Deep Roots

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Empowering smallholder farmers in Senegal

Sharon Kabalo, Director, Policy Planning and External Relations Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel

gricultural growth is the primary source of poverty

reduction in most agriculture-based economies.

Three-quarters of the world’s poorest people get

their food and income from farming small plots of land,

most of them under difficult climatic conditions. The

majority of these smallholder farmers are women; there-

fore, the expansion of smallholder and family farming can

lead to a faster rate of poverty alleviation by raising the

incomes of rural cultivators and reducing food expenditure.

Increasing food and nutrition insecurity and growing poverty,

in the face of a rapidly changing climate and degrading natural

resources, are daunting challenges for agriculture in general

and for smallholder farmers in particular. To address these

challenges, there is a need to move towards the implemen-

tation of an integrated climate-smart agriculture approach

including the development of efficient agro-technologies to

allow smallholder farmers to move towards more productive

and sustainable food systems.

Within this framework, Israel’s Agency for International

Development Cooperation (MASHAV) is implementing

Technological Innovation for Poverty Alleviation (TIPA) – a

family drip irrigation system which combines two important

strategies to mitigate the effects of climate-change: effective

water management and making relevant technologies avail-

able to smallholder farmers.

As one of the oldest international development agencies in

the world, MASHAV is committed to sharing with the devel-

oping world the State of Israel’s own creative solutions and

first-hand experience in agricultural and rural development,

to develop the agro and rural sectors under semi-arid and arid

climatic conditions. This includes the management of limited

natural production resources and the integration of appro-

priate agro-technologies, water and irrigation, research and

development, agricultural extension and the delivery of know-

how to farmers and to the rural areas at large, to enhance

overall national employment and economic growth.

Sharing the goals set by the international community for

greater cooperation between donor and partner countries,

TIPA is currently being implemented in Senegal by the State of

Israel through MASHAV in cooperation with the Government

of Italy through its General Directorate for International

Development Cooperation. Through this triangular coopera-

tion, Israel and Italy are providing the necessary expertise and

The TIPA family drip irrigation system provides effective water management

for smallholder farmers

The TIPA project helps to empower women by creating a context for the

promotion of gender mainstreaming related to the role of women in society

Image: MASHAV

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