Climate Action

Lately, there’s been a lot of buzz about bees—and not all of it’s good. Around the world, honeybees are dying out. But what does this really mean—and how are agricultural businesses addressing this crisis?

When it comes to climate change, the world’s farmers are often portrayed as either victims or contributors. But what if we, instead, viewed them as part of the solution? Farmers have enormous potential to be environmental stewards, conserving vital resources for generations to come. We see this every day in our work at Root Capital. Through “climate-smart” agricultural practices – like  agroforestry production or the use of drought-resistant seeds – farmers are leading the way when it comes to climate change solutions. This new video from Farming First explains how climate-smart agriculture has helped farmers around the world adapt and thrive in the face of a changing climate:   

Today, millions of the world’s most vulnerable people are fleeing from places where agriculture remains the backbone of rural economies, as the dire consequences of climate change—crop failure due to drought, for example—come into focus. View Article

This year, the world will consume more coffee than ever before. And industry projections point to growing demand in the years ahead, especially in emerging markets. Take China, for example. During its annual investor meeting last month, Starbucks highlighted that it’s opening the equivalent of one new store in China every day. The problem, however, is that this rising global demand for coffee cannot be met with a dwindling supply.

Sonia Vasquez, agricultural extension officer for COMSA, presenting during the first day of the workshop For many of our clients, agricultural extension is a lifeline for the farm families they serve. “Extension,” as it is known in agriculture circles, is the delivery of agronomic best practices that can help farmers increase productivity, adapt to climate change and increase profitability. In December, we released an issue brief that highlighted, among other things, barriers to effective extension and how Root Capital works to help clients overcome these barriers using a shared value approach.

Today, we're thrilled to announce the release of our latest issue brief, Investing in Resilience: A Shared Value Approach to Agricultural Extension.  This issue brief is the third in a series supported by the Skoll Foundation and the Citi Foundation.  As world leaders gather in Paris this week for the latest round of climate change talks, there is increasing attention on the role of agriculture as “both a victim of and a contributor to climate change.”

En las tierras altas de Marcala, en Honduras, donde las calles no tienen nombre, para poder ir desde la iglesia - el punto principal de referencia que se utiliza en el pueblo– hasta la Cooperativa RAOS (la primera cooperativa de café 100% orgánica del país), es necesario contar con una de estas tres cosas: un mapa muy detallado, una guía local o una buena dosis de suerte.

Root Capital CEO Willy Foote visting Cooperativa RAOS in 2013. In the sleepy, highland town of Marcala, Honduras, there are no street names. To get from Marcala’s church – the town’s main point of reference – to Cooperativa RAOS, the country’s first 100 percent organic coffee cooperative just outside of town, you’d better have one of three things: a detailed map, a local guide, or a healthy dose of luck.

When I envision how to make agriculture work for the world, I think of a system that feeds the global population of nine billion that is expected by 2050 — especially those in cycles of chronic hunger and malnutrition. I think of better farming practices that increase yields and productivity, and that dramatically improve incomes for small-scale producers and the rural poor. I think of an enlightened food industry, as locally based as possible, that creates good jobs across every value chain and protects fragile ecosystems and biodiversity everywhere. And I think of agriculture as a crucial equalizer of opportunity for women and girls, one that provides dignity for the most marginalized populations on earth.   Visiting with coffee farmers on the shores of Lake Kivu in western Rwanda

Stella Kimemia of Classic Foods | photo credit: Partners in Food Solutions. It’s an inspiring thing to see a woman-led business increasing livelihoods for women farmers and employees in parts of the world that markets struggle to reach. It’s even more powerful when that business does so while having a positive impact on the physical environment. At Root Capital, investing in those kinds of businesses – high-impact, gender-inclusive, focused on agriculture – is our sweet spot. We provide loans and capacity-building services to these enterprises in Africa, Asia and Latin America, giving them the critical capital they need, but all too often cannot access, to grow their business and scale their impact.