Technical Assistance to Improve Agricultural Markets and Food Security
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Summary
Through a subcontract managed by Abt Associates, ACDI/VOCA worked alongside Action Africa Help International and RSM Consulting to implement the agricultural markets, agricultural productivity, and capacity-building components of the USAID-funded Food, Agribusiness, and Rural Markets (FARM) II program. FARM II was a follow-on to the five-year FARM project and was part of the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative. The purpose of FARM II was to provide technical assistance and other services to improve agricultural markets and food security in the Greenbelt region of South Sudan.
Project Objectives
- Sustainably increased agricultural productivity and food production
- Improved the capacity of producers, private sector, and public sector actors to develop commercial agriculture
- Strengthened the capacity of associations and cooperatives to develop business plans and improve financial management skills
- Added value to production and improved access to markets in partnership with traders, agribusinesses, and other private sectors
Project Activities and Approaches
- Created market incentives for farmers to make critical economic decisions in regards to what they produce, how they invest, where they buy their inputs and sell their outputs, and with whom they collaborate and group
- Helped farmers organize into larger groups to create economies of scale for their surplus production for distribution and sales to markets that farmers are unable to access on their own
- Promoted the increased value of smallholder produce through improved post-harvest handling and process enhancements
- Provided timely market pricing data and disseminated the information throughout the Greenbelt to increase farmers and agribusinesses’ participation in a more informed marketplace
Project Results
- 40,000 hectares under new management practices or technologies
- 15 percent production increase over baseline
- 20,000 farmers used improved post-harvest handling techniques, 40 percent of whom were women
- Targeted farmers reduced post-harvest losses by 50 percent
