In February 2014, staff members from World Renew’s partner, Anglican Development Services (ADS) saw that farmers in the Mt. Kenya region were harvesting their crops and then selling the fruit to travelling brokers who would, in turn, sell the fruit at a local market. Since the farmers lived in remote, rural villages with little access to transportation that could take their crops to the market, this process had the potential to be beneficial for both the farmers and the brokers. Unfortunately, it was instead benefitting the brokers but keeping the farmers in poverty.
“In talking with the farmers, ADS staff realized that the price for the mangoes was unilaterally being set by the brokers and not the farmers,” explained Stephan Lutz, World Renew Kenya Program Consultant. “The mangoes were often sold for as little as 3 Kenyan shillings or about 3 US cents each. In some instances, the brokers were purchasing the best and healthiest fruits at this low price and taking the smaller ones for free.”
As a result of this imbalanced relationship, many farmers were struggling to feed their families even when they had good fruit harvests. The mango season is only four months long, and any income from this harvest has to last farmers for the rest of the year. An unfair price for their crops would have disastrous consequences all year long.
The ADS staff decided to explore this further and through an informal survey at the neighboring town market, they realized that the same mangoes were selling for nearly triple the price paid to farmers. This was confirmed when they hired an outside consultant to do a formal assessment.
ADS staff decided to share the results of their formal assessment with farmers at one of these group meetings. The farmers were shocked and decided to do something about it.
“After much deliberation and informal conversations, the farmers decided that they would work together to set their own prices for their future harvests. They also gained support for this idea from local politicians and leaders,” said Lutz. “After a lot of discussion, the farmers agreed to sell their mangoes for 5 to 10 Kenyan shillings each depending on the size of the fruit.”
During the most recent harvest season of December 2014 through March 2015, most of the brokers were not aware of the growing enlightenment that had occurred among the farmers.
According to the farmers they moved from one farm to the other thinking that they would find someone willing to sell for a lower price. They ended up getting the same response from every farmer!
With no other option, the brokers purchased the fruit at this new fair price. As a result, the farmers reported to ADS that they had significantly more money than in previous years and were able to pay school fees for their children, purchase food for their family, and even buy new chickens to diversify their farm income.
The farmers are now thinking of engaging local industries through a formal document to ensure that the market and the appropriate fair price of mangoes in the next season will be guaranteed for the farmers.
This powerful story reminds us that World Renew together with its partners worldwide need to engage in deeper justice issues beyond simply teaching people to read or improve their agricultural skills. When people are empowered to not only know their rights but to also work together to uphold them, the end result is an improved quality of life and dignity for all.