Our Mission…
to quickly and cost-effectively improve the food security of smallholder farmers through improving their access to the appropriate farm inputs, and information on their best management.
Our Vision…
for all farming households in sub-Saharan Africa to be food secure.
OUR CORE VALUES
Passion
We are passionate about sharing our knowledge with small-holder farmers to improve their lives in a way that encourages self-reliance and independence
Inclusion
We work with every farmer in each village we serve, regardless of gender, age, or wealth. We give farmers a choice of inputs and practices so that there is “something for everyone”.
Learning-by-Doing
We believe in empowering farmers to practically “learn-by-doing” with inputs on small plots on their own farms, with little risk, and to enable them to choose what works for them.
Keep it Simple and Small (KISS)
We know that simple, small modifications to farmers’ practices can have large, lasting increases in agricultural productivity. We work with farmers to modify their practices, which are easy to adopt, rather than introduce new complex, inappropriate technologies.
Humility
“We can do things that farmers cannot, farmers can do things we cannot; together we can make great changes.” We treat every farmer as our equal; we spend time with farmers to understand their priorities and constraints, and work with them to design interventions to provide solutions to their constraints.
We share the credit for our achievements with our partners.
Honesty
We, as an “honest broker”, believe in giving farmers a choice of any one input and enable them to choose what is best for themselves.
We are committed to transparency, integrity and accountability in all of our operations.
OUR APPROACH
FIPS has developed an effective extension model that promotes adoptable options, which increase the productivity of a diverse range of crops and livestock, leading to increased food, nutrition, and incomes for smallholder farmers.
FIPS think about technologies from the farmer’s perspective and develop simple, practical, innovative options across farming systems. These options deploy regenerative agriculture principles and take local knowledge and practices into account while responding to farmers’ challenges and opportunities, leading to relevant and impactful programs and research.
Everything FIPS-Africa has done since its inception in 2003 has been driven by a commitment to deliver food security to farming households in sub-Saharan Africa. Once families are food secure it is possible to work on increasing their resilience to shocks and help them respond to opportunities that can make them thrive.
Whilst much of FIPS-Africa’s funding comes from project grants, it uses these funds to build sustainable support structures to deliver appropriate, cost-effective and proven technologies to smallholder farmers at scale.
The Village-based Advisor (VBA) model
FIPS-Africa encourages the use of climate-smart technologies proven to be beneficial to small-scale farmers. Through a network of village-based advisors (VBAs) it offers training and options to farm inputs and services. The approach is inclusive, training all farmers in the villages – including women farmers and low-income farming families. The village-based advisors gain commission from the sale of goods and services – which helps to make this delivery model sustainable.
WE DO NOT PROMOTE GENETICALLY-MODIFIED ORGANISMS (GMOs).
ALL INPUTS ARE PROMOTED IN WAYS THAT ARE SAFE FOR HUMANS, LIVESTOCK AND THE ENVIRONMENT.