Agriculture & Food
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Photo: Erin Gray/Mercy Corps
Most of the world doesn't have the benefit of picking up food from the corner store — they grow it themselves. A family's plot of land has to provide for their nutritional and economic needs.
When food shortages occur due to drought and conflict, Mercy Corps helps prevent hunger and treat malnutrition in the most vulnerable — children, pregnant women, the elderly and the displaced.
Distributing food is necessary in times of crisis, and we always try to procure food from local suppliers to save money, ensure faster delivery and support of the local economy. Learn more about the success of this model in Niger (PDF) ▸
In addition to emergency responses, we quickly focus on long-term solutions that strengthen harvests and livestock for the long-term. Mercy Corps works with families to ensure quality inputs, smart land use, good crop yields and a fair price at local markets.
All stories about Agriculture & Food
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Kosovo: A life-changing project for a Roma community March 30, 2011
Ramadan Sahiti is a 37-year-old Roma farmer from the village of Koshare/Košare in southern Kosovo.
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Timor-Leste: Farmers in Timor-Leste store up for a better future March 22, 2011
The road to Ainaro District from Dili —the capital city of Timor-Leste, one of the world's newest countries — has never been as bad as it is now, at least in my experience.
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Somalia: A lot has changed February 16, 2011
It was a long journey full of rough terrains and sleepless nights while we were assessing the areas that have been hit by droughts in the Bari Region of Puntland, Somalia. Farmers and pastoralists lost most of their assets and suffered from lack of water.
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Myanmar: Small animals bring big dreams February 11, 2011
Cyclone Nargis, which devastated large swaths of Myanmar (known also as Burma) in 2008, took everything from residents like 59-year-old Daw Hla Kyi — including her livestock.
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Iraq: VIDEO: "Sadness has become my food and my clothes" February 1, 2011
Over the course of the week and a half I've been in northern Iraq so far, I've seen — and heard — a lot about Kurdish culture. It's extremely hospitable, thoughtful and fiercely passionate.
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Iraq: Finding the story January 30, 2011
I work with Awatif in southern Iraq, but we had to travel across the country to get to know one another.
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Haiti: Interviews in the camps, a year later January 11, 2011
A few days ago, I went out to the Mojapta displacement camp, where Mercy Corps is providing clean water and sanitation to families, to ask earthquake survivors about their experiences today — and of the last year. Gilberte Jean, 23
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Indonesia: Bringing healthy street food to Tegal Alur December 27, 2010
“Hi friends! Come to My Child's Café… choose and get various healthy snacks here,” said a catchy jingle that played during over the grand opening of My Child Café and its healthy kitchen in West Jakarta's impoverished Tegal Alur neighborhood.
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Uganda: Small farm, nutritious food, healthy pregnancy December 20, 2010
The Dwog-Paco women’s group is located 44 kilometers from Kitgum, one of northern Uganda’s largest towns, along a muddy terrain road deep inside the Acholi ethnic group's homeland.
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Zimbabwe: Beauty Jokonya with crop December 15, 2010
Beauty Jokonya, a local farmer in Zimbabwe's Murehwa district, with bounty from her crop field — which, with help from Mercy Corps, she and her husband irrigate with a treadle pump.