When you think about agricultural advances, you probably think better tools, better fertilizers, and better techniques. However, rural farmers often simply don’t know what technology is available to them, so communications are equally important in driving agricultural advancement. Burkina NTIC is launching the first social media network to share best practices, pricing data, and other useful information among farmers in West Africa. Similar information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives have already shown great success; earlier this year a Malian farmer organization doubled its profits by using similar communication platforms.

Improving Agriculture in Africa from Earth Institute on Vimeo.

Soil fertility techniques developed by Pedro Sanchez are helping villages in Africa get out of poverty. In this video, Sanchez explains how simple, scalable methods are transforming a village in Sauri, Kenya.

Here is a story about a sculptor, Tracy Hawkins, who invented an innovative ceramic water filter during a teaching trip in Africa. Her simple design filters 2-3 liters of water an hour and traps bacteria in a ceramic mold.

In Ghana, farmers are not only at the whims of the sun and rain, their crops are also threatened by molds which release microtoxin chemicals into their crops.  These chemicals reduce immunity and lower the foodstuffs market value. Just by sitting down with farmers, having dialogues, showing pictures and sharing techniques, Nestlé is helping entire communities solve real-life problems. As a local farmer Morou Mohammed puts it, ‘These techniques can give me a healthy life and give me a good price at the market.’