Ode Magazine : Small farmers, bigger markets

Poverty is often regarded as a matter of political policy and economic aid. But for ­Thomas George, who grew up on a farm in India where his family struggled to make ends meet, it’s a simple question of agriculture. The vast majority of the world’s poor live on the land, so how do we make farming more profitable for them?

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New technology and microcredit are often held up as solutions. But George, a former University of Hawaii agronomist who worked many years on introducing new technology to rural communities in Asia, believes high tech isn’t enough. And he contends that microloans—giving poor people small loans to start businesses—offer opportunity only for those who already have an idea of how to get ahead and the capacity to make it happen. He hopes to reach the rest with Vipani (Sanskrit for “marketplace”), an organization that seeks to create “fair play for small farmers.”

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The idea for Vipani came to George while he was working on a project to promote new agricultural technology and access to information for Filipino rice farmers. He realized these improvements would make little difference if farmers couldn’t get fair prices for their crops. He researched this idea further during a fellowship at Stanford University, and in 2004 launched Vipani in Kenya to demonstrate how it works. The three communities where Vipani is active have so far been spared the ­violence flaring up across the country. George thinks boosting small farmers will help heal deep-seated ethnic conflicts in Kenya and other countries. “At the root of the crisis is widespread poverty,” he says. “If people have hope for their future and opportunities, they would have little incentive to go on a rampage at each other.”

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