Episode I. True Clients
In this first episode we focus on the end users of the G4AW services, smallholder farmers. According to FAO about 90 percent of the world’s 570 million farms are small. Most are found in the rural areas of the developing world, and are owned and operated by families. Many of these smallholder family farmers are poor and food insecure and have limited access to markets and services. Their choices are constrained, but they farm their land and produce food for a substantial proportion of the world’s population. In order to tackle the challenge of producing more food in the face of climate change, there is a need for competitive and sustainably productive farms… and small family farmers lie at the heart of the solution. Earth observations combined with other data contribute to crop monitoring to counter food insecurity. But does it actually work? We asked seasoned professionals from the field to share their experience.
Podcast Guests, Episode 1. True Clients
Dr. ir. Andre Jellema
Agricultural Program Manager at AUXFIN International
Andre’s mission is to create impact with data and technology in the agriculture smallholder ecosystem. He has 20 years of experience in system analysis, agricultural modelling and geodata. Since 2014, he is in charge of 2 G4AW projects and involved in 2 other G4AW projects: GAP4ALL, CommonSense, SAT4farming and GreenCoffee
Catherine le Côme
SNV, Global Technical Advisor Livestock
Catherine has over 15 years of work experience in the area of rural economic development with several years of international experience, in West and Central Africa. She joined SNV in 2008 as a value chain advisor to work in Mali. Since, 2019 she is part of SNV Global Agriculture Team as Global Technical Advisor for Livestock, being based in Accra, Ghana. She holds a Masters Economics and Development from International Business and Management School of Lyon, France.
Lenneke Braam
Regional Manager Southeast Asia, ICCO Cooperation
Lenneke is currently working in 5 different countries in South-East Asia together with local staff. She has established, in collaboration with national and international private and public parties, 2 social enterprises around agri-technology (1 in Indonesia and 1 in Vietnam). She has a long-standing experience in both the corporate and social-environmental sectors.
Ruud Grim
Senior Advisor (Netherlands Space Office)
Ruud Grim, is coordinating the Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW) programme commissioned by Ministry of Foreign Affairs. G4AW supports 25 partnerships to develop and operate financially sustainable services for 4,5 million smallholder farmers and pastoralists in 15 developing countries based on innovative business models. He is advisor to Dutch ministries involving international collaboration using satellite and other geodata. He is also advisor to the Geodata for Inclusive Finance & Food Initiative (G4IFF) by Dutch Platform for Inclusive Finance. He has worked 15 years in industry on project management and business development.
