Issue Areas

When rural women are empowered and have access to the resources they need, communities move one step closer to ending hunger and poverty. Across Benin and West Africa, women make up the majority of small-scale farmers, yet they often face unequal access to land, financial services, and agricultural training. BIO PLANET TMC Ltd works to change this reality by empowering rural, low-income women with affordable, high-quality organic fertilizer and practical training in sustainable farming and women’s rights. This approach not only strengthens their productivity and resilience but also promotes social justice and economic inclusion, creating a world where everyone has the same opportunity to live and prosper. Our work is deeply rooted in rural farming communities in Benin, where women and indigenous small-scale farmers often live on less than two dollars a day, largely due to land degradation and the impacts of climate change. Through continuous innovation, we develop organic biofertilizers that address the root causes of yield decline while improving soil health and long-term fertility. This shift enhances their economic independence and strengthens food security for more than five million residents by 2030, building the foundations of gender equity within agricultural systems. Our commitment to equality in agriculture ensures that every individual has the opportunity to contribute to and benefit from a more just and resilient food future for Benin and West Africa.

In Benin and West Africa, the accelerating hazards of climate change are reshaping landscapes, livelihoods, and ecosystems. Intermittent and torrential rains, combined with rising temperatures, have intensified soil erosion, stripping the land of the nutrients that sustain fertility and productivity. In response to these changing conditions, many farmers have turned to chemical fertilizers to maintain yields, but these inputs often worsen the problem by degrading soil structure, depleting biodiversity, and releasing greenhouse gases. Over the past decade, the region has experienced a decline in crop yields estimated at more than 57 percent, as production costs rise and farm incomes stagnate. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2022) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD, 2020), West Africa ranks among the regions most affected by the combined impacts of land degradation, nutrient loss, and climate change. The environmental crisis is not only ecological; it is social and deeply gendered. Women and indigenous small-scale farmers, who make up the majority of West Africa’s agricultural workforce, bear the brunt of these climate pressures. As soil fertility declines and waste pollution spreads, they face growing challenges in sustaining production, feeding their families, and earning stable incomes. Limited access to resources, land ownership, and agricultural training leaves many underserved communities trapped in a cycle of vulnerability, where climate shocks quickly translate into hunger and poverty. In Benin and neighboring countries, rural women farmers are often forced to cultivate degraded soils and depend on costly synthetic inputs, while the accumulation and burning of agricultural waste in their communities worsen air pollution and health risks. BIO PLANET TMC Ltd is transforming this challenge into an opportunity for environmental and social renewal. By collecting and recycling biodegradable and agricultural waste, we turn pollution into productivity and climate stress into resilience. Our process produces certified organic fertilizers that restore soil health, enhance carbon sequestration, and reduce emissions from open waste burning. At the same time, our circular model creates green jobs and income opportunities for women and youth in waste collection, processing, and sustainable farming. Through this inclusive approach, BIO PLANET is not only advancing climate solutions but also building climate justice, ensuring that those most affected by environmental degradation become key actors in restoring their ecosystems and livelihoods.

Across Benin and West Africa, agriculture remains the backbone of livelihoods and national economies. Yet this foundation is weakening under the combined weight of intensive chemical use, unsustainable farming practices, soil degradation, and climate stress. More than 150 million hectares of land across West Africa, including over 2 million hectares in Benin, are now classified as degraded, threatening the fertility of the very soils that sustain rural life. According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD, 2020) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP Benin, 2021), over 58 percent of West Africa’s agricultural land has been degraded as a result of excessive reliance on synthetic inputs, unsustainable land use, and deforestation. Millions of smallholder farmers, most of them women, are watching their soils lose vitality, their crops succumb to pests, and their yields decline year after year. The region’s dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides has stripped the land of its natural balance, depleting soil biodiversity and leaving farmlands vulnerable to erosion and drought. As temperatures rise and rainfall grows more erratic, farmers are forced to contend with both climate uncertainty and soil exhaustion, pushing many deeper into cycles of poverty and food insecurity. The lack of affordable and high-quality organic alternatives has left them with little choice but to rely on costly and environmentally damaging inputs, further accelerating land degradation. BIO PLANET TMC Ltd was founded to help break this destructive cycle by reimagining agriculture as a regenerative system that restores, rather than exploits, the natural fertility of the land. Our approach begins with the soil, the living foundation of all food systems. By transforming biodegradable waste into scientifically formulated organic fertilizers, we create natural soil restorers that nourish crops, rebuild soil structure, and revive microbial life. These engrais organique are designed not only to replace synthetic inputs but to reestablish the ecological balance that sustains healthy, productive farmland. Through this model, BIO PLANET TMC promotes a climate-smart vision of agriculture for Benin and West Africa, one that restores fertility to degraded soils, strengthens plant resilience against pests, and reduces the sector’s carbon footprint. By turning waste into renewal, we aim to help the region rebuild the biological foundations of its food systems and secure a more resilient future for generations to come.