East Africa – Market Linkages Initiative (MLI)
Smallholder Farmers Connect to National and International Markets
ACDI/VOCA works to connect smallholder farmers in East Africa to new markets, increasing incomes and food security.
ACDI/VOCA is implementing a two year, $1.9 million USAID-funded Market Linkages Initiative (MLI) as a subgrantee to CARANA Corporation. The goal of MLI is to increase commercial integration of smallholder staple food producers into national and regional markets to promote growth in food staples and food security.
The project is composed of two components: one based in Malawi with a focus on Malawi trade corridors (M-MLI), and one based in Kenya with a focus on East Africa’s Northern Corridor Activity (NCA-MLI).
Malawi-MLI (M-MLI)
The Lilongwe-based M-MLI team, led by ACDI/VOCA’s Deputy Chief of Party, will strengthen two weak links in the staple crop value chain: strategically located grain bulking centers (GBCs) and the integration of a financially sustainable real-time market information system (MIS).
Modern storage for staple crops is rare in Malawi and almost nonexistent in rural areas. Where they do exist in rural areas, many farmers do not have the means to transport their crops themselves, and they lack trust in the warehouse managers to protect their deposits. Most farmers sell to traders who transport their crops long distances to reach storage facilities. Later in the season, when farmers need to buy back commodity for their own consumption, traders move it back to its origin – doubling the transport costs and increasing the price.
Over the course of the project the M-MLI team will develop, strengthen, and facilitate the certification of at least 20 privately managed GBCs in the northern, central, and southern regions of Malawi. M-MLI will work with producers and warehouse managers to build business relationships based on transparency and trust. The project will also facilitate trainings for producer associations in order to explain how and why to use GBCs, how to decide whether to sell or store commodities, and contracting mechanisms for smallholder groups and associations.
Access to GBCs will give farmers and traders more freedom to decide when to sell. In order to make the best decisions they must have access to real-time market information. M-MLI will develop a simple and sustainable MIS to provide to targeted beneficiaries. With access to accurate market information via information communications technology, farmers and traders will be able to maximize the market timing benefit that storage enables.
Expected impacts of the Malawi-MLI project include:
Higher household food security and income, reducing poverty and increasing resilience
Increased ability of farmers to optimize sales of surplus production and get higher prices through MIS technology
Stable prices and more reliable supplies of staple crops
Reduced post harvest losses through GBC development
East Africa’s Northern Corridor Activity – MLI (NCA-MLI)
Most rural populations in East and Central Africa rely on agriculture for their livelihood and get the majority of their food from a few common staple crops. Significant quantities of agricultural commodities are transported in the Northern Corridor, yet the region has much higher potential for staple crops than is currently produced. ACDI/VOCA contributes technical expertise to the Nairobi-based NCA-MLI team.
The NCA-MLI initiative, led by CARANA Corporation’s Chief of Party (COP), aims to achieve the following results in East Africa:
Improve rural post-harvest handling and storage capacity along key market sheds
Expand capacity for pre-storage crop conditioning to ensure higher quality crops and reduce post-harvest losses from mold and insect infestation
Link storage facilities to surplus staple food commodities and to viable local and regional end markets
Collaborate with other regional programs to maximize the number of beneficiaries and share lessons learned between programs
NCA-MLI concentrates on three main trade corridors: Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan, Great Lakes Region and East Africa (Kenya and Uganda).
Background
Despite recent improvements in smallholder production and strengthened institutions, food security continues to be an issue in East Africa. Currently, many farmers cannot grow, transport and sell commodities of sufficient quality and quantity to meet market requirements, even to areas in desperate need of staple crops. Poor post-harvest handling, including inadequate crop conditioning and lack of access to quality storage facilities for commodities, is an enormous constraint on farmers’ abilities to produce at levels sufficient to increase their incomes and meet the demand in the region.
For more information contact Katy Murphy-Lubowicz at kmurphy-lubowicz@acdivoca.org.
Updated: 4/10
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