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How Savings & Credit Groups Help Rural Women in Nepal Build Financial Independence
In Bailbas Chiran Tole, a village in rural Nepal, 26 women meet once a month under the thatched roof of the group leader’s home. One by one, they put NPR 100 (about US$0.65) into a shared fund. They record loan repayments on a sheet of paper and consider new requests. If several women need money, they discuss who needs it most. They prioritize those with an emergency. In just 2 years, this credit and savings group has helped them move away from precarious daily wage jobs and even build their own business ventures. It is a relatively simple system. But in an area where credit is often out of re …
What a Woman Farmer Sees Behind the Camera: Sumitra’s First Steps with Community Storytelling
Sumitra recently released her first film, shedding light on the long, often overlooked days of women farmers in Nepal – a daily reality she knows intimately. At 4 a.m. on a humid monsoon day, Sumitra was already awake. To catch the 7 a.m. bus to her filmmaking sessions, she first had to finish her household chores and farm work. When she returned in the evening, more work waited for her at home. For the 33-year-old farmer and mother, learning to make films had to fit around responsibilities that gave little room for anything else. In the end, those same responsibilities became the subject of h …
Youth Messages for Tomorrow: What Rural Youth Want Us to Remember – International Youth Day 2026
For International Youth Day, we asked young people from smallholder farming communities across Latin America, South Asia and West Africa to reflect on one question: what did your elders teach you that you want future generations to know and keep alive? They answered through poems, memories, drawings and stories about seeds, soil, forests, animals, family and community. Different countries, different languages, and the same few lessons kept surfacing: watch the land closely, keep the seed your mother passed on, care for the soil, and don’t do the work alone. Together, they reveal something easi …
Watched the Groundswell documentary? Here’s how to support the farmers doing the work
The Groundswell documentary travels across 5 continents to show how farmers and scientists are restoring damaged soils, retaining water, and bringing biodiversity back through regenerative agriculture. Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson narrate real climate solutions with a hopeful tone – a far cry from the usual doom and gloom of climate documentaries. The argument lands: much of how we grow food is damaging the land and contributing to climate change, but farmers around the world are proving that there’s another way, one that works for people and the planet. The Groundswell film is part of a tri …
The Farmer Who Doubled Her Harvest Without Chemicals in Two Years – Agroecology in Ghana
In northern Ghana, Fuseina spent years watching fertilizer costs rise while her yields fell. Her life took a turn when she joined an Agroecology Committee in 2025, discovering and helping to spread practices that transformed her land. Written by Salma Abdul-Rashid, Urbanet Torope, Central Gonja District, Ghana — Fuseina Dokurugu is a 40-year-old smallholder farmer and mother of seven from Torope. She has farmed since childhood, relying on her three-acre plots as her primary source of food and income. Farming was not only her livelihood but also her identity and her hope for securing a be …
As Fertilizer Prices Rise, Agroecology Offers a More Resilient Path for Farmers
Global fertilizer shortages are exposing the risks of farming systems that depend on expensive external inputs. As prices rise and supplies become less reliable, many farmers are looking for alternatives that can help them reduce costs and build self-reliance.