Innovation Partners

Throughout Heifer International’s 80 years of existence, our program teams have piloted and applied numerous innovations aimed at expanding the reach and sustainable impact of the work we do with smallholder farmers.

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Innovation spans many areas – from new ways to increase access to financial service, to applying appropriate digital technologies available through mobile devices, to novel practical research projects that identify program approaches worth expanding and others that are less productive.

Our approach to innovation, like our approach to global development generally, emphasizes partnerships – with organizations and individuals who bring specialist expertise and knowledge to the table. This allows Heifer to leverage the best in each field and better integrate best practices into our programs.

Innovating in Technology

Heifer Labs partnered with IBM to build Open Harvest, an open-source software platform that saves time and increases profits for farmers in Malawi. Using AI and climate modeling, the platform provides visual data and customized recommendations.

Innovating in Finance

Heifer Impact Capital, Heifer Labs and Heifer Mexico invested to improve financial access for smallholder coffee farmers through the EthicHub Regenerative Finance (ReFi) platform. The revolving credit facility will pilot more-efficient dissemination of loan funds to qualifying coffee cooperatives participating in Heifer's Beyond Coffee II project in Chiapas, Mexico.

Innovating in Research

Heifer partnered with researchers Diya Dutta and Apoorva Mahendru to understand the impact of Heifer programming on household welfare. The following research briefs provide concise overviews of their findings, highlighted by a stark decrease in the acceptability of gender-based violence in households with which Heifer works.