Building Resilience at the Farm Gate: Why Every Seed Counts

The world's farmers are facing an uphill battle as climate change and other environmental threats put their livelihoods at risk. However, by increasing climate-smart practices on their farms, growers can increase their crop and financial resilience, and contribute to more resilient food systems worldwide.

The Niche project aims to help growers build on-farm resilience. Through this project, Regrow and nonprofit partners One Acre Fund, University of Nebraska - Lincoln and NASA Harvest are providing resources that enable farmers to optimize their corn seed variety selection for a user’s specific environment. 

Every seed has a role in building resilience

Optimizing seed variety is an important part of building resilience at the farm gate. By selecting the right variety for a specific operation, farmers can increase their yields and reduce their vulnerability to disease, extreme weather events and other crop risks. This strategy requires extensive research and leveraging existing networks of farmer advisors and extension officers, and can have long-term benefits in terms of increased yields and improved crop resilience.

Through the Niche project, Regrow and partners are working to provide growers with the information and technology they need to choose the optimal seed varieties for their operations. Outputs from the Niche project will aid farmers in the seed selecting process, acting as an additional tool in farmers’ toolkits.

From seed to system-wide transformation

How public-private partnerships build resilience across global agriculture systems

Public-private partnerships are essential for creating sustainable agricultural ecosystems and ensuring farmers have access to the resources and technologies they need. Through collaborative efforts and leveraging resources between public institutions such as research centers, universities, government agencies or nonprofits and private donors such as foundations, corporations and financial institutions; or government agencies – all with an interest in promoting sustainable agriculture – farmers can gain access to improved technology, training programs, financing options or other necessary resources for successful agricultural production.

Projects like Niche, which are fueled by partnership with other organizations and on-the-ground stakeholders, provide a unique opportunity for us to support local farmers while also building a more secure future for food production. 

By increasing resilience up to the farm gate through improved technology, training and financing options that allow smallholder farmers access to all of the resources they need, we can ensure a brighter future for both current and future generations of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. We have the opportunity now to invest our time and efforts in projects like Niche, which will have long-term benefits not only for those living today but also those who come after us.

Learn more about Niche and explore partnership opportunities with Regrow.