‘So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.’ 1 Corinthians 3:7
Farmers all over the world experience joy when bringing in the harvest. After many months of plowing, sowing, watering and weeding, God’s blessings are brought in. Harvest time is traditionally a time of joy and celebration but this joy can have a dark side: in many places the effort put into the farm will not sustain the lives of the farming family.
Agricultural industry still accounts for more than fifty percent of the national income in many of the countries Word2Acts works in. Therefore, investments to improve this sector make sweeping economic and social impacts.
Word2Act approaches agriculture from a business mindset. With local farmers, we evaluate their crops from the beginning seed all the way to the sale of that product in another country, thus giving us full knowledge of the entire supply chain.
Based on that knowledge, Word2Act improves on good, existing practices and implements changes where needed to ensure that efficiency is optimized in every step. Because we address the foundational issues of agricultural business we have the opportunity to improve the lives of farming families one by one.
A crucial aspect of improving the local farmer’s supply chain is creating the opportunity for him to sell his product at a considerable higher price. Therefore, we have created and implemented our Fair Factory Development Fund. This fund exists to make investments in local agricultural processing plants to foster growth and increased potential.
Through our impact investment vehicle Incluvest, Fair Factory Development Fund provides finances, knowledge and skills necessary to process agricultural products locally instead of shipping them to another country to be processed. In the end, this bolsters the local economy by creating lasting jobs, fostering a reliable market environment, and generating sustainable local revenue.
Underlying our motivation to develop the Fair Factory Development Fund is our Christian conviction that biblical values positively impact business decisions. An example of this in action is Charles Kayembe, director of a cashew processing plant in Benin. It is my deep conviction that leadership according to God’s Word and to God’s honor is the only way to real success.
‘Integrity, unity and respect are values that we place centrally in our factory. These values are carried out in our entire factory community, including customers and suppliers. They also see and experience that these values are good for the factory and the community around it. We agreed with the shareholders that this factory will develop into a Fair Factory.’
Charles Kayembe
2018: 14.740 farmer entrepreneurs trained