Growing in a new direction: Send a Cow

With support from the innocent foundation, Send a Cow is helping small-holder farmers in Zambia to protect their crops so there’s enough for everyone to eat using innovative ‘Push:Pull Technology.’

Push:Pull uses a plant called Desmodium which naturally repels pests (push), and Brachiaria grass which attracts them away from crops (pull). It’s an all-natural 1-2 punch.

So far, Send a Cow has trained 500 farmers, and grown 10 fields of the plants to share. But demand has already outstripped supply. Thinking on their toes, Send a Cow has provided seeds and seedlings to the gardens of more farmers, so they could propagate the plants at home before planting them out in their fields. It’s sort of like a pyramid scheme, except not terrible, and everyone ends up with renewable pest-control.

More on Send a Cow .