Learning From Our Clients: The Risks of Farming
*This series highlights Lumana programs and operations in Ghana that have been largely shaped through lessons learned from our clients. Stay tuned for a new video every Thursday!
Farming just may be the riskiest business on earth. Not only must farmers bend to Mother Nature's will, but also to the highs and lows of global markets. However, nowhere are farmers more affected by these risky conditions than in the developing world. Although more than 85% of the world's farms are smaller than five acres, innovation in agriculture technology and production are geared towards larger farms in the US and Europe, where the average farm size is around 440 acres. Farmers in developing countries are also more exposed to weather patterns such as flooding and extreme dry seasons, since the technology and education necessary to prevent these catastrophes are usually too expensive or inaccessible to farmers in the developing world.
The majority of Lumana's clients are farmers; most face daily problems such as purchasing quality seeds that will yield a profit, diseases that infect entire fields, bringing water to their crops, and receiving an equitable price for their crop at the market. For both the economic and community well-being of Lumana's relationship with farmers, it is extremely important that we understand exactly what risks farmers undertake every day in order to provide for their families.
Ben Watts is a senior at Seattle University, the President of the debate team, and a self-expressed philosopher. However, this summer, he took a break from Chomsky and spent nine weeks living in Anloga, Ghana as a Lumana Summer Fellow, where he rose with the sun most every morning to interview farmers as they went about their morning chores. Of course since in Ghana, it is considered impolite to not partake when invited, Ben became quite the accomplished farmer by the end of his stay. The results of Ben's research, shown here, will help Lumana in creating a better loan product for our client farmers.