Fighting Hunger & Poverty with Opportunity
We create opportunities across Africa for rural communities with tools and services to efficiently process, save, and sell more food.
Postharvest Solutions Provider
We implement programs and strategies to sustainably reduce hunger and poverty by supporting rural communities with opportunities to process, save, and sell more food.
With our technical expertise and over 40 years of experience, we focus on mechanizing postharvest processing while supporting entrepreneurial development in rural communities for cultivating a thriving agricultural industry and resilient food systems.
Why Postharvest?
820 million people around the world live with hunger.
Feeding a growing population
Even though we ALREADY produce ENOUGH food to feed the world, 820 million people live with hunger. With the population of sub-Saharan Africa expected to double by 2050, the current food system is not designed to adequately reach those most vulnerable to hunger, nor feed a growing population.
Smallholder farmers produce 80% of food produced across sub-Saharan Africa.
Limited postharvest resources for smallholders
Rural smallholder farmers lack access to resources needed to rise above subsistence level farming. Without access to affordable technology, much of the postharvest labor, most of which is conducted by women, is done by hand or with rudimentary tools which is both inefficient and labor intensive.
Anywhere from 10-50% of food produced is lost between harvest & consumption.
High levels of postharvest loss
The significant amount of time it takes to process by hand means much of a harvest cannot be processed before it spoils and what is processed has high levels of breakages resulting in lower profit margins for farmers. Not only does this mean less food is available, but it is also a significant contributor to the climate crisis.
Only 5% of agricultural investment goes toward postharvest solutions.
The need to invest in postharvest
If smallholder farmers cannot decrease their postharvest losses and effectively preserve their harvest, they won't be able to capitalize on resources available to improve production or increase their yields. This is why it is vital to invest in postharvest, alongside agricultural production investments.
Pillar 1: Technology
We work with partners to assess, procure, and test technology to identify the "right tool for the right job."
Pillar 2: Business Services
We provide both technical and business training for entrepreneurs and MSMEs to establish fee-for-service businesses for small-scale processing, bridging the technology gap for smallholder farmers.
Pillar 3: Financing
We work with anchor partners to identify MSMEs and develop asset finance strategies to provide credit access.
The Bountifield Model
Our business model is built upon a “one-to-many” concept where instead of directly targeting one smallholder at a time, we target entrepreneurs that can serve many smallholders with postharvest technology services. We invest in micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), including women and youth, to provide direct postharvest processing support to hundreds of farmers through fee-for-service agribusiness. We collaborate with anchor partners to unlock access to financing and provide business and technical support for these MSMEs and entrepreneurs.
