Proposal on
Comprehensive Value Chain Program
Scaling of Staple Food Production
In Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia
Submitted to the
Government of Sweden, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
September 2010
1
Table of Contents:
I.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................... 4
II.
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 5
AGRA-SWEDEN PARTNERSHIP: ...................................................................................................................... 5
AGRA IS CATALYZING A GREEN REVOLUTION: .................................................................................................... 5
III. BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE................................................................................................. 6
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR BACKGROUND IN AFRICA: ............................................................................................. 6
RATIONALE FOR AGRA’S INVOLVEMENT: .......................................................................................................... 8
IV.
COUNTRY SPECIFIC CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES......................................................... 10
MALAWI: .................................................................................................................................................. 10
ZAMBIA:.................................................................................................................................................... 10
RWANDA: .................................................................................................................................................. 11
OPPORTUNITIES FROM THIS REQUEST: ............................................................................................................ 12
V.
PROPOSED PROGRAM STRATEGY............................................................................................. 12
OVERALL GOAL: .......................................................................................................................................... 12
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: .................................................................................................................................. 13
EXPECTED RESULTS:..................................................................................................................................... 13
GENDER APPROACH FOR THIS PROGRAM: ........................................................................................................ 13
VI.
INTEGRATED INTERVENTIONS DESIGNED TO INCREASE PRODUCTION ................................... 14
MARKET ACCESS:........................................................................................................................................ 15
PROGRAM ON AFRICA’S SEEDS SYSTEMS: ....................................................................................................... 17
SOIL HEALTH PROGRAM: ............................................................................................................................. 20
POLICY PROGRAM: SECURITY OF LAND RIGHTS: ............................................................................................... 21
FARMER ORGANIZATION SUPPORT CENTRE IN AFRICA (FOSCA): ....................................................................... 23
VII.
MONITORING AND EVALUATION.......................................................................................... 24
VIII.
BUDGET............................................................................................................................... 26
2
Acronyms
AD’s
Agro Dealers
ADAPT
Agro-Dealer Project
AfDB
African Development Bank
AGM
Annual General Meeting
AGRA
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
APSA
Africa Parliamentary Support for Agriculture
AWEPA
Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa
BMGF
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
CAADP
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program
CGIAR
Consultative Group on International Research
EAC
East African Community
EAGC
Eastern Africa Grain Council
ECA
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
FAO
Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
FO’s
Farmer Organizations
FOSCA
Farmers Organization Support Centre in Africa
GR
Green Revolution
GLTN
Global Land tool Network
IFAD
International Fund for Agricultural Development
IFDC
International Fertilizer Development Centre
IFPRI
International Food Policy Research Institute
IPCC
International Panel on Climate Change
ISFM
Integrated Soil Fertility Management
JICA-RI
Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute
MASP
Malawi Agro-dealer support Project
NEPAD
New Partnership for Africa’s Development
OECD
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
PASS
Program for Africa’s Seed Systems
PSTA II
Plan for the Transformation of Agriculture
RDI
Rural Development Institute
SHF’s
Smallholder farmers
SHP
Soil Health Program
SSA
Sub Saharan Africa
UNECA
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
USAID
United States Agency for International Development
WASAA
Women in Agribusiness in Sub-Saharan Africa Alliance
WFP
World Food Program
3
I.
Executive Summary
AGRA-Sweden partnership:
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
are committed to improving food security and the quality of life of poor people – especially
women – through the efforts of the people themselves. Together, the Government of Sweden
and AGRA can forge a powerful partnership for addressing food security and promoting
sustainable development in Africa. This proposal requests the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to
provide US$8 million for a package of interventions in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda. The
countries chosen for this program have conditions that present valuable opportunities to
intervene in agricultural systems, both in terms of natural endowments and interventions to
date. The three countries are making progress, but significant effort is still needed to expand
current activities and achievements. With this additional effort, AGRA will accelerate the pace
of a comprehensive agricultural transformation.
AGRA is catalyzing a green revolution:
AGRA is an African-based and African-led organization working with partners to catalyze
change that rapidly and sustainably increases the productivity and incomes of poor smallholder
farmers – most of whom are women – and achieves food security for Africa. AGRA was
established on the basis that there is no one “silver bullet” that will address all the challenges
facing Africa’s agriculture. Rather, success demands comprehensive change across Africa’s
battered food value chain, along with supportive policies and appropriate technologies. AGRA
works to support the countries’ strategies and with ministries of agriculture. AGRA’s work is
guided by its vision: of a food secure and prosperous Africa, achieved through rapid,
sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers.
Opportunities from this request:
The proposed Sweden-AGRA partnership provides an opportunity for AGRA to deepen its work
in seeds, soils, markets and policy work in the three target countries, with special focus on
needs of women. This partnership will specifically support integrated efforts that will promote
efficient and profitable output markets for farmers; increase smallholder farmer productivity
from the use of new crop technologies and better soil and water management; and improve
security of land rights to women and other vulnerable groups. These interventions will build
upon each other for the greatest impact and sustainability. To support the above interventions
and ensure maximum impact, the program will include activities targeted at farmer
organizations (FOs) that serve poor producers.
Expected outcome:
The project will contribute to increased food security and increased incomes among
smallholder households – especially women – in the selected countries.
Project implementation:
AGRA has already invested in the 3 targeted countries and has established relations with the
respective governments, private sector and nongovernmental organizations. As such, project
implementation will begin as soon as funding notification is received. A detailed logical
framework is attached to this proposal showing the project design, including specific activities
4
and outcomes. The project is expected to run over a 2 year period with most of the funds
expended during the first year of project inception.
II.
Introduction
AGRA-Sweden Partnership:
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is pleased to submit a proposal to the
Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to develop a comprehensive value chain program in
Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda. This proposal requests the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide
US$8 million for a package of interventions in the aforementioned three African countries. The
proposed program will support and enable poor smallholder farmers, particularly women, to
improve their lives by increasing their farm productivity as well as improving their access to
output markets, which will lead to increased food security and incomes. Funding AGRA is in line
with Sweden’s policies of supporting poor people’s – especially women’s – quality of life
improvement through their own efforts. As AGRA works to support the countries’ National
Poverty Eradication Strategies and within the framework of ministries of food and agriculture,
funding AGRA is thus, in line with Sweden’s policy of support to country poverty reduction
efforts and is consistent with the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action. This
proposal responds to the immediate opportunity to improve food security while addressing
longer-term interventions needed to fight poverty through increase of household incomes for
smallholder farmers.
AGRA is catalyzing a green revolution:
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is an African-based and African-led
organization working with our partners to catalyze change that rapidly and sustainably
increases the productivity and incomes of poor smallholder farmers – most of whom are
women – and achieves food security for Africa. AGRA was established on the basis that there is
no one “silver bullet” that will address all the challenges facing Africa’s agriculture. Rather,
success demands comprehensive change across Africa’s battered food value chain, along with
supportive policies and appropriate technologies. AGRA’s work is guided by its vision: that of a
food secure and prosperous Africa, achieved through rapid, sustainable agricultural growth
based on smallholder farmers.
AGRA drives innovation, funds demonstration of viable approaches and works with our
partners and Africa’s farmers to scale up successes in smallholder farming, with a strong focus
on staple food crops in high-potential breadbasket areas. AGRA supports the African Union’s
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) and has an agreed
memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the New Partnership for Africa's Development
(NEPAD) to help in the implementation of CAADP Compacts at country level. AGRA works in
support of and builds partnerships with African governments, the private sector and civil
society. It partners as well with farmers’ and women’s organizations; national and international
research organizations, including the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR); bilateral and multilateral organizations.
AGRA’s overarching goal is to catalyze a uniquely African Green Revolution. We have set three
main goals to achieve by the year 2020:
1. Reduce food insecurity by 50 percent in at least 20 countries.
5
2. Double the incomes of 20 million smallholder families.
3. Put at least 15 countries on track for attaining and sustaining a uniquely African Green
Revolution.
III.
Background and Rationale
Agricultural Sector Background in Africa:
Africa's food production per capita has been declining since the 1960s such that in 2009 over
265 million of the continent's people were malnourished and 30% were hungry1. Its current
food situation is especially worrying since agricultural productivity levels among Africa’s
farmers have remained flat or even declined for several decades (see Figure 1 below) while
populations in most countries have tripled.
Figure 1: Cereal yield stagnation in Africa compared to other world regions
As long as productivity remains low, rural poverty will persist:
Agriculture is at the centre of life and economies in Africa. About 80 percent of Africans
depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, most of these through small farms of less than two
hectares. The very low productivity of these farms – in no small part due to the constraints that
women farmers experience – fuels the cycles of poverty and hunger in Africa2. Moreover, it
limits the export potential of the continent's agricultural products - a potentially important
income growth source – by reducing their competitiveness3. The continent must now develop
and invest in solutions to its farmer productivity and food supply problems or face greater
hunger, instability and lost opportunity.
Women are particularly affected, yet they hold much potential:
1
FAO Director-General during the 26th session of FAO’s Regional Conference for Africa in Luanda, Angola, May
2010.
2
Over 70% of Africa's poor live in the rural areas (International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) website:
http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/web/guest/region/home/tags/africa ).
3
NEPAD and FAO, 2002: Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)
6
A particularly significant dimension of the poverty and food insecurity problem is that treating
all smallholders the same has hindered the kind of impact that would result from meeting the
specific needs of women farmers, traders and processors. Due to unequal social relations,
technological advance can even lead to inequitable outcomes skewed against women.
Empirical evidence shows that gender inequalities impact negatively on families and the larger
economy, a finding supported by macroeconomic analyses on Africa by the United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World
Bank. For example, in “Can Africa Claim the 21st Century?” (2000), a study by the three
institutions concludes that, gender inequality is both an economic and social issue, and that
greater gender equality could be a potent force for accelerated poverty reduction in Africa4.
Comparative evidence from Kenya suggests that men's gross value of output per hectare is 8
percent higher than women's. However, if women had the same human capital endowments
and used the same amounts of factors and inputs as men, the value of their output would
increase by some 22 percent. Similar results have been recorded in other countries, such as
Tanzania, and Burkina Faso. Understanding the nature of the disparities between men and
women in agriculture, and acting deliberately to remove them, is one of the key tasks of
poverty reduction strategies.
Climate change is now a complicating factor:
The growing effects of climate change are compounding these problems because African
agriculture is largely rain-fed and land degradation in recent decades has left natural ecologies
fragile. Over the course of this century, rising temperatures and changing precipitation
patterns are expected to reduce crop productivity by up to 50%, increase water stress for 75 to
250 million Africans by 2020 and result in more extreme weather events5. These latter are the
biggest threats to farmers; they further affect agriculture by damaging the infrastructure that is
so necessary for successful marketing systems.
Broad-based agricultural transformation is the answer:
Throughout the world, sustained increases in farmer productivity have primarily been sparked
by four principal interventions: 1) the introduction of new and better seed; 2) the creation of
more fertile soils on which crops are grown, 3) improved market access, and 4) enabling
agricultural policies. The International Food Policy Research Institute's (IFPRI) analysis indicates
that doubling staple crop productivity across Africa by 2015 would raise average national GDP
growth to 5.5% a year, lifting over 70 million people out of poverty. Furthermore, these gains
would ensure household and national food security and turn Africa from a food deficit area to a
surplus region with 20-40% lower food prices.
Glimmers of a potential African Green Revolution are evident in localized situations where
farmers have gained access to improved technologies and favorable marketing opportunities.
Yet overall, disjointed and gender-blind efforts hinder the widespread agricultural
transformation required. Only through comprehensive, gender-equitable efforts that involve
sustainable practices will it be possible to increase farm incomes and eradicate rural poverty.
The turnaround is best anchored in technical, social, institutional and market change. Past
4
Economic Commission for Africa. 2004. The Missing Link in Growth and Sustainable development: Closing the
Gap.
5
Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR4 - WGII, 2007.
7
attempts to bring about this broad change have faltered because they tended to emphasize
only one or two aspects of agriculture.
Rationale for AGRA’s involvement:
AGRA’s integrated programs and partnerships are designed to promote rapid, sustainable
agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers. AGRA’s work across the food value chain
facilitates and supports government and private sector efforts to improve the productivity of
the food staples such as maize, cassava, rice, groundnuts and cowpeas. AGRA works to expand
and sustain the availability of improved seed and fertilizer, improve farmers’ access to markets,
strengthen effective farmers’ organizations, and improve the policy environment – and do so in
ways that address the specific needs of women and benefit them. Together, these are the
interventions proven to transform agriculture around the world. The activities emphasize
strengthening overall livelihoods of individuals, conferring a high degree of sustainability.
AGRA is particularly well positioned to intervene in African agriculture to dramatically raise
farm productivity and clink smallholders to markets. The following key features of AGRA’s work
make it uniquely suited to triggering an equitable green revolution:




Investing across the food value chain: through four main programmatic emphases in
seeds, soil health, market access and policy whose operations are increasingly being
integrated. Each of the programs operates according to careful, in-depth situational
assessments and invests substantially through strategically designed interventions in
AGRA's countries of focus. Additional attention to credit provision and new work in
extension, farmer organization support and water management are all set to
significantly enhance the program investments. Altogether, this approach to agriculture
in Africa ensures that no one feature of the food system can cause the expected
transformation to falter, as has happened in the past.
Focusing on Africa’s core staples – maize, cassava, sorghum/millet, rice, and grain
legumes – means that AGRA helps the category of smallholders that make up a majority
of Africa’s poor farmers. Given their scale, unlocking the various opportunities available
for these staples results in the most progress in food and incomes.
Creative partnerships with public and private sector which make the technologies,
knowledge and skills smallholders need to improve their farming and marketing efforts
available and accessible. This particular AGRA capability and approach will prove
especially critical to ensure that the efforts endure well beyond AGRA's own
interventions. For example, the seed program's work to link public crop breeding
research institutions with private seed enterprises and networks of agro-dealers (most
of which are rural SMEs) stimulates a sustainable robustness in seed systems.
Increasing attention to women’s needs: AGRA recognizes that women are central to an
African green revolution that reduces both hunger and poverty. Realizing that
promoting gender equality could be a potent force for accelerated poverty reduction in
Africa6, AGRA is giving increasing attention to the specific needs of women and tailoring
its activities to ensure that women benefit substantively, including bringing on board
professional gender expertise.
6
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). 2004. The Missing Link in Growth and Sustainable Development: Closing
the Gap.
8
Through well-designed and executed monitoring and evaluation, AGRA is continually refining
its approach to the transformation task to ensure the greatest impact on the poor and food
security. Furthermore, internal and external financial and program systems audit processes are
carried out on a regular basis. To catalyze change AGRA works across three integrated
portfolios of strategic activities in 13 countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi,
Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
AGRA is well suited to carry out the proposed project as it has the requisite capacity to
successfully implement the proposed projects. To date AGRA has committed over US$ 158
million towards agricultural transformation in 13 African countries. Thus far, programmatic
experience shows that AGRA’s contribution can deliver real impact towards higher incomes
and increased farm output. With careful targeting of women in each activity, the benefits are
expected to accrue to them disproportionately. Selected achievements and lessons learned
indicate AGRA’s huge potential to achieve its Green Revolution goals:
 The Program on Africa's Seed Systems (PASS) has accelerated the release of 137 improved
crop varieties with 12,700 MT of certified seed produced and over 9,390 agro-dealers
trained. PASS support for new dynamism in the private sector, through Africa’s small and
medium seed companies, has increased availability of improved crop varieties to
smallholder farmers.
 The Soil Health Program’s (SHP) extension activities have established over 2,000 large scale
fertilizer use demonstrations in the 2009/2010 cropping season in the 13 AGRA focal
countries. Adopting integrated soil fertility management practices increases yield – in 3
years, 5,000 farm households in 20 pilot sites in Niger adopted better natural resource
management technologies, producing 50% more food as a result.
 Agro-dealers are critical for linking the flow of improved seed varieties and fertilizers with
farmers – the AGRA supported Agro-Dealer Program (ADP) has so far established a network
of 9,200 agro-dealers, leading to the increase in volumes of improved seed, fertilizer and
other inputs made available to smallholder farmers. AGRA has seen impressive results
through its work in this space in Kenya where travel distance for farmers to access inputs
on average decreased from 17 km to 4 km.
 Market Access has helped farmers’ to aggregate marketable volumes of the right quality
and linked them to the World Food Program’s Purchase for Progress (P4P) and other major
buyers. Substantial income improvements of up to 30% compared to farm gate prices have
resulted. Bulking of crop produce by smallholder farmers increases volume of sales and
income
 AGRA’s Policy Program, in partnership with a USAID team and the Ministry of Agriculture in
Malawi provided maize pricing and trade policy options to the Government of Malawi that
contributed to the lifting of the export ban and freed the high floor price on maize that
denied farmers market opportunities. Working with local stakeholders to analyze policies
and advocate for policy change produces positive results – AGRA mobilized local
stakeholders to support the review of seed and fertilizer laws in Ghana and Nigeria. The
Plant Bill was approved in Ghana following this process. In addition, following discussions
with AGRA and other partners, the Government of Tanzania recently announced a major
policy change: it has now liberalized foundation seed production.
 Through Innovative Finance, AGRA and its partners have provided loan guarantees to
leverage US$ 160 million from commercial banks to provide loans to farmers and others
involved in the agricultural value chain. The loans are available in five countries: Ghana,
9
Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. Lending to small scale farmers represents 75%
of all loan portfolios.
IV.
Country Specific Challenges and Opportunities
Malawi:
In this southeast African nation of 14 million people, 85 percent of the workforce is engaged in
agriculture. Malawi’s GDP per capita of US$756 is one of the lowest in the world, and more
than 65 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The smallholder sub-sector
occupies 1.8 million hectares; with over one-half of the households having less than one
hectare, and one-quarter having less than 0.5 hectare. The majority of households are unable
to meet their food requirements with about 27% of under-five children in Malawi are
underweight, and nearly 50% are stunted (UNICEF).
Farm productivity is generally low with only one-third of these farmers using fertiliser and most
of them using less prolific local seed. Another major challenge facing smallholder farmers in
Malawi is that of post harvest loss. The post harvest sector in Malawi is very crucial in ensuring
food security where over 90% percent of the food supply is produced in the rural areas of the
country under the rain-fed system. There is one major harvest in the year which has to cater
for the food needs of both the urban and rural areas throughout the year.
Malawi’s government remains strongly committed to improving the country’s food security,
through supporting and revitalizing food production and small-scale farming with considerable
success already achieved. In 2009-2010, the government allocated 12.8 percent of its annual
budget for this purpose. This exceeds the 10 percent target set by the Comprehensive Africa
Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), an initiative of the African Union’s New
Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Malawi was the sixth country to sign the
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) within the COMESA
region and the eighteenth country overall in Africa.
Role and Status of women in the agricultural sector:
Women contribute significantly to the country’s agricultural sector. They constitute about 60%
of the fulltime farmers and contribute nearly 70% of farm labor7. This notwithstanding, the
sector is characterized by very significant gender inequalities in areas of labor, access to and
control over factors of production such as land, credit, skills and decisions on benefits accruing
from inputs. Few women have secure land rights. Access to credit is the basis of increased
productivity and incomes is also a major challenge to women with only 10-15% having access
to credit compared to 45-55% of men. Even where women can obtain credit, men dictate its
use.
Zambia:
This Southern African nation has a population of 12 million people, 5.3 million hectares of
arable land, and a per capita income of US$800. Agriculture employs 85 percent of the labor
force, yet accounts for only 17 percent of total GDP, and 68 percent of the population live
below the poverty line. Nearly one-in-four children under the age of 5 is malnourished.
7
Government of Malawi. 2000. National Gender Policy.
10
Key challenges for Zambia’s smallholder farmers include limited access to credit to purchase
inputs and equipment, and poor road and storage infrastructure. While 35 percent of farmers
use inputs such as fertilizer, improper use keeps yields at only 10 – 40 percent of potential. The
customary land tenure system also fails to provide farmers with land security, and is
particularly disadvantageous to women.
Yet, Zambia is endowed with abundant water, an ideal climate for agricultural production and
ample arable land. In addition, Zambia’s smallholder farmers are embracing innovative
institutional and technical solutions to their challenges, and the country has begun boosting its
farm production. While Zambia has not yet signed its CAADP Compact, it has completed its
technical analysis in preparation for it CAADP roundtable and is expected to sign the CAADP
Compact soon. After growing by only 2.2 percent in 2006, the agriculture sector grew at a rate
of 7.2 percent in 2007.
Role and Status of women in the agricultural sector:
In Zambia, women are responsible for 49% of family labor allocated to crop production, while
men supply 39% and children 12%. On food crops, men prepare the land while women plant,
weed, harvest, store, market and process the produce. In general, men control factors of
production-capital, credit and technology. Few women have security of tenure of much of the
land, particularly under the patrilineal system under which children inherit from the father’s
lineage. Under customary law, household property is regarded as belonging to the husband,
thus women have limited claim at death or divorce8. In general, land ownership and acquisition
continue to pose a major hindrance to women’s participation in the agricultural sector. Access
to credit necessary to engage in market oriented agriculture that is the basis of increased
productivity and incomes is a challenge for women.
Rwanda:
Agriculture employs 90 percent of all workers and accounts for 43 percent of GDP in this East
African country of almost ten million people. Production of staple food crops takes place on
small plots, many less than 0.2 hectares. Their low levels of production leave people trapped in
poverty and make Rwanda a net importer of food. According to a 2006 analysis, 28 percent of
the rural population in Rwanda is considered food insecure, and an additional 24 percent
considered highly vulnerable to food insecurity. Almost one in five children under five is
malnourished. There are many factors leading to chronic food insecurity in Rwanda, including
soil erosion, and lack of access to markets and finance (USAID). These problems are further
exacerbated by climate change-related shocks which lead to more volatile, highly variable
rainfall in Rwanda, placing agriculture in a vulnerable and unpredictable position.
Role and Status of women in the agricultural sector:
Rwanda leads the rest of the world in terms of women’s representation and participation in
top leadership in both parliament and others key structures. Following the second general
election (2008) after the 1994 genocide, Rwanda became the first country ever to have a
majority of women in parliament, with at least 55% of MP positions going to women. A
majority of Rwandan women are subsistence farmers, engaged in household food production,
marketing and processing. It is however noted that, despite these great strides, women are still
limited in terms of control over economic resources due to culture and tradition. Despite the
8
World Bank. Milimo, M. et al. 2002. Zambia Strategic Country Gender Assessment. A Report of the World Bank
11
Government’s demonstrated practical and policy interventions, women in agriculture still face
challenges that need attention to help them to become competitive and benefit from sector
investments. Women have inadequate access to extension services and information necessary
for raising productivity and incomes. The about one-third of the families that are headed by
women are categorized as vulnerable from the perspective of income and other welfare
indices. Property ownership rights and access to land is governed by customary laws that
provide for land to be transferred to the son from the father.
For the last several years, the Rwandan government has been moving urgently to spur
agricultural production through an ambitious green revolution program. Rwanda was the first
country to sign the CAADP Compact in 2007. Rwanda’s commitment is registering success:
early efforts have increased farmers’ access to quality seed and fertilizers, leading to a 15
percent increase in food production in 2008 and a 16 percent increase in 2009.
Opportunities from this request:
The proposed Sweden-AGRA partnership provides an opportunity for AGRA to deepen its work
in seeds, soils, markets and policy work with special attention being given to women in three
selected countries. The partnership will seek to increase agricultural productivity, food security
and income for smallholder farmers in the selected countries through access to and use of
improved seeds and improved soil fertility. This request will promote in-field water
management practices that will help poor famers cope with wide swings in rainfall. The
program will also seek to improve security of land rights to women and other vulnerable
groups. The partnership will promote efficient and profitable output markets that offer higher
returns to smallholder farmers. To support the above interventions and ensure maximum
impact, the program will include activities targeted at farmer organizations (FOs) that serve
poor producers.
V.
Proposed Program Strategy
AGRA is requesting US $8 million from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support a
package of interventions in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda. The countries chosen for this
program have conditions that present valuable opportunities to intervene in agricultural
systems, both in terms of natural endowments and interventions to date. Furthermore, AGRA
has already made significant investments in these countries and has well established partners
in private, government and nongovernmental sectors. The three countries are making
progress, but significant effort is still needed to round out and expand current activities and
achievements. Without this additional effort, comprehensive transformation will not be
possible. The program strategy will seek to enhance smallholder access to improved
technologies of high quality seeds of improved varieties; improve soil fertility management and
fertilizer use; develop rural input markets to deliver appropriate technologies to smallholder
farmers; improve access to markets and reduce post harvest losses; develop strong policy
support systems focusing on women’s land rights; and strengthen farmers’ organizations that
support smallholder farmers.
Overall goal:
AGRA intends to extend current efforts towards agricultural transformation in the chosen
countries. The main objective of this program is to rapidly scale up food production in the three
selected sub-Saharan African countries and increase agricultural productivity, food security and
12
income among smallholder households – particularly among women. Promoting gender equity
will run throughout the project process and results.
Specific objectives:





To promote efficient and profitable output markets that offer higher returns to
smallholder farmers;
To increase smallholder farmer productivity from the use of new crop technologies that
are delivered to them efficiently and effectively;
To increase agricultural productivity through better soil health and water management;
To improve security of land rights to accelerate investment in sustainable soil, land and
water management technologies; and
To build the capacity of farmer organizations to improve their ability to respond to the
agriculture-related needs of their members, specifically smallholders.
Expected results:





Increased smallholder production from the use of higher-yielding crop varieties and
improved agronomic practices – all accessible to women farmers;
Higher returns from increased quantities of produce marketed due to reduced postharvest losses and linkage to markets, with women’s participation and benefits from
marketing rising;
Increased adoption of productivity enhancing soil, land and water management
technologies and practices, especially by women, due to enhanced security of land
tenure;
More effective and efficient farmer organizations, with higher participation of women;
Increased/enhanced participation of women: women to comprise at least 40% of the
beneficiaries impacted.
Gender approach for this program:
Women are central to an African Green Revolution. AGRA recognizes that women predominate
in African agriculture: they shoulder a majority of farm labor with a minority of resources,
while simultaneously raising children and running households. Yet women operate with serious
constraints. They often have unequal access to land, farm inputs, financing and education and
have limited control over these factors of production. In tandem, despite their substantial
contribution to agricultural production, they receive and control few of its benefits. In the
absence of rewards accruing to them, there is little incentive for them to invest in improving
their farm-related activities. Conversely, providing women with equal access to resources and
decision-making would have important poverty-reduction benefits for the family.
Women helping women:
Any efforts to intervene in smallholder farms must therefore include solutions to the particular
challenges Africa’s women farmers’ face. Empirical findings by AGRA pointed out that access to
information for women farmers is mostly from other female farmers. This “women helping
women” approach will help guide and enrich our gender strategy. AGRA is giving increasing
attention to the specific needs of women and tailoring its activities to ensure that women
benefit substantively, including bringing on board professional gender expertise.
To ensure that women are involved in and that they benefit from this program, AGRA will take
the following approaches:
13





VI.
Designing and delivering productivity and market access training to meet women’s
particular needs and schedules;
Strategic advocacy on issues that marginalize women in institutions such as farmer
organizations;
Practical interventions that support areas in which women are currently benefiting such
as rural female SME owners becoming agro-dealers;
Building women’s leadership capacity to enable them to influence the agenda of farmer
organizations;
Strengthening the women helping women approach by ensuring that some women
farmers or SME owners are well informed and equipped with knowledge and skills that
could be provided to other farmers
Integrated Interventions Designed to Increase Production
AGRA’s programs in four integrated areas of seeds, soil health, markets and policies; coupled
with strong partnerships across the African continent and cross-cutting initiatives such as
strengthening farmer based organizations and innovative financing, are addressing the
challenges faced by smallholder farmers. The proposed project will build on AGRA’s existing
and well-documented successful integrated interventions designed to increase agricultural
production while also building the value chain for sustainable growth. AGRA is already
investing in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda and additional support from the Government of
Sweden will allow AGRA to greatly augment its current work in the three selected countries,
building food security while increasing household income.
Methodology:
AGRA, in transforming today’s rural poverty into tomorrow’s prosperity has developed
methodologies for identifying partners and projects to maximize impact while remaining
nimble and agile enough to address specific needs in the agriculture value chain. To this end,
AGRA is a granting organization. This grant based implementation approach allows
considerable flexibility enabling rapid response to initiatives that respond to emerging social,
economic, commercial, institutional and political landscapes at various levels (community,
national and regional). AGRA brings value to the agricultural space by funding demonstrations,
driving innovation and collaborating with partners to scale-up successes. The AGRA structure is
highly decentralized for decision making purposes, enabling it to work closely with the
beneficiaries on the ground. The grantees have day-to-day decision making capacity. AGRA
staff takes responsibility for progress through overview, and responds to the on–the-ground
situation accordingly. This decentralized approach makes for greater flexibility and
accountability both towards our grantees and donor organizations.
Key Stakeholder Groups and Target Beneficiaries
AGRA recognizes that transforming agriculture is an enormous undertaking requiring
meaningful partnerships to catalyze change. As such, the organization engages a full range of
partners including: government officials, public institutions private sector enterprises and
beneficiaries in building, implementing and strategic overview of our projects. AGRA puts
beneficiaries, particularly women as they represent the largest number of smallholder farmers,
at the centre of our approach. This approach of emphasizing participation and leadership in
projects reinforces AGRA’s strategy which focuses on smallholder farmers, while ensuring
sustainability. The target beneficiaries of the proposed project will include smallholder farmers,
14
agro -dealers, SME’s dealing in farm equipment, seed companies, fertilizer wholesalers, farmerbased organizations, extension service agencies and government. Interventions across the
agricultural value chain that AGRA will focus on through the Sweden-AGRA partnership in the 3
selected countries for this proposal are highlighted below:
Market Access:
Specific objective addressed: To promote efficient and profitable output markets that offer
higher returns to smallholder farmers.
Launched in mid-2008, AGRA’s Market Access program directs investment and resources into
realizing meaningful improvements to the market infrastructure of the core food staples in
Africa. Market investments are the major activities planned within this program specifically
intended to ensure that farmers receive higher returns from the emerging surpluses resulting
from crop productivity investments – including those of AGRA. Africa’s smallholder farmers are
typically poor, fragmented and lack the access to credit, storage, information and markets that
would help them raise their living standards.
The most severe marketing constraint for poor farmers is the combination of inadequate
storage facilities, poor transport infrastructure, inadequate equipment and produce handling
methods – resulting in post-harvest losses of about 30% of crop production on average in
Africa. This erodes benefits from productivity gains and seriously impedes the achievement of
food security for the continent’s poor. Moreover, smallholders often do not leverage their
numbers to secure better prices. In addition, there are too few market channels – including
non-food uses of their output – to ensure poor farmers of ready markets. Finally, the overall
policy environment for agricultural markets often impedes farmers’ commercial efforts,
limiting the income improvements they can realize from their produce. Market Access’
objectives address each of these issues in the AGRA countries of focus.
Women feature to varying degrees in Africa’s food markets but their role is unquestionably
major. In general, they carry out 90% of the processing of food crops and 60% of harvesting
and marketing. Yet they face real constraints in performing and improving their market-related
tasks. Providing resources and support to women involved in marketing, therefore, will have
real impact on food security.
The Market Access program seeks to enhance the work of its AGRA counterparts. Examples of
the programs working together include:

SHP is using legume cultivation (e.g. soybeans) to improve soil fertility through nitrogen
fixation. However, because farmers do not have markets for their legumes, they tend to
accord them low priority. The Markets program is helping to link these farmers to
legume buyers such as WFP’s P4P so that they earn income from these crops as well.
Market Access has co-funded two such projects with SHP.

PASS has developed improved cassava varieties. Market Access is promoting the
adoption of these improved high yielding varieties among farmers and then linking
them to feed manufacturers who are using cassava as a substitute for maize.

Soil Health and PASS: Markets is stimulating agro-dealers to become produce off-takers,
in addition to their input-supply activity.
15

Policy: in the course of its work, Markets identifies issues that need policy attention and
supplies evidence required to form or modify policy. The Policy program then conducts
the necessary analysis and ensures that advocacy strategies arise to address the issues.
The opportunities for market development activities in the three countries are as follows:
Malawi: Malawi’s substantial public investment in agriculture has resulted in maize production
growing at a remarkable rate of 11% per annum over the five years from 2005 to 2009.
However, much remains to be done in the area of post-harvest handling and storage. AGRA’s
market investments in Malawi thus far include support to enhance market information
availability, reduce post-harvest losses and increase smallholder farmer participation in
improved structured trade systems.
Rwanda: In an effort to rebuild its agricultural sector, the Rwandan Government has put in
place the Strategic Plan for the Transformation of Agriculture (PSTA II). Existing interventions in
the agricultural value chains are focused on farmer training to improve productivity, but
minimal effort has been focused on market linkages. Additionally, there are a few
interventions focused on increasing access to finance and storage;
Zambia: The country has substantial agricultural potential with largely unexploited land,
abundant water, and a good climate. However, it has not been able to capitalize on these
opportunities owing to several key factors, including poor road and storage infrastructure
which have resulted in high transport costs, high post-harvest losses and limited access to
markets for many rural farmers. While a warehouse receipt system is in place, there has not
been much donor activity focused on training on appropriate usage of warehouse receipt
systems for farmers or on storage infrastructure. The country has a commodity exchange but
currently it does not serve smallholder farmers (SHFs).
East and Southern Africa: AGRA is partnering with USAID’s COMPETE program, the East African
Community (EAC) and the Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) to develop and advocate for
policy on grain grades and standards. The Policy program will work through the Policy Action
Nodes to support the drafting of laws and suggest effective enforcement methods. This activity
focuses on the East African Community (EAC) at the moment but is planned to expand to SADC
and COMESA countries. Having these grades and standards will go a long way towards
promoting aggregation of smallholder produce and trade.
At the regional level of marketing activities, there is a new organization whose mission is to
support women traders: Women in Agribusiness in Sub-Saharan Africa Alliance (WASAA). It has
branch offices in eight (8) countries: Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, Angola, Tanzania,
Zambia, Kenya and Zimbabwe. WASAA’s vision is to promote access to markets and increased
trade for women entrepreneurs across the agricultural value chain. The Market Access
program believes that developing this higher level of markets has impact at the grassroots level
by ensuring that women at different levels have room to expand and progress their marketing
activities.
Specific market access activities planned are:

Provide market linkage support to farmers involved in Soil Health’s integrated soil
fertility management (ISFM) which involves increased production of legumes. Poor
farmers often do not have ready markets for these additional crops so the Markets
program provides the linkages they need.
16




Provide producers with storage facilities near their farms and build capacity in farmer
organizations to progress their marketing activities.
Help smallholders engage with structured systems (such as Zambia’s commodity
exchange) by aggregating their produce, ensuring access to storage and training to
meet quality standards.
Support stakeholder convenings towards regional grain grades and standards, expected
to take place from July 2010.
Capacity building support to the Women in Agribusiness in Sub-Saharan Africa Alliance
(WASAA)
Expected outcomes/impact:
The Market Access interventions are expected to result in:




The target farmers who produce surpluses seeing their revenues rise by 25% because
they will receive a greater share of the market price margins and will have more
produce volumes for the market due to reduced post-harvest losses.
The incomes of target farmers who have surplus produce increasing by 28%. This
income improvement will result from the higher prices they will obtain because
processed produce commands a premium and its lengthened shelf life puts the farmer
in a stronger bargaining position.
The project beneficiaries seeing their incomes rise by 50% as produce that currently
goes to waste is made available to the market, enabling them to sell greater quantities.
Regional trade improving, thereby widening markets for smallholder farmers who will
have the credit they need to invest in expanding their output. Consumers will benefit
from stabilised prices and trade between food surplus and deficit areas.
Program on Africa’s Seeds Systems:
Specific objective addressed: To increase smallholder farmer productivity from the use of new
crop technologies that are delivered to them efficiently and effectively.
AGRA’s Program on Africa’s Seed Systems (PASS) raises farmer productivity by promoting
viable seed markets, developing new varieties of high-yielding, locally-adapte crops and
improving the ways in which farmers’ access this critical input. PASS is AGRA’s earliest and
most established program. In this proposal, PASS activities in the three countries will focus on
two major areas:
1. Seed enterprise support - development of seed enterprises to ensure multiplication and
distribution of certified seed and improved planting material; and
2. Agro-dealer development - recruitment and development of agro-dealers. Women
active in rural SMEs will be particularly suitable candidates for agro-dealerships.
Seed enterprise support:
One of the primary goals of the PASS strategy is the establishment of a vibrant, competitive
African seed sector populated with numerous seed enterprises, independently pursuing
profitable operations while at the same time availing improved seeds to smallholder farmers
who are constantly realizing miserable yields due to continuous use of inferior seeds. PASS
supports small, rural seed enterprises to multiply and disseminate good quality seed of locally
17
adapted varieties. The seed enterprises can be private seed companies, NGOs, public
institutions, or farmer organizations.9
The approach PASS uses to support seed enterprises takes various forms: (1) Giving a one-time
grant to increase seed production capacity; (2) educating farmers on the value of using
improved seed; (3) packaging seed in small affordable packages; (4) offering business
development services through a team of seasoned consultants; (5) offering short term
specialized training courses at the Seed Enterprise Management Institute, that is housed at the
University of Nairobi in Kenya; and (6) provision of loans through venture capital investment.
In Eastern and Southern Africa, PASS has supported enterprises in eight countries; Ethiopia,
Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. However, three
countries Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia still need special consideration given the fewer
numbers of seed enterprises supported.
Malawi: In total PASS has supported four enterprises: two seed companies, one farmer
association and a national research program working with farmer associations to produce
cassava and sweet potato planting materials. Total seed produced by the two companies and a
farmer association following AGRA funding ranged from 1,031MT in 2009 to 1,547.7 MT in
2010 as opposed to 540 MT before funding. There is still a need for the supply of seeds in the
country, given the awareness created by these enterprises through demonstrations, field days,
radio programs and participation in agricultural shows. Also following AGRA support to the
national breeding institutes, more new, well-adapted varieties of maize, beans, cassava and
sweet potatoes have been released and their production and eventual dissemination to
farmers is desired. The anticipated funding is therefore timely.
Zambia: To date only two seed enterprises have been funded in Zambia. One seed company in
the last two years produced 2,246.1 MT against 587 MT before it received funding. The
government of Zambia has been concerned about the low numbers of farmers using improved
seed. It is encouraging them to form associations and then obtain training to produce quality
declared seed which meets minimum quality standards. This is being ensured by the seed
regulatory body in collaboration with public breeders who are supplying foundation seed.
Some of these farmer associations are being engaged by some seed companies as their outgrowers. The proposed project will build on these efforts.
In Rwanda two seed enterprises have received funding: the first and only private seed
company in Rwanda, and a farmer-cooperative. The seed industry is severely underdeveloped, with seed of cereal staples such as maize being imported directly from neighboring
country seed companies in Kenya and Uganda. This in itself poses a few challenges: (i)
Quantities are insufficient as the supplying countries prefer to first meet local demand before
considering orders from outside. Therefore amounts requested, leave alone the varieties of
choice, are often not obtained (ii) Varieties often supplied are neither adaptable nor having the
traits preferred by farmers (iii) Seed comes in late hence farmers miss the season. In view of
this, it is important that these efforts continue to a point where there is sufficient level of seed
9
The crop mix will depend on the country, the particular region within that country, and the capacity of the
organization. For instance private seed companies will rarely handle vegetative crops like cassava, while farmer
organizations & NGOs have no capacity to handle hybrids.
18
to meet a significant proportion of farmers’ needs. The government of Rwanda now more than
ever realizes the need to be self sufficient in seed requirements and is encouraging
entrepreneurs to invest in seed business and also assisting them to acquire some land for
production. AGRA will partner and support these national efforts.
Agro-dealer development:
In Zambia, AGRA funded a program to develop 438 agro dealers (AD) in 9 districts in the
provinces of Copperbelt, Eastern, and Central. So far, the project has surpassed its target and is
aiming at having 500 ADs recruited by the end of the project in 2011. The grant was used to
identify, train and certify ADs, and assist them to conduct market development activities to
develop demand for improved seeds among smallholders. PASS activities within this program
aim to build on this success by expanding the AD work into additional districts. Zambia is a
huge country with very poor infrastructure beyond the trunk roads and rail networks. It is also
sparsely populated posing a real challenge in reaching rural households. With this project, 3
more districts will be added, one from each of the provinces. At least another 180 ADs will be
trained, certified and linked to suppliers.
There is also need to support the development of the national agro dealer association so that it
can continue to offer member services in future. The support will go towards establishing a
formal management of the association as well as the necessary structures to enable it to
function as a professional entity. A constitution and Articles of Association will be drafted and
an annual general meeting (AGM) will be convened, at which the constitution & structures will
be ratified and the management elected.
In Malawi, PASS has been developing AD networks through the Malawi Agro-dealer Support
Project – MASP – which ran for 3 years until May 31, 2010, targeting the rural underserved
areas. At the moment, MASP is in a no-cost extension phase, with reduced activities, until end
of September 2010. However, assessment has shown that administrative challenges have
adversely affected the project's impact. Thus, although over 1,000 ADs received training, only
350 remain active full-time (against a target of 600). There is therefore a critical need to
strengthen the Malawian implementing agency as well as the agro dealer association in order
to ensure sustainable impact.
Through this proposed project, the Malawian agency will receive operational support to
strengthen its structures – notably the Board. At the same time the agro dealer association will
also be assisted to conduct an AGM and put in place an elected management body. The project
will work to design and conduct targeted training of existing and new ADs to ensure they
establish sustainable businesses. The target is to develop 100 new ADs and to give specialized
training to another 100 existing Ads, including those who have become inactive. The selection
of the ADs will be closely correlated with the existence of seed enterprises in order to promote
the linkages and ensure source of marketable seed supplies.
Expected outcomes/impact:
Over time the outcomes from the PASS projects will include:



Increased availability – in both quantity and geographical spread – of improved staple
crop varieties through expert smallholders, seed businesses and agro-dealers.
More women engaging in agro-dealerships in the rural areas.
More knowledgeable seed businesspeople able to advise smallholders on seed matters.
19
Soil Health Program:
Specific objective addressed: To increase agricultural productivity through better soil health
and water management.
The overall mission of the Soil Health Program (SHP) is to increase income, improve food
security and reduce poverty in Africa by promoting the efficient and economically sustainable
supply of fertilizer to farmers in Africa; and promoting the uptake of appropriate integrated soil
fertility management (ISFM) technology packages by smallholder farmers. SHP will work closely
with PASS to spread knowledge and stimulate widespread use of improved agricultural
methods in the three countries.
Often, women have fewer production skills than men because they lack access to training in
agronomic practices. SHP will make a concerted effort in targeting women and ensuring the
demonstrations and training are as suitable to the women’s needs as possible. The use of
grain-legumes as part of ISFM will also lead to improved household nutrition through better
supply and use of grain legumes that are protein-rich. This will be particularly beneficial to
women and children that have limited access to nutritious foods. Opportunities for AGRA Soil
Health program intervention in the three countries will include:
Malawi: There are ISFM technology packages available but lack of capacity to spread them.
Pigeon peas, groundnuts and beans have potential, including in export markets.
Rwanda: Various government and donor initiatives are promoting integrated soil fertility
management (ISFM) and a few on-the-shelf technology packages are available. However,
resource constraints in the extension system coupled with poorly equipped agro-dealers hinder
the widespread, consistent demonstration and sustained adoption of these packages.
Zambia: Whereas ISFM research is ongoing, it is difficult for technology packages to reach poor
farmers because the government extension system is understaffed.
Water management for climate resiliency: for Africa, the major climate change impact
revolves around water availability. Rainfall variability and rainfall intensity are expected to
increase, intensifying the need to make the best use of water when it does become available
and store some for when it does not rain. In addition, temperature increases will result in more
water loss to the natural cycle and water scarcity is expected to grow with population. The
continent’s poor small-scale farmers are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate
variability.
Water management solutions including storage, water-lifting, micro-irrigation and water
harvesting can have a significant impact on labor productivity and yield optimization while
serving to mitigate the effects of increased variability. Moreover, ensuring adequate soil
humidity is critical for the effective use of fertilizers.
Activities planned across the three countries will:

Extend integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) systems to support full-scale
solutions: support large-scale promotion of micro-dosing, cereal-legume intercropping,
and cereal-legume rotations in locations where they seem to be especially promising.
This objective will demonstrate that ISFM, including fertilizer use as critical to improving
yields for farmers;
20


Train farmer organisations and extension staff on good agronomic practices and
conservation agriculture that have both production and environmental benefits;
Promote in-field water management practices that will help poor farmers cope with
wide swings in rainfall
Expected outcomes/impact







Increased knowledge among smallholder farmers on the benefits of adopting ISFM
practices that integrate fertilizers (both organic and inorganic);
Increased knowledge and interests among farmers in adopting conservation agriculture
(including agro-forestry);
More knowledge and use of water-efficient cultivation methods among smallholders;
Increased productivity of smallholder farmers targeted;
Improved household nutrition through better supply and use of grain legumes that are
protein-rich. This will be particularly beneficial to women and children that have limited
access to nutritious foods;
Improved household incomes – at least 30% income increase over the baseline.
Strengthened extension services and farmer organizations addressing soil health
practices and approaches.
Policy program: Security of Land Rights:
Specific objective addressed: To improve security of land rights to accelerate investment in
sustainable soil, land and water management technologies.
The AGRA Policy program engages national governments and donors to establish an enabling
environment for triggering a green revolution in Africa. A major priority for AGRA is to ensure
that the Green Revolution (GR) benefits the rural poor, most especially women, and that it
does not exacerbate land inequalities. Poor farmers, especially rural women who produce most
of Africa’s food, need secure rights over their land if they are to have incentive to invest in the
kinds of land improvements needed for a GR, such as building small scale water harvesting and
irrigation infrastructure and reversing soil erosion and soil fertility loss. Control over land for
women often means that such control extends to the income and benefits the land generates.
Women’s poverty decreases significantly as a result. The opportunities for land rights activities
in the three countries are as follows:
Malawi and Zambia: Both countries have laws/or in the process of developing laws that
recognize women’s land ownership in their own right. However, implementation of laws often
encounters powerful localized customary institutions that prevent women from effectively
exercising their rights. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has resulted in many land rights issues regarding
inheritance and the danger of families losing land they do not use10. In some cases, titling
dispossesses women and orphaned youth.
In Malawi men own land and women often lose the land upon the death of their husbands.
Malawi also has some matrilineal areas/systems of land tenure. In neighboring Zambia,
although most of the country’s ethnic groups are matrilineal11, widows still lose land to their
10
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. 2003. Land tenure systems and sustainable development in
Southern Africa.
11
Matrilineality is societal system in which one belongs to one's matriline or mother's lineage, which can involve
the matrilineal inheritance of property and/or titles.
21
husband’s relatives. Moreover, lack of awareness of their rights and inability to buy their own
land restricts women’s access.
Rwanda: This country has the highest population pressure on land in Africa, exacerbated as a
result of the major refugee migrations (both into and out of the country) during and after the
1994 civil war and genocide12. There is ongoing review of the laws on land, with IFAD funding.
AGRA will support this review and build capacity to ensure that women are involved,
particularly to ensure that tradition-based biases against women are addressed.
Issues in matrilineal communities differ markedly from those in patrilineal13 societies.
AGRA land rights activities in the three countries will include:




Promoting dialogue and advocacy towards developing and/or harmonising laws that
improve women’s access to land and security of land tenure;
Supporting the implementation of progressive policies and laws to address constraints
that women and youth are facing with regard to land access and security of tenure
Promote the application of tools (e.g. developed by GLTN14) that support
implementation of progressive policies and laws to address constraints that women and
youth are facing with regard to land access and security of tenure. This will be achieved
through partnerships with NGOs, local authorities and grassroots community based
organizations.
Capacity building of policy analysis, advocacy and implementing agencies as well as
stimulating the establishment of Policy Action Nodes15 AGRA is at an advanced stage
in supporting similar nodes in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali and Tanzania and they
have already been successful in developing a common agenda/set of activities on land
issues that will lead to positive policy changes and impacts.
Where applicable, activities will link up with the Policy program’s Africa Parliamentary Support
for Agriculture (APSA) project under the auspices of the Association of European
Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA), especially in Rwanda where APSA activities are
underway
12
Rural Development Institute (RDI). 2006. Women’s land rights in Rwanda: How can they be protected and
strengthened as the land law is implemented?
Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute (JICA-RI). 2009. Conflict and land tenure in Rwanda
13
Patrilineality) is a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage and generally involves the inheritance
of property, names or titles through the male line as well.
14
A UN-HABITAT-initiated network which works with partners on “the18 key land tools which need to be
addressed in order to deal with poverty and land issues at the country level, across all regions”
(http://www.gltn.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=69 )
15
Policy Action Nodes are a well networked set of existing, separate institutions which are already conducting
research, policy analysis, advocacy, policy development and/or implementation. Through AGRA support, these
institutions are then linking and capacitated to enhance their functions, develop a common agenda for action
through a set of activities along a policy impact pathway in order to better address problems/realities on the
ground.
22
Expected outcomes/impact:



Improved legislative and land administration systems that formulate and implement
pro-women and pro-smallholder land use policies.
Increased women’s access to land by 30-50%.
Improved access to credit, investment in technologies and agronomic practices, leading
to raised productivity as more smallholders gain secure tenure over their land
Farmer Organization Support Centre in Africa (FOSCA):
Specific objective addressed: To build the capacity of farmer organizations to improve their
ability to respond to the agriculture-related needs of their members, specifically smallholders.
AGRA’s core programs carry out their work largely/often in association with farmer groups and
organizations. As much as smallholder farmers need to be organized to maximize on
economies of scale to ensure access to input and output markets, partnership with strong,
effective farmer organizations (FOs) is vital to enable AGRA to engage smallholder farmers to
achieve the required level of capacity. Growing evidence shows the potential positive impact of
producer organizations on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. They are often critical in
linking smallholders to markets; catalyzing the adoption of technologies and inputs;
encouraging effective soil fertility, land, and natural resource management; and articulating
and aggregating the voice of smallholder producers for engagement in policy formulation.16
For example, in a recent survey of cooperatives in Tanzania, 100% of the elected members of
agriculture/fishing cooperatives and 70% of managers reported that, being a member of a
cooperative raised their incomes.
However, FO membership rates in SSA are estimated at below 10% in contrast to the high
participation rates in OECD countries where the link with income is strong and well
documented.17 Moreover, many groups are institutionally and operationally weak, seriously
limiting their potential impact on poor farmers’ lives. From a gender perspective, women’s
membership and full participation is often constrained as registration requirements and
operational style may systematically exclude them. For example, even though they are
responsible for most agricultural production and are even the primary decision makers for 45%
of rural farms in Kenya,18 women only make up 25% of the membership of Kenyan agricultural
cooperatives.19 This problem is often particularly acute with larger farmer organizations.20
The Farmer Organization Support Centre in Africa (FOSCA) is a new model that will positively
transform the lives and livelihoods of smallholder farmers, especially women, by strengthening
the farmer organizations that serve them, and doing so in a sustainable and scalable way.
FOSCA will be a lean hub of specialized staff working to match the specific technical,
managerial and institutional needs of FOs with a network of accredited service providers who
will deliver a range of services targeted to meet the priority needs of FOs members, especially
women.
16
Evidence from AFAFO 2008b
17
Develtere P., Pollet, I., and F. Wanyama (eds) (2008). Cooperating out of poverty: The renaissance of the African
cooperative movement. 372pp ILO Geneva ISBN 978-92-2-120722-1
18
Martin, A. and V. Nelson, NRI 2008, for the BGMF Extension Strategy Team
19
Develtere et al 2008
20
Using evidence from Wennick el al 2008; AFAFO 2008a
23
FOSCA’s activities in this proposal aim to closely support the work of the Market Access, PASS
and Soil Health programs by:




Conducting initial rapid needs assessments of the farmer groups the programs will work
with. The assessments will include membership and representation of men and women
and a range of capacity gaps;
Identifying suitable service providers to meet the capacity building needs of the FOs;
Training and linking the service providers with the FOs;
Compiling and collating knowledge on FOs in order to build a database that will be a
resource for policy discussions
The Support Centre is keen to target and benefit women by structuring its activities
accordingly. Specifically, the Centre will promote women-friendly membership requirements
for organizations and ensure that women can access training on the skills they need to
participate fully at both membership and leadership levels.
As this will be the beginning of FOSCA’s operationalization, these activities will form part of the
Centre’s pilot phase whose outcomes will inform further work according to its implementation
plan.
Expected outcomes/impact:
FOSCA will measure its achievements against the changes observed in the farmer organizations
it works with. Expected outcomes include:




Increased professionalism, and transparency and accountability of FOs to members;
Improved member services that are relevant and valuable to both current and new
members;
Increased proportion of women as both members and playing functional roles within
their organizations; and
Improved and sustainable farmer based organizations
VII. Monitoring and Evaluation
AGRA’s Monitoring and Evaluation Unit (M&E)21, provides the organization with a vibrant
monitoring and evaluation system whose objectives are fourfold:


To capture the progress, success, and failures of AGRA and its partners.
To inform AGRA’s management decisions, strategic planning and risk
management.
 To demonstrate the outcomes and impacts of AGRA and to determine
whether these have been achieved cost effectively.
 To provide accountability to AGRA stakeholders.
Always observing the cardinal principles of technical excellence, analytical rigor, objectivity
and independence as well as working within a culture of learning and partnership, the M&E
system is built on the following principles:

A robust, realistic and timely results-based monitoring system
21 The unit is a relatively recent addition to AGRA: it began operating in October 2008.
24


External independent evaluations
Rigorous impact evaluations to attribute and demonstrate program success
or otherwise on the ground.
The M&E system involves a continuous process of assessing, learning and applying lessons
learned from the various program activities. Each stage of program implementation, from
planning and baseline studies to use of inputs, output generation and overall outcomes
receives systematic attention. Corresponding reports to stakeholders result from these
assessments. Risk monitoring is also an integral part of M&E’s work.
Monitoring and evaluation of this program will employ the following methodologies:








Development of Indicators: the program has developed indicators that will be used to
measure success (see Table 4 above). A detailed system of collecting data on the indicators
will be developed including information requirements, frequency of data collection,
responsibilities on data collection, data analysis and reporting.
Baseline Studies: AGRA is currently collecting baseline information on its broad based
strategy. The Program will use this baseline data. In addition, each grantee is required to
obtain baseline data specific to each project, mainly on the missing information in the
current baseline.
Farm Surveys: data about smallholder changes in incomes, their adoption of technologies
and their opinion (e.g. on the initiatives being offered to them) will come from a specially
designed and commissioned survey.
Secondary and Aggregate Data Collection: this instrument is a catchall for a number of
different tasks that will be undertaken to collect data for a wide range of indicators. These
tasks will include assembling and interpreting data for a given indicator from a diversity of
sources, including conducting face to face and telephone interviews to solicit information
from relevant institutions.
Special Studies: special studies are an instrument of both monitoring and evaluation. They
will play an important role in supplementing and deepening the findings from the farm
surveys and enriching impact evaluations by providing in depth investigation and analysis of
selected topics. They will involve supplementary household studies or other forms of
enquiry and use participatory forms of enquiry.
Impact Evaluations: these evaluations will be used to establish the extent to which
program interventions have expanded agricultural outputs, reduced rural hunger, grown
rural jobs and raised rural incomes.
Reporting: The M & E system plans to report to program management on all indicators at
least annually and to produce quarterly input/output monitoring reports structured
according to program objectives/outcomes. These quarterly reports will also include data
on outcomes as soon as it becomes available.
Audit – AGRA carries out rigorous internal and external audit processes for both financial
and program systems on a regular basis.
A detailed M&E logical framework reflecting the objectives, activities, outcomes, indicators and
assumptions and risks is included in the Appendix.
25
VIII. Budget
AGRA requests a total of US$ 8 million to support the investments outlined in this proposal
over a two-year period in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. This amount is distributed in the
following way:
Summary Budget (all programs)
Activity area
Market Access
PASS
Soil Health
Policy: Land rights
FOSCA
M%E (5% of total Cost)
Program Operation s (15% of total budget)
TOTAL
Amount (US $)
3,333,332
1,666,667
416,667
833,333
416,667
333,334
1,000,000
8, 000,000
Detailed Budget:
The following tables provide details on the budgetary allocations for each program's activities
within this project.
Market Access ($4 million)
#
Market Access activity
1
Provide market linkage support to
farmers involved in the SHP’s integrated
soil fertility management (ISFM)
activities which involve increased
production of legumes.
Provide producers with localized storage
facilities
Build capacity in farmer organizations to
progress their marketing activities
Help smallholders to participate in a
more transparent price discovery
mechanism by aggregating their
produce, ensuring access to storage and
training to meet quality standards
Improved trading mechanism by building
capacity of warehouse receipting system
and commodity exchange
Link smallholder farmers to non-food
users of their produce
Support stakeholder convening’s
towards regional grain grades and
standards, expected to take place from
January 2011
Provide capacity building support to the
Women in Agribusiness in Sub-Saharan
Africa Alliance
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Malawi
Rwanda
Zambia
Total
150,000
140,000
143,333
433,333
250,000
200,000
300,000
750,000
300,000
200,000
265,000
765,000
100,000
100,000
100,000
300,000
200,000
150,000
200,000
550,000
300,000
300,000
20,000
20,000
20,000
60,000
75,000
50,000
50,000
175,000
26
M&E (5% of program budget
Program Operations (15% of program
budget)
Total
69,750
43,000
53,917
166,667
209,250
129,000
161,750
500,000
1,674,000
1,032,000
1,294,000
4,000,000
Malawi
Rwanda
Zambia
PASS ($2 million)
#
PASS activity
1
Development of seed enterprises to
ensure multiplication and distribution of
certified seed and improved planting
material
Recruitment and development of agrodealers with special targeting of women
active in rural SMEs for agro-dealerships
M&E (5% of program budget)
330,000
440,000
220,000
990,000
350,000
0
326,667
676,667
34,000
22,000
27,333
83,333
Program Operations (15% of program
budget)
Total per Country
102,000
66,000
82,000
250,000
816,000
528,000
Soil Health activity
Extend integrated soil fertility
management (ISFM) systems to support
full-scale solutions: support large-scale
promotion of micro-dosing, cereal-legume
intercropping, and cereal-legume
rotations in locations where they seem to
be especially promising.
Train farmer organizations and extension
staff on good agronomic practices and
conservation agriculture that has both
production and environmental benefits
Malawi
45,000
Rwanda
45,000
Promote in-field water management
practices that will help poor farmers cope
with wide swings in rainfall
M&E (5% of program budget)
60,000
8,250
13,000
8,250
29,500
Program Operations (15% of program
budget)
Total
24,750
13,000
24,750
62,500
198,000
112,667
198,000
500,000
2
Total
656,000 2,000,000
Soil Health ($500,000)
#
1
2
3
Zambia
45,000
Total
135,000
60,000
41,667
60,000
161,667
0
60,000
120,000
27
Land Rights: $1 million
#
1
Land Rights Activities
Promote dialogue and advocacy towards
harmonising laws that affect women’s
access to land (Malawi Zambia)
Malawi
120,000
Rwanda
Zambia
130,000
2
Support the implementation of laws that
promote smallholder and rural women’s
access to land (Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia)
Promote the application of tools that
address constraints that women and
youth are facing with regard to land
access and security of tenure (all
countries)
Capacity building for implementing and
advocacy agencies as well as stimulating
policy action node types of activities.
M&E (5% of program budget)
60,000
33,333
50,000
143,333
70,000
50,000
70,000
190,000
Program operations (15% of program
budget)
Total per Country
250,000.00
total
250,000
250,000
12,500
16,666.65
12,500
37,500
49,999.95
37,500
300,000
400,000
300,000
41,667
125,000
1,000,000
FOSCA ($500,000)
#
1
2
3
FOSCA activity
Conduct initial rapid needs assessments of
the farmer groups the programs will work
with. The assessments will include
membership and representation of men
and women and a range of capacity gaps
FO with a strong women membership,
and working with the Market access
Program will be initially targeted for
greater alignment and components
Identify suitable service providers to meet
the capacity building needs of the FOs
AGRA will build on the result of FOSCA’s
interventions in P1 countries;
It will partner with and build on the work
of other Initiatives already investing in a
network of SPs
Train and link the service providers with
the FOs
AGRA will build on the result of FOSCA’s
interventions in P1 countries;
A priority will be given to FOs with
suitable outlook and already engaged in
the other program activities (Market
Access)
It will partner with and build on the work
of other Initiatives already investing in a
Malawi
40,000
Rwanda
24,000
Zambia
24,000
Total
88,000
32,000
16,000
16,000
64,000
72,666
48,000
48,000
168,666
28
#
4
5
6
7
FOSCA activity
network of SPs
To leverage additional resources in each
country, based on the results of the pilot
program
Compile and collate knowledge on FOs in
order to build a database that will be a
resource for policy discussions
This activity represents a key selling point
of program and its results should help
leverage additional resources for the
other components
It will partner with and build on the work
of other Initiatives already investing in a
network of SPs
M&E (5% of program budget)
Malawi
Rwanda
Zambia
Total
32,000
32,000
32,000
96,000
8,834
6,000
6,000
20,834
Program operations (15% of program
budget)
TOTAL
26,500
18,000
18,000
62,500
212,000
144,000
144,000
500,000
29