A safe space to save money is life-changing -- especially for the 60 million smallholder farmers in West Africa (the majority being women) who often live on less than two dollars a day. Poverty fighter Anushka Ratnayake introduces her nonprofit myAgro, which offers farmers a place to save small amounts of money and allows them to access those funds as they need them. Over the next five years, myAgro plans to reach a million farmers in West Africa, providing a stress-free, transparent and convenient system that empowers agricultural entrepreneurs by putting the purchasing power it takes to run a successful farm in their hands. (This ambitious plan is a part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

Anushka Ratnayake: A transparent, easy way for smallholder farmers to save

A transparent, easy way for smallholder farmers to save

In West Africa, smallholder farmers, often women, face poverty not from lack of cash but timing of access to it for farming needs.

myAgro's novel approach uses mobile tech to enable farmers to save for inputs, boosting yields and incomes with a 3x return.

Setou’s success story from Mali illustrates the transformative power of saving, leading to prosperity and generational benefits.