Tevel is developing a Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Center in Zambia, with the goal of  improving productivity for smallholder farmers in rural communities. The Center will be based  around an educational farm that will train community members on sustainable agriculture  

practices and entrepreneurship. Additionally, the center will include an R&D facility that will  research and showcase technological innovations by Israeli companies designed to benefit  rural communities. 

The project is designed to facilitate collaboration between various stakeholders focused on  developing effective solutions for smallholder farmers, who are a crucial demographic in  

emerging economies and extremely vulnerable to environmental and economic changes.  

Within this project we will be connecting local government and civil society, academia, the  Israeli AgroTech ecosystem, the local private sector and most importantly – rural  

communities of smallholders themselves. 

Tevel’s service learning program will take a central part of both the educational farm and the  R&D capacity. The program, which has already mobilized and trained over 1300 young  

Jewish leaders and activists, will provide added value to the center by enhancing its visibility and capacity while introducing young people into the complex challenges facing developing  countries. 

The end beneficiaries of the program are smallholder farmers, who need help in adapting  their practices to growing challenges, to live with security and dignity. All activities in the  

center will be ultimately focused on impact for these communities. However, the project will  also provide training opportunities for aspiring practitioners, as well as being a center for  

research on best practices for Agriculture Based Community Development. 

We have already begun to connect several exceptional partners from Israel and Zambia, that  together can create excellent value for rural farmers and increase Israeli involvement in  

creating sustainable change in Zambia. As we establish a presence in the field and  

ecosystem we will also develop new partnerships with academia and the private sector  

outside of Israel. We are very excited about this project, as it will serve as a focal point for  our work in Africa for the coming years.