Deep Roots

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P4P pilot countries

Africa:

Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),

Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique,

Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia

Asia:

Afghanistan

Latin America:

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua

supply chain in the 20 pilot countries. These partner-

ships have supported smallholders to access the skills and

resources needed to most effectively market their crops to

formal markets. Partners include host and donor govern-

ments, non-governmental organizations, United Nations

agencies, academic institutions, research bodies and private

sector partners. Two key WFP partners throughout the P4P

implementation have been the United Nations Food and

Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund

for Agricultural Development (IFAD). FAO facilitated small-

holders’ access to agricultural inputs and training, while

IFAD supported representatives from farmers’ organizations

and partners in their negotiations with financial institutions

where programmes aligned.

Due to deeply-rooted challenges faced by rural small-

holder farmers, capacity development efforts are vital to

linking them to markets. Thanks to active engagement with

partners, nearly 800,000 farmers, agricultural technicians,

warehouse operators and small and medium traders have

been trained in a variety of topics. These include improved

agricultural productivity, post-harvest handling, quality

assurance, group marketing and business management.

By bringing WFP’s demand for quality food into the

equation, P4P has been able to enhance partners’ capacity

development efforts by providing smallholders with a tangi-

ble market opportunity. This has provided an incentive

to learn new skills and stimulated investment to enhance

agricultural productivity. The assured market presented by

WFP also ensures that smallholders can sell their quality

surplus for premium prices, and don’t risk losing on their

investments. During the pilot period, WFP contracted

over 450,000 metric tons of food commodities, valued at

more than US$177 million, using procurement modalities

that address the various marketing constraints of small-

holder farmers. The majority of the food was purchased

through farmers’ organizations, but some quantities also

came from small and medium-sized traders and marketing

platforms such as commodity exchanges and warehouse

receipt systems.

While the need for capacity development is often exten-

sive, the overall P4P experience has shown that when

smallholder farmers see the benefits of engaging with

formal markets and are provided with appropriate support,

they will seize market opportunities and respond to quality

demands. Not only have P4P-participating smallholders

sold to WFP, but with the technical know-how and confi-

dence built from these sales, they have also marketed more

than 150,000 metric tons of quality commodities to other

institutional and private sector markets, valued at an esti-

mated US$63 million.

Government engagement

Almost without exception, pilot country governments have

embraced the P4P concept. Their engagement and the pres-

ence of an enabling environment has proven to be vital for

effectively linking smallholder farmers to markets. The

methods tested through P4P have presented governments

with innovative tools to support smallholder farmers, with

a number already developing initiatives modelled after or

similar to P4P.

The Government of Rwanda has taken ownership of the

P4P project through the creation of a government-run initi-

ative called Common P4P (CP4P). CP4P is implemented

through the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources,

which buys up to 40 per cent of the requirements of the

National Strategic Grain Reserve from smallholder farmers’

organizations. P4P’s role has been to support the Government

to design a programme which best fits the country’s needs,

while mobilizing partners to train participating farmers in

post-harvest handling and storage. The successful adapta-

tion of smallholder-friendly procurement models has led

the Rwandan Government to host several exchange visits

from countries including Burkina Faso, Ghana and Kenya.

Today, the Government of Burkina Faso is beginning to

implement a project similar to P4P, with the national food

reserve committing to procure 30 per cent of its purchases

from smallholder farmers’ organizations.

In Ethiopia, the Government has made programmes such

as P4P central to national policies, enhancing opportunities

Image: WFP/Charles Hatch-Barnwell

A WFP warehouse manager at Malawi’s national food reserve in Lilongwe

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