Spowdi collaborates with world’s largest self-employed women’s group SEWA to scale Smart Farming

Green-tech innovator Spowdi and the world’s largest association of self-employed women SEWA, have signed a five-year agreement aimed to introduce Smart Farming to tens of thousands of women small-hold farmers in India. The collaborative effort will be carried out under the Water Drop Initiative phase 2. 

The announcement comes after the successful completion of phase 1 of the Water Drop Initiative, where Spowdi and SEWA provided Smart Farming technology and training to SEWA grassroots members in four states of India. Phase 1 of the Water Drop Initiative was supported by SHL Medical. The Water Drop Initiative is a multi-partner effort to enable small-hold farmers to transform their farming practices into smart farming, grow more food in less water and become more profitable.  

“The Water Drop initiative of Smart Farming Alliance is very much aligned with SEWA’s Swacch Aakash Campaign, where our mission is to work for creating more green livelihoods, and creating clean air, clean water, and cleaner skies for the next generation. This will help build the resilience of poor women workers including small farmers in the rural areas of India. It will generate green livelihood. SEWA will be a green union. We look forward to strengthening the partnership with Spowdi,” says Reemaben Nanavaty, Director of SEWA. 

As a part of phase 2 of the Water Drop Initiative, SEWA sisters will receive training in smart farming best practices. This gives them the opportunity to become certified Smart Farming entrepreneurs and manage last-mile distribution of smart farming technology as Impact Centre Managers. 

“Women are crucial contributors to food production. We are happy to collaborate with SEWA and introduce smart farming technology to tens of thousands of SEWA sisters,” says Henrik Johansson, CEO of Spowdi. “We see SEWA sisters as businesswomen or entrepreneurs who can transform the global food production system. To adopt smart farming technology, they require kickstart support like any other entrepreneur. Hence, we welcome grantees and CSRs to be a part of this transformative initiative.” 

Small-hold farmers grow one-third of our global food and a significant proportion of them are women. Yet, these farmers are also among the first to be impacted by climate change and depleting water tables. The Water Drop Initiative is an effort to enable small-hold farmers adopt Smart Farming, so that they can grow more food with significantly less water, move away from fossil fuel dependencies, and become more financially independent and profitable. 

The Water Drop Initiative aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals of No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Gender Equality, Clean Water, Affordable and Clean Energy and Partnerships for the Goals. The Water Drop Initiative is now inviting financing partners to provide a kick-start support to women small-hold farmers to shift to smart farming, though CSR initiatives, grant making and soft-financing.