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Our Work
Rural transformation.
We focus on ten core pillars designed to make smallholder farmers productive, resilient, food secure, and financially empowered.
01
Pillar 01
Smallholder Production Support
EDO provides or facilitates access to high-quality hybrid, improved and drought-tolerant seed, fertiliser and crop protection products through a revolving development mechanism. Before each production season, EDO and the farmer agree on the support package and the quantity or value of produce required to recover the investment — ensuring resources cycle back to support additional farmers.
- Increase smallholder crop productivity and profitability
- Expand access to high-quality inputs (hybrid seeds, fertiliser, crop protection)
- Implement revolving production support model (not a cash loan)
02
Pillar 02
Mechanisation Access
EDO works with qualified mechanisation providers — including iFEED Mechanisation & Training Services (iMTS) — to develop cluster-based services that reduce machine movement costs and improve timeliness. Farmers gain access to services they could never afford individually, at the right time in the farming calendar.
- Make mechanisation services affordable and timely for smallholders
- Develop cluster-based service models to reduce costs
- Partner with iMTS for quality machinery and trained operators
03
Pillar 03
Training & Extension
EDO builds farmer capability through practical, field-based training in Good Agronomic Practice (GAP), integrated pest management, soil fertility management, safe pesticide use, climate-smart techniques, and farm business and financial literacy skills. Training is designed to make farmers progressively independent.
- Build farmer capability through Good Agronomic Practice training
- Deliver business and financial literacy education
- Improve farmer adoption of recommended practices
04
Pillar 04
Village Savings & Loan Associations
EDO facilitates community-owned VSLAs that mobilise member savings and provide small, rules-based loans from internally generated funds. The platform supports household savings, seasonal farm reinvestment, emergency resilience, women's financial inclusion, youth enterprise and financial literacy. Mature groups may be linked to licensed banks and formal financial institutions. EDO facilitates and strengthens VSLAs — it does not operate unlicensed deposit-taking or banking activities.
- Promote community-owned savings and lending groups
- Support household savings and farm reinvestment
- Advance women's financial inclusion and youth enterprise
05
Pillar 05
Climate-Smart Agriculture
EDO supports farmers in adopting climate-resilient practices including drought-tolerant varieties, soil health management, water conservation techniques and integrated production systems designed to withstand increasingly variable weather patterns while maintaining or improving yields.
- Increase smallholder resilience to climate variability
- Promote drought-tolerant crop varieties
- Improve soil health and water management practices
06
Pillar 06
Women & Youth Empowerment
EDO deliberately targets the increased participation of women and youth in farming, mechanisation and rural enterprise. This includes dedicated production support, entrepreneurship training, machinery operation skills, aggregation opportunities and value-chain participation — ensuring that agriculture is not just productive, but inclusive.
- Increase women's participation to ≥50% by Year 5
- Increase youth participation to ≥40% by Year 5
- Develop women-led and youth-led rural enterprises
07
Pillar 07
Market Access & Aggregation
EDO strengthens structured produce aggregation, market access and fair investment-recovery arrangements. After recovering the production investment, farmers may sell up to 50% of their remaining marketable produce through the EDO/iFEED/PapaAgric market system, with the balance retained for household food, livelihood, seed and farmer-directed use.
- Strengthen structured aggregation and buy-back systems
- Link farmers to reliable buyers through PapaAgric
- Ensure fair, transparent investment-recovery arrangements
08
Pillar 08
Food & Nutrition Security
EDO's model explicitly protects household food and nutrition security. The revolving support arrangement is designed so that even after recovery of production investment and market sales, farmers retain sufficient produce for household food, livelihood needs, seed stock and farmer-directed purposes.
- Protect household food consumption in every production cycle
- Strengthen household livelihood resilience
- Monitor household food-security indicators
09
Pillar 09
Post-Harvest Management
EDO works to reduce post-harvest losses through improved drying, cleaning, storage, handling, shelling and threshing practices and facilities. Reducing losses means more food available, more produce to sell, and better prices achieved through improved quality.
- Reduce post-harvest losses by ≥25% by Year 5
- Improve commodity quality through better handling
- Expand access to drying, cleaning and storage facilities
10
Pillar 10
Rural Enterprise Development
EDO supports the development of viable rural enterprises in mechanisation services, produce aggregation, basic processing, agricultural logistics and other business opportunities that emerge from a more productive farming sector. This creates sustainable livelihoods beyond farming itself.
- Develop rural mechanisation service businesses
- Support aggregation and processing enterprises
- Create sustainable rural employment beyond farming