Paraguay – Productivo
ACDI/VOCA Harnesses Public-Private Alliances to Strengthen Key Value Chains
ACDI/VOCA helps farmers, lenders and other value chain actors improve agricultural production and trade in Paraguay through a subgrant from USAID. More than one-third of Paraguay’s population of 6 million lives in poverty; the USAID-funded Paraguay Productivo project is designed to reduce this poverty by strengthening key value chains for agricultural products.
Program aims to reduce poverty by improving competitiveness
Paraguay’s economy is largely focused on agriculture, which makes up 90 percent of the country’s exports and employs more than a quarter of the economically active population. ACDI/VOCA received a subgrant from Carana Corporation to implement the Paraguay Productivo project under the USAID Global Business, Trade and Investment IQC. Productivo works with small producers in rural areas to increase their access to market opportunities. The goal is to quickly and cost-effectively produce more value-added agricultural products, goods, and services; create jobs; increase incomes; reduce poverty; and promote trade by adopting a demand-driven assistance strategy.
The project seeks to improve the competitiveness of micro and small producers and businesses, increase access to microfinance services and address policy obstacles. The project works in the value chains of estevia (a natural sweetener), sesame, organic sugar cane, cassava, and various fruits. The project’s specialists offer technical assistance to small producers with a focus on environmentally safe and sustainable practices. ACDI/VOCA specifically focuses on access to finance for small producers and value chain finance, working with all actors in the value chain, including producers, lenders and buyers, to provide training, build trust and develop new financial products.
Public-private partnerships strengthen program, generate sales
As of September 2010, after one year of activities, the Productivo project has surpassed almost all targeted goals. Through 18 Global Development Alliance agreements, Productivo has leveraged $2.21 million dollars and generated $3.85 million in local and export sales. Agreements have been made with 19 organizations and technical assistance given to 3,768 small producers. The agreements involve a variety of institutions, including a fruit-processing plant that will expand production and support organic certification; cooperatives that facilitate technical and credit assistance to producers; research facilities that are working to find the best variety of estevia; and private companies that facilitate loans, give technical assistance and expand production. Recently, Productivo assisted Manduvira, a cooperative of about 800 sugar cane producers, in obtaining a $14 million loan to build a processing facility for value-added sugar.
Agreements have also been signed with different financial institutions to train credit officers and create appropriate financial products. The project has worked with financial institutions to facilitate loans to 2,226 producers.
In the next two years, Productivo will continue to develop relationships and linkages between producers, cooperatives, financial institutions and private sector actors.
To read more about our programs in Paraguay, click here: http://acdivoca.org/site/ID/ourwork_paraguay.
For more information, contact John Madigan at jmadigan@acdivoca.org.
Updated: 12/10
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