Nuru International

The Nuru Collective addresses extreme poverty by building the resilience of smallholder farmers through their cooperative agribusinesses, equipping farmers to increase their crop yields and incomes. Increased crop yields support food security at the household level, while the surplus can be sold, contributing to increased income. Increased income helps farmers pay for school fees for their children, cover medical expenses, invest in their business, and put money aside for the unexpected. Furthermore, by providing climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agricultural training and extension services, Nuru equips farmers to adapt their farming methods to the changing environment to develop resilience to present and future risks. Nuru also prioritizes gender inclusivity with a locally-led "women first" approach that elevates the role of women in the household and the community.

Nuru equips local leaders with tools and knowledge that enable them to research, design, implement, manage, and scale interventions to address extreme poverty. Nuru works directly with these leaders to establish locally-led NGOs in each country of operations. Nuru’s collective of organizations share a common vision to cultivate lasting, meaningful choices in the world's most vulnerable and marginalized communities. By building capacities and systems within these organizations, Nuru plans for sustainability and creates a network of interconnected organizations that can scale interventions. This collaborative structure enables Nuru to identify paths to scale within each country while leveraging local knowledge for contextualized interventions.

Nuru equips smallholder farmers to build climate resilience by transitioning from subsistence to professionalized farming businesses through farmer-owned cooperatives. In every geography where Nuru works, it introduces climate-smart agriculture practices to community members. These practices include contour farming, crop rotation, microdosing fertilizer (or not using it at all), intercropping, agroforestry, and household perma-gardens.

Nuru supports farmer cooperatives by providing business training that creates a pathway for them to become thriving and independent, equipped to sustain value for their farmer members. Through these cooperatives, farmers are supported with the resources and training necessary to increase their crop yields and incomes while implementing climate-smart practices.

Nuru also collaborates with local, regional, national, and international government entities where there is alignment on outcomes to increase synergy, efficiency, and opportunities for further scaling and improving approaches.

Nuru's intervention empowers local communities, fosters self-sufficiency, and creates lasting change. The emphasis on collaboration, data-driven decision-making, and alignment with Sustainable Development Goals ensures that the interventions have the potential to be sustained through government involvement, self-financing, additional funding, and collaborative partnerships.

With a proven track record in developing the capacities of rural smallholder farmers, Nuru is exceptionally well-positioned to meet its objectives. Since 2008, Nuru has enabled more than 329,000 people across four countries to begin charting a path out of extreme poverty with consistent increases in crop yields, income, and strong linkages to markets.

Nuru knows that it does not stand alone. Instead, Nuru leverages the strengths of local leaders and strong networks for collaboration, including local, regional, and international governments (including USAID), other NGOs, and research organizations. Through its partnership with entities like Ray Marshall Center, SCOPEinsight, the Agribusiness and Market Ecosystem Alliance (AMEA), SEEP, Movement for Community-Led Development, and Kenyan Agriculture Research Institute, Nuru is positioned to leverage successes for adaptation, impact, and scale even more quickly. After 15 years of work in this arena, Nuru possesses valuable contextual knowledge and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by farmers in these regions, and it is equipped to sustain impact for future generations.

Over the years, Nuru has achieved significant growth and positive impact in Kenya, Nigeria, and Ethiopia. Nuru recently launched its model, Burkina Faso, marking a new chapter in Nuru's strategy to assist families in conflict-affected regions of the Sahel by improving their food production systems. Below is a summary of Nuru's accomplishments in each country.

Nuru expanded its reach by introducing a for-profit social enterprise that processes milk into yogurt, sold in ten counties in southwestern Kenya. Nuru also launched a new initiative with rural agro-pastoralist communities in Baringo County, supporting around 40 cooperatives across three counties and its existing presence in Migori and Homa Bay Counties.

In Ethiopia, Nuru scaled up its approach by shifting its methodology for capacity development from working with cooperatives to working with cooperative unions. Over the years, Nuru has worked with 119 primary cooperatives and two cooperative unions, compared to direct support for 31 cooperatives and one union in the past. As of 2022, farmers increased their crop yields by 24% and increased their income from $233 to $411.

In Nigeria, Nuru has achieved a remarkable 291% increase in crop yield, leading to significant income growth as of 2022. Notably, 70% of the population who benefited directly from Nuru's intervention were women. This reflects the positive impact of Nuru's women-first approach, which promotes the role and status of women. This approach has opened up new opportunities for women to showcase their talents.

In Burkina Faso, around 6,000 people have benefited since Nuru's launch of the multi-year intervention.

Across the geographies, Nuru enabled local entities in Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso to secure substantial government funding to sustain and expand their initiatives. Nuru's unique combination of tools and capabilities has positioned it to successfully contribute to economic development and community resilience building in fragile environments. By continuing to expand its model, Nuru will help thousands of farmers and their families escape extreme poverty.