Image information
Fabián Trochez, member of the Network of Native Seed Protectors, holds oranges at his farm in Caldono, Cauca department, Colombia. The Network focuses on recovering, safeguarding, and exchanging ancestral seeds to ensure food sovereignty and local ecosystem restoration. The Leopold Bachmann Foundation supports this mission via Swissaid.

Image copyright: Jaír F. Coll – Leopold Bachmann Foundation – Fairpicture

The Leopold Bachmann Foundation is committed to promoting agroecology as a holistic approach to improving the food security of farming families and communities, while at the same time strengthening the resilience of ecosystems.

Impact

The Leopold Bachmann Foundation promotes agroecological and agroforestry approaches and supports their practical implementation. At the same time, it strengthens inclusive territorial market systems in order to improve market access and increase local value creation.

In the long term, this helps strengthen sustainable production systems that enhance the availability of healthy food and medicinal plants, improve incomes, and contribute to the regeneration of natural resources and the stabilization of ecosystems.

In Asia:

  • India
  • Cambodia

In Africa:

  • Malawi
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe

In South America:

  • Bolivia
  • Ecuador
  • Colombia
  • Peru
  • Venezuela

Our Goals

Promote and disseminate agroecological practices

The Leopold Bachmann Foundation supports projects that strengthen agroecological and agroforestry practices while specifically integrating the indigenous knowledge of farmers. Through applied research, knowledge transfer, and shared learning processes, farmers are supported in applying and further developing sustainable farming methods that preserve natural resources and ecosystems in the long term.

Improve market access and income opportunities

The Leopold Bachmann Foundation promotes market-relevant skills as well as collective structures such as cooperatives and producer organizations in order to improve access to agroecological resources and services. This enables producers to successfully market their agroecological products and sustainably improve their economic situation.

Strengthen inclusive market systems and local value creation

The Leopold Bachmann Foundation invests in the development and expansion of inclusive market systems as well as in local value creation for agroecological products. Along the entire value chain—from seeds and production to markets and consumers—supply and demand are strengthened and better connected.

Intensify knowledge exchange and collaboration

The Leopold Bachmann Foundation specifically supports knowledge transfer and collaboration between organizations by actively facilitating networking, promoting local networks and platforms, and enabling the exchange of experiences and shared learning. This helps create structures that ensure long-term knowledge transfer and strengthen agroecological systems.

Facts & Figures

The Leopold Bachmann Foundation currently supports agroecology projects in 10 of its 14 focus countries. No projects are supported in Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, or South Africa. The current funding portfolio includes 7 projects in Southeast Asia, 24 in Southern Africa, and 12 in Latin America.

The Leopold Bachmann Foundation currently supports 43 international agroecology projects that implement context-specific agroecological approaches and integrate indigenous knowledge. The projects aim to strengthen communities so that they become more resilient to extreme weather events and, in the long term, have resilient farming, market, and ecological systems.

Impressions

Francenith Agudelo, from the Network of Agroecological Markets of Valle, holds a beehive while Manuel Alejandro Suárez, a member of the Network of Agroecological Farmers' Markets in Valle del Cauca, smokes the bees at her farm in Cali, Valle del Cauca department, Colombia.

Image copyright for all images in this gallery: Jaír F. Coll – Leopold Bachmann Foundation – Fairpicture
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Cristian Quinayas, member of the Network of Agroecological Farmers' Markets in Valle del Cauca, inspects dried coffee beans in Guacarí, Colombia.

Image copyright: Jaír F. Coll – Leopold Bachmann Foundation – Fairpicture
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Victoria Eugenia Chepes, member of the Network of Native Seed Protectors from Cauca, and her son, Leandro, grow corn at their farm in Caldono, Colombia.

Image copyright: Jaír F. Coll – Leopold Bachmann Foundation – Fairpicture
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Fabián Trochez harvests corn cobs at his farm in Caldono, Cauca department, Colombia.

Image copyright: Jaír F. Coll – Leopold Bachmann Foundation – Fairpicture
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Manuel Alejandro Suárez and Cristian Quinayas, members of Network of Agroecological Farmers' Markets in Valle del Cauca, harvest papaya in Guacarí, Colombia.

Image copyright: Jaír F. Coll – Leopold Bachmann Foundation – Fairpicture
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