About SAA

SAA and its country programs which used to be called Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG2000) work in close collaboration with national agricultural extension services in Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria and Uganda to support smallholder farmers along the agricultural value chain. SAA aims to increase farmers’ income and food and nutrition security through promoting market-oriented, sustainable, resilient, and regenerative and nutrition-sensitive agricultural innovations and building the capacity of Extension Agents and farmers.

”Walking with the Farmer”

SAA’s new slogan, "Walking with the Farmer", represents the organization’s vision and ethos. Since the early stages of its establishment, with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture in respective host countries, SAA has set up country offices staffed by local residents with a high level of agricultural expertise and deep understanding of local context, in order to promote need-based good agricultural practices (GAPs) and improved technologies in rural communities.

SAA is committed to working with smallholder farmers by adopting a participatory approach that provides need-based feedback to farmers and value chain actors to establish technologies and fruitful market linkages that address the specific concerns of farmers. This participatory approach embodies SAA’s spirit of walking with the farmer.

Vision & Mission

SAA envisions a more food-secure rural Africa with increasing numbers of prospering smallholder commercial farmers. Vision, Mission and Theory of Change can be found here.

Organization profile

SAA started as an international non-governmental organization registered in 1986 in Geneva and now is operating as a general incorporated foundation in Japan.

History

The foundation of SAA dates back to the early 1980’s, when a number of African countries were struggling to cope with worsening hunger caused mainly by prolonged drought. SAA’s brief history since its establishment in 1986 until the recent structural change can be found here.