USAID, AGRA to Improve Smallholder Access to Crop Inputs
30 January 2014 
A coffee farmer in Sopacdi, Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo credit: Flickr user Twin and Twin Trading Images
The United State Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) have launched a new initiative to improve smallholder access to input and output markets.
The initiative, called Strengthening Agricultural Input and Output Markets in Africa (SAIOMA), is a three-year alliance between USAID, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is also being implemented in Kenya and Malawi.
The SAIOMA initiative will benefit 35,000 smallholder farmers, 468 agro-dealers and 30 small/medium enterprises, and will be implemented in six districts in East and Central provinces in Zambia.
Zambia’s Permanent Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock, David Shamulenge said that access to inputs and output markets for agricultural commodities remains a key challenge for rural farmers who continue to face major challenges in the agricultural sector.
“Although our agricultural sector has been growing at 7% per annum in the recent years, this has not resulted in increased incomes for rural households who depend on agriculture,” Shamulenge said, adding that limited access to improved and certified inputs, inefficient input and output markets are among the challenges contributing to this slowdown.
He added, “it is also commendable to note that the SAIOMA project does not only seek to improve production and productivity, but to link farmers both input and output markets as well.”
By strengthening agricultural input and output markets for resource-poor farmers, the SAIOMA initiative is aimed at creating a conducive business environment for farmers to have value for their produce, increase their profits and build on their capacity to produce more to contribute to and complement food security efforts.
“The SAIOMA initiative is timely because it addresses a felt need in the agriculture value chain — that of ensuring that farmers have access to inputs to raise their productivity and are facilitated to sell their produce profitably to increase their overall earnings from improved agricultural practices. It is a win-win for all partners involved,” said Dr Anna Toness, Economic Growth Team Leader, for USAID Zambia.
“The SAIOMA initiative complements AGRA’s other market access initiatives and in Zambia we aim to work closely with government representatives in the eastern province in alignment with their own agricultural growth priorities” said Anthony Ngosi, SAIOMA Program Lead.
The project components include: farmer organization mobilization and training, productivity enhancement, financial management, produce aggregation and linkage to markets, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting.
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