New Partnership Launched in Northern Mozambique Focus to Build Rural Markets, Raise Productivity and Incomes of Smallholder Farmers

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the Mozambique Government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development Join Forces

MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE (17 August 2009) – The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) announced today that it is joining forces with the Government of Mozambique and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in support of PROMER, the Rural Markets Promotions Program. PROMER is a long-term initiative committed to helping small farming households make the transition from subsistence to market-oriented agriculture.

PROMER seeks bigger harvests and higher incomes for hundreds of thousands of poor rural farmers in Mozambique’s northern region, a fertile area with strong agricultural potential. IFAD initiated the US $40.6 million program in April 2009 and is contributing US $31.1 million to the project. AGRA will contribute US $2.5 million over the next three-years, an amount that may thereafter be increased.

“This program will help smallholder farmers surmount a huge obstacle: access to markets,” said Dr Namanga Ngongi, President of AGRA. “It will expand market opportunities by strengthening associations of farmers and traders that buy farmers’ surplus, and broaden their business scope to include basic activities that add value to farmers’ produce, such as grading and storage of goods.”

In addition, PROMER will strengthen networks of agro-dealers, the small-scale village vendors who sell farmers critical farm inputs, such as quality seed and appropriate fertilizer. Increased access to such inputs is seen as key to raising farm productivity in Mozambique, where one-third of households do not have enough food to eat, and one out of five children under 5 years of age suffer from malnutrition.

“Most of the Mozambican rural households rely on agricultural activities for food and income generation. However, poverty among the rural families is still significant as they are unable to profit from their labour”, said Aiuba Cuereneia, the Mozambican minister of Planning and Development. “The partnership between the Government of Mozambique, IFAD and AGRA will contribute to empowering farmers and traders and boosting economic growth in 15 districts of 4 northern provinces of Mozambique.”

Across northern Mozambique, farmers are dispersed over such large distances and produce so little surplus--often only a few buckets a season--that it hardly justifies the effort and expense of getting that surplus to a market. PROMER seeks to change this through supporting the development of traders who link farmers to markets.

If farmers access markets at all, they do so through small-scale traders, agro-dealers, or farmers’ associations. PROMER builds the capacity of these market intermediaries, who are a critical link in the food chain. They sell, in turn, to larger traders and processors. However, most front-line market intermediaries are hampered by weak business know-how and limited financial resources.

Under the agreement announced today, AGRA will work with Mozambique’s Ministry of Planning and Development (DPNR) to improve the entrepreneurial capabilities of farmers’ associations, small-scale traders, and agro-dealers. It will pay special attention to involving women, with training in literacy and numeracy.

Strengthening Farmers’ and Traders’ Associations

Farmers’ associations exist to give individual farmers opportunities to cost-effectively obtain inputs, access credit and market their surplus. And, while there are many farmers’ groups in the area, ranging in size from about 30 to more than 1,000 farmers, they typically lack the capacity to effectively represent their members.

“We will build the capacity of farmers’ organizations, through trainings and ongoing mentoring, so that they are able to endow their members with true negotiating power,” Ngongi said. “Our goal is to create a critical mass of well organized associations that can fully represent their members and sell large quantities of produce to bigger buyers.”

The program will promote the development of small and medium-sized rural businesses that offer marketing services to farmers. It will train traders in business skills, help them access to affordable credit, and reach beyond their immediate geographic areas.

It will provide support for small-scale value addition activities, especially for crops such as groundnuts, sesame and beans. Simple activities such as hulling, cleaning, grading and storage can significantly add value to products, and increase the end price enjoyed by farmers.

The partnership adds to the many investments AGRA has made in Mozambique. These include support for production of high-yield, disease-resistant varieties of maize, sorghum, rice, cassava and sweet potatoes; providing affordable loans to smallholder farmers and the agribusinesses that serve them; training a new generation of crop scientists with expertise in local farming; and partnering in the development of major infrastructure improvements, including the Beira Agricultural Growth Corridor.

Mozambique is one of four countries seen by AGRA as having a high agricultural potential based on possessing large areas with a particularly promising set of features. These “breadbasket areas” typically have a high concentration of smallholder farmers, and relatively good soil, rainfall and infrastructure. In addition to Mozambique, AGRA is paying special attention to developing breadbasket areas in Ghana, Mali and Tanzania.

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About the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
AGRA is a dynamic partnership working across the African continent to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. AGRA programmes develop practical solutions to significantly boost farm productivity and incomes for the poor while safeguarding the environment. AGRA advocates for policies that support its work across all key aspects of the African agricultural value chain ­from seeds, soil health and water to markets and agricultural education.

AGRA's Board of Directors is chaired by Kofi A Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations. Dr Namanga Ngongi, former Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme, is AGRA's president. With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK's Department for International Development and other donors, AGRA works across sub-Saharan Africa and maintains offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Accra, Ghana.