Doing good through sustainable businesses

We're highlighting three social businesses that we’re excited to follow as they grow and make an impact.

Using profit to build a sustainable business that meets people’s needs, social enterprises flourish while doing good.

Rolling with the changes

The Farmer Resilience & Rebuilding Initiative in Mozambique

How iDE is helping smallholder farmers increase their resilience following both Cyclone Idai and the COVID-19 pandemic.

I De Ex Eth Jimma Jafare Coffee Farmer 21X9

The future for Ethiopian coffee farmers

In the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopian farmers are adopting new practices to enhance a way of life that’s been passed down for generations.

In the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopian farmers are adopting new practices to enhance a way of life that’s been passed down for generations. With the support of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, iDE is working with farmers in Jimma, Ethiopia to practice sustainable coffee production.

Building resilience through hubs of commercial activity

A foundation for stability and growth in Nepal

To build Nepalese farmers’ resilience, iDE engages in what we’ve termed the “Commercial Pocket Approach.”

Protecting the watershed and a way of life in Honduras

Watersheds are crucial to the sustainability of businesses, communities, and ecosystems. In Honduras, we’re working with people all along the watershed to protect water at its source, ensuring it continues flowing for generations to come.

Farm Business Advisors

The cost-efficient, sustainable way to market to farmers in remote locations.

iDE is facilitating change by supporting a network of Farm Business Advisors (FBAs), community agents who support small-scale farmers, who are often located in remote areas far away from commercial centers.

Scientist. Humanitarian. Mother.

STAFF PROFILE: We’d like you to get to know Chiara, iDE’s Senior Advisor on Climate and Resilience.

STAFF PROFILE: Chiara Ambrosino is dedicated to finding sustainable ways for people to grow food in difficult climates. As iDE’s Senior Advisor on Climate and Resilience, she leads our country teams in strategies to build farmers’ resilience to climate change.

Plentiful plantains

ENTREPRENEUR PROFILE: A farmer makes the switch from flood to drip irrigation

Nicaragua is known for its lakes and rivers—water scarcity has not been a problem until now. The rains are coming less frequently, and weather patterns are less predictable. Farmers like Candelario are having to pivot their practices—making such changes as switching from traditional flood irrigation to water-saving drip irrigation.

Tunnel vision

ENTREPRENEUR PROFILE: Increasing production despite changing weather patterns in Nepal

Gita Pariyar lives in Lahachok village, within the Kaski district of central Nepal. She is raising 2 daughters and a son while her husband works as a laborer in the Middle East. A member of the disadvantaged Dalit community, she helps supplement her family’s income through agriculture. But she’s noticed a change in the rainfall in Nepal.

Creating a food safety net

Farmers build climate resilience in Ethiopia

iDE provides farmers access to improved seeds and training in proven agricultural practices to increase crop yields that enable small-scale households to have food year-round.

iDE Ex Vietnam Planting On Straight and Narrow

Planting on the straight and narrow

Changing agricultural methods to increase yields sustainably in Vietnam

Compared to mainstream fertilizers and air-borne applications, Fertilizer Deep Placement produces 40% less chemical runoff and 30% fewer greenhouse gas emissions. It also increases yields, leading to a win-win for the farmer and for the environment.

iDE Ex Nicaragua iDEal Way To Demonstrate Effectiveness

Balancing social good and profitability

Social enterprise in Nicaragua

Irrigation systems aren't off-the-shelf kinds of purchases. They require proper design, good installation, and operator training. iDE's social enterprise iDEal Tecnologias provides these services to farmers in Nicaragua.

Drip+ Alliance

Affordable drip irrigation plus a comprehensive set of tools

What if one million farmers could grow more food with less water?

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