Groundswell International

10/02/2026

In this step-by-step demonstration from Burkina Faso, Kiema shows how she prepares and coats seeds before sowing.

Seed coating is a technique that involves covering seeds with a protective or supportive layer before they are planted. Depending on the materials used, coating can help protect seeds, support germination and early plant growth, and make seeds easier to handle and sow. It can also form part of agroecological approaches that use locally available materials and reduce reliance on costly external inputs.

Watch the full video to see the process from start to finish and learn directly from a farmer using the technique in Burkina Faso (link in comments).

In partnership with Association Nourrir Sans Détruire

10/01/2026

In rural Nepal, women often struggle to access loans because of banks’ requirements and the high interest rates charged by informal moneylenders. But in this community, 26 women each save a small amount every month and can borrow from their credit and savings group for urgent needs, such as a child’s illness or school fees.

In this short documentary, they take you inside their monthly meeting, and member Jabisa explains how a loan from the group helped her start her own bangle business.

Watch the documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNX7_ezRf8U

🤝In partnership with Rural Women Upliftment Association RWUA

In Bailbas Chiran Tole, Nepal, 26 women save NPR 100 each a month a...

09/20/2026

09/16/2026

09/10/2026

When a goat falls sick in Dohari, a village in Bihar, India, families know who to call: Sumanti Devi - also known as “Doctor Didi.” 🐐

Before becoming a community animal-health worker, Sumanti had no steady income. She took farm work whenever it was available, but some days brought little pay and many brought no work at all. She struggled to feed her three children and often went to sleep hungry.

Many families in Dohari own little or no land, making goats one of the few assets they can raise to earn an income. Yet there was no veterinary service nearby. Sumanti saw that keeping these animals healthy could help families hold on to an important source of income.

In 2023, she learned about a training opportunity at a community meeting organized by PRAN. Despite opposition to her travelling outside the village, she chose to take part. She later completed advanced training through an institution recognized by India’s central government, becoming a certified "pashu sakhi" (goat doctor).

At first, some villagers doubted that a woman could treat livestock. Sumanti began with her own goats. When her neighbors saw the results, they started bringing her theirs.

Today, “Doctor Didi” supports 346 farmers across six villages. She also makes goat feed and mineral supplements, grows food for her family and earns an income of her own.

“Just as I am standing on my own feet and earning my living, every sister should stand on her own feet and earn her own livelihood. Do not depend on anyone.”

Full story available soon on our blog 📖

08/28/2026

📖 New report by AFSA (Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa): The Green Revolution Has Failed Africa: Twenty Years of Evidence and What Works Instead

The report examines AGRA’s Green Revolution model, launched in 2006, across 13 countries, that pledged to increase yields and reduce hunger by 2020. Since 2006:

• Fertilizer use more than doubled, but staple-yield growth did not accelerate
• Yields for several key food crops declined while cropland expanded 46%
• Chronic undernourishment increased by 58%
• Evidence of sustained gains in farmer incomes remains weak

As African governments implement a new 2026–2035 agricultural strategy, AFSA calls for greater public support for proven alternatives, including farmer-managed seed systems, agroecology, farmer-led extension, local processing and territorial markets.

🔗Read the report:https://afsafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Green-Revolution-Has-Failed-Africa_compressed.pdf

In French:https://afsafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Green-Revolution-Has-Failed-Africa_compressed-FRDPLlite.pdf

Groundswell International is part of the AFSA alliance. We stand with farmers as the authors of their own solutions to hunger, poverty and climate change.

Image by AFSA

08/19/2026

📅 🌏 Save the Date: Webinar "Beyond Fertilizers—Building Resilient Food Systems in an Era of Global Uncertainty"

Our global food system is under growing pressure.

Geopolitical tensions are disrupting fertilizer supply chains, increasing input costs and raising concerns about food security. At the same time, climate variability in 2026, including El Niño conditions, prolonged heatwaves, and increasingly erratic rainfall, is highlighting the vulnerabilities of input-intensive agricultural systems.

So, how can we reduce dependence on external inputs while building food systems that are more resilient to climate and market shocks?

🔴 Join us for an upcoming webinar co-organised with Global Alliance for the Future of Food and Rythu Sadhikara Samstha 🤝

🗓️ Date: 08 September
⏰ Time: 01:30 PM UTC
💻 Via Zoom, with interpretation available in French & Spanish

Bringing together researchers, policymakers, and food systems experts, the session will explore the latest evidence and policy insights on accelerating the transition towards more resilient and agroecological food systems.

🔗 Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UuFoXDuPRT650dhS-dbPNA #/registration

08/14/2026

For International Youth Day, we asked young people what they've learned from their elders that they'd like future generations to know and keep alive. In this short film, a young farmer and weaver from Teotitlán del Valle, Mexico, shares in her native language a memory of her grandmother. She remembers her reading the morning sky to know what the day would bring and when it was time to plant, and reflects on what this means for the future. The film is in Zapotec, with subtitles in English and Spanish.

💬“May your gaze always be turned toward the vastness of the sky, and may your hands never lose touch with the earth, for from it comes life itself.”

🎞️ La mirada - a short film made by Rubi, young farmer and master weaver from Teotitlán del Valle, Mexico

08/12/2026

What do young people in farming communities want future generations to remember?

For International Youth Day, we invited rural youth across Latin America, South Asia and West Africa to share the knowledge, stories, memories and lessons they want to transmit and carry forward.

They answered through poems, memories, drawings and stories about seeds, soil, forests, family and community. Different countries, different languages, and the same few lessons kept surfacing: watch the land closely, keep the seed your mother passed on, care for the soil, and don’t do the work alone.

Together, they reveal something easily missed in conversations about the future of agriculture: young people carry vital knowledge about the land, and they are already questioning what is being lost and imagining what should come next.

As one young writer from Nepal puts it: “Our seeds are our identity. Preserving them means respecting life.”

🌸Explore the full collection via an interactive reading experience: Youth messages for tomorrow: https://stories.groundswellinternational.org/youth-messages-for-tomorrow/index.html

For International Youth Day, we asked young people from smallholder farmer communities on three continents the same question: what did your elders teach you that you want future generations to know and keep alive? Here's what they wrote back.