February 2, 2011

New Project Won: Kenya—Kenya Maize Development Program Follow-On

ACDI/VOCA has won a $2.27 million follow-on USAID award for the Kenya Maize Development Program. The new activity will sustain a vital food security initiative in Kenya to improve the productivity of staple crops by smallholder farmers crops. The initiative will improve both smallholder incomes and food security in Kenya.

Each year, the average Kenyan consumes 98 kilograms of maize, the staple of the Kenyan diet. At the same time, maize prices in Kenya are among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, and the poorest quarter of the population spends 28 percent of its income on the crop. Inefficient production and marketing in the maize subsector contribute to Kenya’s economic stagnation and poverty.

The Kenya project will achieve three main objectives

• continue critical activities to improve the livelihoods of the farmers in the maize subsector
• begin activities to improve the livelihoods of farmers in alternative staples subsectors and create demand for diversified staple crop production
• lay the groundwork for future USAID investment within the staple crop sectors

The project builds on the successful four-year KMDP, which nearly tripled smallholder yields from a baseline output over the course of the activity. This resulted in increased net earnings of $206 million for 370,000 smallholder farmers—almost 30 percent of whom are women. Learn more about our work in Kenya .