In the News

In recent months, Guatemala has made headlines for the wrong reasons: A lack of economic opportunities continues to force many Guatemalans to migrate. Those that remain are seeing their communities ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. With one-third of Guatemalans employed in the agriculture sector, chronic under-investment in farming — particularly in smallholder farmers — is both a contributor and potential solution to the current crisis.

Pierre Ferrari grew up in the Congo and went to college in England. His life has taken him all over the world. Since 2010 he has been the CEO of the world humanitarian organization Heifer International. He spent most of his years at Coca-Cola USA before deciding in 1995 to focus his energy on social issues. Ferrari is a former chair and board member of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade ice cream, and a former board member of the Small Enterprise Assistance Fund. He received a master’s degree in economics from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Coffee and cocoa farmers in Honduras are getting a helping hand to gain access to new markets and improve supply chain logistics with blockchain technology. Tech giant International Business Machines and Heifer International, a global nonprofit that seeks to end poverty by promoting sustainable farming, will assist in the process, according to a press release on Wednesday.

Heifer International has Selected Founders of ColdHubs and Hello Tractor as Winners of the Inaugural AYuTe Africa Challenge. Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, founder and CEO of ColdHubs, a Nigerian business that provides solar-powered, walk-in coolers for smallholder vegetable farmers and Jehiel Oliver, founder and CEO of Hello Tractor, a Kenyan company that has become known across Africa as the “Uber of tractors,” were selected as the winners of the inaugural US$1.5 million Heifer International AYuTe Africa Challenge.

Today, Artsy Assets announced Cybergoats, a collection of remunerative NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain (ERC-721 token ID: CYBR). The collection enables each owner to “milk” his or her goat to earn Ethereum. The first wave of Cybergoats will launch from Artsy Assets’ verified Rarible account at 10AM PDT on September 15th, 2021.

Food waste is a global issue; one-third of all food produced is never consumed, 1.2 billion people go to bed hungry or undernourished, and the adverse effect of food waste on the global economy is in trillions of dollars. The African continent is not exempt from this problem, with 50percent of fruits and vegetables, 40percent of roots and tubers, and 20percent of cereals—all of which are staple foods—lost in the post-harvest stage or processes. Africa spends $35 billion on food imports each year, a figure that would rise to more than $100 billion by 2030.

COLDHUBS and Hello Tractor have been selected as the winners of the inaugural US$1.5 million Heifer International AYuTe Challenge. Founder Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu of ColdHubs, a Nigerian business that provides solar-powered, walk-in coolers for smallholder vegetable farmers

The chief executives of Hello Tractor, Jehiel Oliver, and ColdHubs’ Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, have been awarded a total of $1.5 million (Sh165 million) by Heifer International for their creative technology aimed at improving smallholder farms across Africa.

Two youthful innovators from Kenya and Nigeria on Wednesday bagged prize money worth 1.5 million U.S. dollars for pioneering technologies that are transforming agricultural value chains in the continent. The overall winners of the inaugural agricultural technology contest, sponsored by international development charity, Heifer International, were announced during the ongoing African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) held in Nairobi, capital of Kenya.

A Kenyan, on Wednesday, September 8, scooped the most coveted continental award bagging Ksh165 million at the African Green Revolution (AGR) summit. Kenyan entrepreneur, Jehiel Oliver, won the inaugural Agriculture, Youth and Technology (AYuTe) Africa Challenge.