Practice & method
Techniques that raise yield or resilience without depleting the land.
Focus — Natural Resources & Regenerative Systems — Agriculture
AGRICULTURE
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve farming practice for the farmers and farm workers who work the land.
Why this area
AGRICULTURE
IN CONTEXT.
Most of the world is fed by smallholders working land they know intimately. Progress in agriculture depends on soil, seed, water, labour, price, and knowledge that travels between farmers rather than around them.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Inputs & seed
Seed, compost, and inputs suited to local soil, climate, and cost.
Post-harvest
Storage, processing, and handling that stop losses after harvest.
Knowledge exchange
Ways farmers learn from one another and record what works.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A AGRICULTURE
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where farming practice fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — yield, input cost, soil condition, or losses after harvest.
- Explains what the farmers and farm workers who work the land do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of farming practice in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier extension programmes and input schemes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the farmers and farm workers who work the land, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — hectares, plots, or farming households in a season.
- A stated measure of success — yield, input cost, soil condition, or losses after harvest.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves income, food security, and soil health for the farmers and farm workers who work the land.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named farmer group, cooperative, or extension service able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of farming practice in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the farmers and farm workers who work the land or the farmer group, cooperative, or extension service.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about agriculture with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
AGRICULTURE IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about farming practice that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.