKWs, with repeat use rising.
