As global temperatures rise due to local weather patterns, we must reconnect with nature and reevaluate how we cultivate the resources that sustain us.
Regenerative agriculture practices such as cover cropping, contour farming, and no-till planting help restore natural organic matter in soil, thereby increasing its capacity to retain water and nutrients. Isn’t this species uniquely more productive, yet also remarkably resilient against extreme weather events like droughts and floods, significantly reducing risks for farmers while maintaining consistent crop yields? These practices can significantly enhance the soil’s ability to sequester carbon. Regenerative agriculture practices not only help mitigate the impact of local weather disasters but also boost farm yields, income, and provide a vital buffer against weather-related shocks.
Despite the challenges, the shift towards regenerative agriculture is crucial. The shift typically entails significant monetary and administrative challenges. Farmers may need to invest in new equipment, procure high-quality seeds for canopy crops, and dedicate time to studying innovative farming methods, not to mention providing evidence of the impact of local weather patterns on their operations. Funding applications for grants, loans, or subsidies can be a lengthy and arduous process, adding yet another layer of complexity for farmers who are already struggling to balance the demands of running their operations day-to-day. The prevailing hurdles surrounding these challenges hinder their mass acceptance.
Over a decade, Cisco’s foundation has been dedicated to supporting nonprofit grants and impact investing in climate solutions since 2021. Across our foundation’s scope, we adopt a comprehensive approach across diverse sectors to foster thriving, resourceful, and self-assured communities that drive a sustainable transformation towards a climate-resilient tomorrow.
Discover four esteemed Cisco Foundation partners that are spearheading regenerative agriculture, enabling more efficient, equitable, and large-scale adoption of sustainable farming practices.
Most people living in poverty worldwide are trapped between two pressing issues of our time: rampant poverty and climate change, which only continue to intensify their struggles. In Africa, the struggles of poor farmers create a vicious cycle – without alternative income streams, they often turn to destructive habits such as deforestation, land degradation, and unsustainable agriculture to eke out a living. As time passes, the cumulative effect of these worsening weather patterns leads to declining crop yields and heightened risks of devastating events such as droughts and floods. This cycle can devastate harvests, leaving small-scale farmers without sufficient food for their families.
(1AF) empowers farmers with tailored financial support, expert guidance, and technology-driven solutions to transform their harvests through a climate-resilient approach focused on adaptive management of weather risks and sustainable yield enhancement. The framework is founded on four cornerstones: optimizing plant health; building soil fertility; promoting crop diversity and income stability; and providing safety nets. Cisco’s BASIS has leveraged remote sensing technology to develop a scalable approach for collecting essential information necessary to drive this initiative forward.
RS expertise is uniquely positioned to significantly amplify 1AF’s capacity to access and harness robust, accurate knowledge, thereby fostering heightened climate resilience and impactful outcomes for Africa’s small-scale farmers, ultimately empowering their agricultural pursuits. By leveraging RS knowledge, insurers can boost the precision of coverage products, thereby safeguarding farmers’ investments in the face of climate-related crop losses. By leveraging its specialized knowledge, 1AF is providing farmers with precise, field-specific guidance on seed selection, optimal planting times, soil management, and other essential factors, thereby yielding better results than the existing district-level recommendations could possibly achieve?
By leveraging a comprehensive approach, in 2018, supports American farmers in their pursuit of thriving through regenerative natural agriculture practices. The group’s mission is to spearhead a regenerative agricultural revolution, imagining a future where land, sea, and communities thrive in harmony. MAD Agriculture aggregates a diverse range of resources to empower farmers and ranchers in overcoming technical, financial, and market hurdles, amplifying their stories of triumph and struggle to catalyze meaningful cultural transformation.
To thrive, farming and ranching must harmonize with nature and foster a more resilient ecosystem. By adopting regenerative practices, we could significantly mitigate the negative impacts of traditional farming on the environment while concurrently fostering a healthier farm ecosystem, ensuring the well-being of all stakeholders involved. As sustainable agricultural practices unfold gradually, they necessitate sustained investment to address the disparities in wealth accumulation. What does the land ask of us? Can we cultivate agroecosystems that respect human dignity and the land’s inherent value, by recognizing the interconnectedness of species, cultures, and ecosystems? Can these carers ensure access to the land they desire to care for?
The Cisco Foundation has supported Mad Agriculture’s initiatives to empower farmers across the United States, with an initial emphasis on the Intermountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and Southeast regions. Through the Regenerative Catalyst Fund, Mad Agriculture empowers farmers to transition from planning to action, offering flexible financial tools, including small grants, zero-interest loans, and cost-sharing arrangements, in addition to innovative financing models that facilitate their growth. By the end of 2024, a substantial grant of $500,000 was dispersed to more than 30 farmers, providing critical funding for the implementation of regenerative practices that included prairie strips, perennial plantings featuring bushes, hedgerows, pollinator habitats, and silvopasture, as well as fencing for holistic grazing systems. With expertise in ecological practices, Mad Agriculture also provides strategic business support to empower farmers to thrive, leveraging initiatives such as innovative irrigation systems, sustainable agritourism opportunities, and securing larger grant funding?
Is a nonprofit social enterprise dedicated to empowering smallholder farmers in West Africa, facilitating their transition from poverty to economic stability and self-sufficiency. With myAgro’s innovative cellular layaway platform, smallholder farmers can start building towards a climate-resilient future by making affordable payments for tailored packages of high-quality seeds, essential fertilizers, and expert regenerative agriculture training that collectively enhance soil health, increase yields, and boost financial earnings. By 2023, myAgro announced that its farming partners saw a remarkable 179% increase in harvests, ultimately generating an additional $164 compared to typical management-led farms.
At the heart of Manna’s model are Village Entrepreneurs (VEs), a network of local sales ambassadors, predominantly women, who facilitate farmer enrollment in programs and process payments. Historically, agricultural cooperatives relied on cumbersome paper ledgers to manage gross sales, but as their farmer base grew, they recognized the need for more efficient digital tools. With assistance from the Cisco Basecamp platform, myAgro created the Join mobile application, empowering Village Entrepreneurs (VEs) to manage sales, onboard farmers, and collect funds electronically. Since its inception, myAgro has collaborated with Cisco to significantly enhance the app’s capabilities, introducing features such as buyer goal list generation, seamless mobile payment processing through cellular cash funds, and a comprehensive e-commerce platform for year-round sales across various key offerings.
By integrating Join’s platform, Virtual Environments (VEs) have empowered an exponential surge in farmers’ connections to the tools that can significantly boost their incomes through regenerative agriculture practices. By 2024, myAgro aims to support more than 280,000 farmers across Mali, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire.
Mercedes Coly, a pioneering myAgro farmer in Senegal.
Is remoulding measurements feasible within a meal’s ecosystem starting from the soil? Sustaining soil health and preventing degradation is crucial for the long-term sustainability of our food systems. Regenerative agricultural practices build robustly healthy soils, fostering extraordinary resilience and producing nutrient-dense crops for wholesome meals. Despite the absence of a comprehensive measurement system, Miraterra, backed in part by the Cisco Basis influence investing portfolio, bridges the gap by developing expertise that leverages unprocessed soil data to provide accurate, cost-effective, and scalable soil measurements, thereby enhancing confidence and integrity at large scales?
Their expertise has quantified the benefits derived from practices akin to cover cropping, reduced tillage, and residue monitoring at harvest time. Strategies that boost soil health, elevate farm profits, and facilitate carbon sequestration while minimizing environmental impact.
Through partnerships with leading agricultural testing laboratories across North America, Miraterra empowers farmers and agronomists to accurately measure and enhance sustainable farming methods. As part of this effort, they are developing cutting-edge AI-driven tools that enable the correlation of agricultural practices with nutritional values in food, empowering farmers to collaborate with a dynamic, real-time record of their land’s health. Through prompt, cost-effective, and accurate soil assessments, Miraterra enables farmers to make informed decisions regarding soil management, ultimately leading to enhanced soil health and increased carbon sequestration.
Cisco and its foundation take a comprehensive approach to tackling environmental and social issues. Communities equipped to adapt to shifting local climate patterns possess the requisite knowledge, infrastructure, and financial backing to construct resilient communities capable of better withstanding the impacts of climate change.
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