The Mosaic Company is driven by its mission- to help the world grow the food it needs. This includes efforts to educate farmers on how to increase yields and improve land management. For more than a decade, we have partnered with organizations in India on the Villages Program called Krishi Jyoti. With its success, Mosaic Fertilizantes in South America adopted the same pillars of the program to launch the Villages in Brazil. With support from The Mosaic Institute in Brazil, the program officially kicked off in 2020 in Barreiras, Bahia in Brazil. Despite its high production potential, Barreiras is an area with low agriculture output due, in part, to lack of agronomic training.  

The program selected 17 families in its first year targeted toward smallholder farmers or participants with small properties that hoped to develop their lands with technical assistance, education, and access to improved water resources. In just the first year, those that participated benefited from an increase of 230% in their family income.  

 “I had no income from my land, now I can earn R$250 a week to support myself. I learned a lot, hands-on experience,” said Otacílio Filho, a farmer participating in the Villages Program. Families have been able to adopt agronomic best practices and marketing techniques so that production yields supported them and have also contributed to the local economy and agriculture. “Our production used to be small because we only planted in the rainy season, but the Villages guided us in the cultivation of garlic, beans and corn, taught us how to act, plant and have a wonderful production. Now I have more hope for the future,” says Luzinete Freitas Leite, another beneficiary of the initiative.  

Plans to expand the program in 2022 include further development in Barreiras and an expansion in an additional city. 

“This is the legacy we want to leave for future generations. Through the Villages Program, we are looking at each family individually, nurturing the land of these small farmers, investing in education, collaborating with the management of water resources, thus allowing a new cycle of empowerment of these small farmers and prosperity in these properties to be created," says the President of The Mosaic Institute's Board of Directors, Arthur Liacre, who is also the Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Strategy and Sustainability at Mosaic Fertilizantes. 

In addition to increasing productivity and financial gains, the initiative aims to encourage crop diversification, provide access to water through the implementation of cisterns or adaptation of the irrigation system for better water supply and availability, and strengthen education in the countryside. “The work of Mosaic Fertilizantes in transforming rural productivity also expands to mobilize, support and transform the reality of small producers. It is food as a nutritional and social development factor. And The Villages has been revolutionary in supporting small farmers with rural technical assistance and generation of wealth in the countryside,” explains the Executive Director of The Mosaic Institute in Brazil, Paulo Eduardo Batista. 

Participants of the Villages in Brazil will receive support for at least three years. The first year is dedicated toward improving and developing the available land and resources. The second year strives to build on those trainings, but will also incorporate more business education so that families can continue to build on their experience and support their communities.