Deep Roots

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Image: WFP/Francisco Fion

The ECA San Vincente farmers’ organization has doubled production and improved crop quality, since it began participating in P4P

for smallholder farmers. Through partnerships coordi-

nated by the Government’s Agricultural Transformation

Agency, P4P provides the platform around which to effec-

tively coordinate the support needed to build smallholder

farmers’ capacity to engage in structured markets. With its

creation, an effective mechanism was formed that brought

together several important players supporting the maize

value chain. The Government of Ethiopia has recognized

maize as vital to economic growth and development in the

country. In Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique, government

partnerships are further strengthened through the Purchase

for Africans from Africans (PAA Africa) programme, which

is jointly implemented by FAO and WFP. PAA Africa was

inspired by Brazil’s national Programa de Aquisição de

Alimentos (Food Purchase Programme). In these countries,

as well as in non-P4P countries Niger and Senegal, small-

holders are supported to market a variety of fresh and staple

crops to home-grown school feeding programmes. This has

contributed to the testing of innovative financial models. For

example, in Ethiopia and Malawi, funds have been trans-

ferred from WFP to district departments of education or

schools, allowing them to purchase food directly from local

farmers’ organizations.

Triggering innovation

P4P has provided the impetus for public, private and civil

society actors to leverage their investments to better respond

to the needs and potential of smallholder farmers, and has

proven that linking them to formal markets is a viable invest-

ment. Emerging evidence now shows that a wide variety of

stakeholders, including governments, financial institutions

and local leaders, have recognized the value of these invest-

ments, benefiting smallholder farmers, their organizations

and communities in various ways.

Microfinance institutions, banks, input suppliers, WFP

and other partners have now collaborated to make finan-

cial services available and affordable in remote areas. New

solutions include providing smallholders with financial

management and literacy training, as well as the use of

food supply contracts and warehouse receipts as collateral

for loans. Thanks to these initiatives, farmers’ organiza-

tions have been able to facilitate access to credit for their

members and to acquire productive resources, enabling

them to produce larger quantities of high quality food and

to aggregate and market crops collectively. Forward delivery

contracts (FDCs) have proven effective in several countries.

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia has endorsed FDCs as

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