Updated Mar 04, 2020
Rebekah Stutzman
Send MessageAlthough smallholder farmers produce up to 80% of the food supply in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the highest incidence of poverty globally is associated with agricultural employment. Although small-scale farmers are acutely vulnerable to shocks and changing climactic conditions, their capacity to raise their yields and incomes is constrained by lack of access to relevant, actionable information.
We bridge information gaps by developing innovative, appropriate, and cost-effective technologies that enable poor, rural people to access information and make informed decisions that improve their lives. Our core approach is to partner with and train agricultural and health extension providers to produce, disseminate, and monitor the impact of short, locally-relevant videos that share knowledge and prompt adoption of practices that improve agricultural production, livelihoods and nutrition.
Funding Goal | 1,000,000 | |
Projected Cumulative Lives Impacted | 5 | |
New Feature | Integrate multiple information delivery channels, including farmer facing applications |
Rikin Gandhi, Co-Founder and Executive Director From his childhood, Rikin was inspired by astronaut biographies and sought to put together his own playbook to get into space. He received a master’s in aeronautical and astronautical space engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a licensed private pilot and received patents for linguistic search algorithms at Oracle. Rikin didn’t make it to space, but he moved to rural India in 2006 to start up a biodiesel venture. When that failed, he joined Microsoft Research India’s Technology for Emerging Markets team in Bangalore, where he conducted peer-reviewed research to use technology to impact small-scale farming communities. Rikin’s time in India’s rural communities changed his life. In 2008, Rikin spun off Microsoft's first non-profit, Digital Green, and has been following his passion ever since for enabling farmers around the world to take their “one giant leap” to improve their lives and the lives of those around them.
EXECUTIVE TEAM INCLUDES WOMEN