Local farmers set to benefit from productivity initiative
Smallholder farmers from Malawi and three other sub-Saharan Africa countries are set to boost their productivity and food security benefit from a partnership between ETC Group and World Bank Group member International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The partnership will see an increasing access to critical agricultural inputs and training services in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Through the project, which will run between July 2022 and December 2025, ETG and IFC will work with smallholder farmers across ETG’s maize, soya beans and groundnuts supply chains to enhance the sustainability of these crops, improve last mile distribution of inputs such as fertiliser and increase market linkages for an estimated 200 000 smallholder farmers.
ETG’s agri-inputs business division, with the support of the Empowering Farmers Foundation, will implement the project with IFC, the private sector financing arm of the World Bank Group.
In a statement on Tuesday, ETG Group chief treasury officer Anish Jain said the initiative will also assist with introducing sustainable practices and in turn, increase farmer livelihoods.
“We are delighted to partner IFC on this project. Development of smallholder farmers is critical to addressing a looming food crisis,” he said.
On his part, IFC manager for agribusiness and forestry in Africa Samuel Dzotefe said the project is an opportunity for ETG Group and IFC to boost the business capacity of small-scale agricultural service providers and the productivity of smallholder farmers.
“This is an important moment to accelerate local and regional food production and to strengthen the resilience of Africa’s agricultural sector,” he said.
The first project under the partnership will officially launch in Zambia this month followed by Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.
The core focus of the project will be training different groups of stakeholders, including ETG field extension staff, agro-dealers, village-based agents and farmer organisations.
IFC will provide capacity building under its Agribusiness Leadership Programme to help smallholder famers, farmer organisations and other actors along the supply chain to conduct sustainable farming practices, incorporate climate change risk mitigation and efficient use of agricultural inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides.
