Jul 14, 2014

CNFA Joins Devex’s #FeedingDev Campaign

CNFA is thrilled to be joining Devex on the Feeding Development campaign! Feeding Development is an online conversation hosted by Devex to reimagine solutions for a food-secure future from seed and soil to a healthy meal. Through various media channels, Devex has been taking part in the #FeedingDev conversation through blogs, videos, tweets and many more opportunities to reach around the world! Now it’s our turn!

Since September 2012, CNFA has been implementing the Commercial Farm Service Program (CFSP), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to establish six private and cooperative-owned Farm Service Centers (FSCs) that provide a complete range of high quality inputs, services, information and output marketing linkages.  For 70 percent of the developing world, agriculture is the main source of income and employment.  In Ethiopia, agriculture accounts for almost half of the country’s GDP, 90 percent of its exports and is the main source of income for over 85 percent of the population – which these days is nearing 100 million people.  Despite its mass importance, agriculture in Ethiopia is characterized by low productivity with most smallholder farmers having limited access to inputs, information and services.  CFSP is part of President Obama’s Feed the Future Initiative  – which aims to help vulnerable households participate in economic activities and bring jobs and income opportunities for rural households.

CFSP builds upon CNFA’s track record of developing networks of input supply retailers in Afghanistan, Georgia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Moldova, Romania, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.  These “one-stop-shops” for local, smallholder farmers demonstrate a profitable business model that is based on a large volume of individually small transactions with small farmer clients. CFSP’s FSC network is driven by and adapted to local production, markets, entrepreneurs and context and serves more than 30,000 Ethiopian smallholders. CFSP has relied on a team of experts in various fields to establish this new and first of its kind network of Farm Service Centers in Ethiopia.

The CFSP team is ready to share their experiences with you.  Have you ever wondered how the supply chain model really works? Or how expanding a network can lead to effective and established commercial enterprises?  Maybe you just don’t quite understand how this could possibly work in Ethiopia. Whatever it may be, we will do our best to give you a thorough, understandable answer. With a history of success and current initiatives centered around expanding Ethiopian smallholder’s access to inputs, training and services, we are ready to share our knowledge with you!

Send us your questions via Facebook or Twitter using #CFSPQuestions over the next few days as they relate to input supply and environmental protection and our experts will respond with their valuable insight! You have until July 17 to let us know your inquiries! After you submit a question or two, stay tuned for our video response that will be posted on July 25!

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook by using the hashtag #FeedingDev and be sure to follow @CNFA and @Devex to get the most up-to-date information about #FeedingDev and our participation with #CFSPQuestions.