Increasing Farmer Incomes and Food Security
In the late 1990s Zimbabwe had a successful commercial farm sector, but its millions of smallholder farmers were poorly integrated into the cash economy and had extremely low incomes, largely because of poor access to productivity-enhancing inputs. Less than 10% of farm inputs sold in Zimbabwe reached smallholders, even though they outnumbered large-scale farmers 200:1.
In 1999, with a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), CNFA sponsored the creation of the not-for-profit Zimbabwe Agricultural Market Development Trust (Agmark) and helped Agmark launch the Rural Agricultural Input Supply Expansion (RAISE) Project. In late 2001 CNFA received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to expand the project into additional areas of Zimbabwe, but this funding ended in early 2004 due to the economic and political problems in the country. Under economic and supply conditions that were not ideal, pressures arose to depart from the private sector model and engage in humanitarian/relief strategies.
Still, Agmark achieved the intended target of 10 new trainers or training firms/organizations, the majority of whom were from Matabeleland and Masvingo Provinces in the marginal areas. Training of agrodealers by these trainers resulted in an additional 16 certified agrodealers. Under current economic conditions, demand from aspiring agrodealers dried up so there was no reason to train more trainers.
RAISE aimed to:
- Improve and expand agricultural input supply market development activities;
- Launch full-scale output-side market development activities for both crops and livestock; and
- Establish, on an experimental basis, a commercially based smallholder farmer credit program (credit will be extended by village agrodealers).
Planned activities in the country included training village agrodealers and sponsoring them for short-term credit from agricultural input supply companies; exploring ways to help southern Zimbabwe agrodealers overcome dispersion and remoteness problems; and implementing other strategies to develop the agricultural input markets. Despite harsh economic conditions, major accomplishments included:
- CNFA issued 250 guarantees for inputs.
- 10 supply companies and two financial organizations provided inputs to agrodealers on credit.
- CNFA designed a modular basic business management course.
- 1030 agrodealers participated in the basic business management training course.
- 37 independent commercial trainers trained to deliver the course.
