Posts Tagged: AGP-LMD

USAID Administrator Gayle Smith Visits Abergelle Abattoir in Ethiopia

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Building “Win-Win” Relationships Between Smallholder Producers and Dairy Processors in Ethiopia | Agrilinks

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Ethiopia’s dairy sector has the potential to not only significantly increase the availability of nutritious milk and dairy products for consumers, but to also enable its smallholder livestock farms to be nationally and internationally competitive.

Ethiopia has 52 million head of cattle—the highest population in Africa—including 10.5 million dairy cattle. In 2011, the country produced 3.3 billion liters of milk—an extremely disappointing 1.5 liters per cow per day! Less than 5 percent of Ethiopia’s milk flows through “formal channels” to dairy processors who sell pasteurized milk and dairy products. These channels suffer from low dairy cow productivity due to a lack of knowledge among smallholders about dairy cow feeding management, poor access to genetically selected bulls for breeding, and inadequate handling of milk that results in post-milking losses of up to 35 percent. As a result of these shortfalls, cooperatively owned milk collection centers struggle to collect enough milk to fill their cooling tanks, which drives up raw milk procurement costs for their client milk processors.But despite these challenges, the Feed the Future-financed USAID\Ethiopia Agricultural Growth Program-Livestock Market Development (AGP-LMD) Project, implemented by CNFA, sees the dairy sector as an opportunity to stimulate economic growth in rural Ethiopia and create a vibrant and competitive livestock industry driven by and built on both public and private investment.

The AGP-LMD Project intends to increase production by 200,000 liters per day through additional milk collection, processing and marketing, which in turn is expected to result in 10,000 off-farm jobs. One of the keys to the success of the Project’s dairy sector goals is the improvement of the business capacity of milk-processing entrepreneurs who are willing to engage with smallholder producers. Hiruth Yohannes, a Project client, is a dairy processor who has been able to improve the quantity and quality of her firm’s milk products while serving as the principal buyer of raw milk from approximately 2,000 smallholder dairy producers.

The AGP-LMD Project supports processors like Hiruth with grants to purchase equipment in order to increase daily processing capacity followed by the development of business-to-business (B2B) relationships that enable win-win opportunities for producers, processors and consumers. The approach builds on existing smallholder production systems, developing market-driven business relationships for these smallholder farmers, which provides further incentive to increase productivity and reduce spoilage, putting more quality raw milk into the cooling tanks of cooperatives and reducing procurement costs for processors. Hiruth established her business relationships with the smallholder farmers by supplying them with high quality animal feed on the basis of credit that is paid back through milk sales. As a result, producers now get two to three liters of additional milk per cow per day which results in an additional $4.00 per day in milk sales and netting $2.00 per day in additional household income.
The formalization of the milk value chain and the establishment of processing plants like Hiruth’s provide smallholder producers with a reliable, supply-based relationship, with processors providing them with opportunities to invest in their own productivity. Additionally, processors like Hiruth reduce the business risk of smallholder producers by consistently purchasing milk 365 days per year.

The case of Hiruth and the 2,000 smallholder producers from whom she buys is just one example among many that demonstrates the benefits of AGP-LMD’s unique dairy value chain development approach in Ethiopia. When smallholder producers are certain their milk will be purchased, they are subsequently more willing to increase investments in better feeds and in better cows, which raises the productivity of herds that supply Ethiopia’s dairy processors, and generates increased incomes for the smallholder families that supply them.

In summary, the AGP-LMD Project’s investments in formal dairy processing create win-win business relationships that benefit processors as well as smallholder farmers!

It won’t happen overnight, but we have already seen how our program has positively impacted Ethiopia’s dairy sector, thus strengthening the country’s dairy industry and helping it meet its full potential. Working at both ends of the dairy value chain in Ethiopia is creating “win-wins” for everyone!

For further information contact Marc Steen, USAID AGP-LMD Project chief-of-party at msteen@cnfaethiopia.org.

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AGP-LMD Opens New Livestock Feed Manufacturing Facility in Ethiopia

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The U.S. Government, through the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Agricultural Growth Program-Livestock Market Development activity, today held a ribbon cutting ceremony to open a livestock feed manufacturing facility financed, in part, through a USAID grant to Ethio-Feed PLC.

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CNFA President and CEO Tours Four Programs

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On November 5-7, CNFA President and CEO Sylvain Roy visited the CNFA Amalima project in Zimbabwe, funded through USAID’s Office of Food for Peace, to engage with staff and to see program activities firsthand. Roy first stopped at the Nkunzi clinic in the Tsholotsho District of Zimbabwe where Amalima is rehabilitating clean drinking water sources and installing 10 new pit latrines which will allow 1,500 men, women and children from the surrounding areas to access clean water and facilities. From there, Roy traveled to the site of Amalima gully reclamation activities where nearly 500 community members are working together to restore communal grazing lands. These areas, compromised by the effects of severe erosion, are left with deep gullies that break up the landscape and pose threat to cattle. Amalima guided community members to construct stone and wood retaining walls and plant sisal to stop further erosion and reduce the flow of water. On his final day in country, Roy met with the USAID Mission staff, where they expressed their appreciation for Amalima’s accomplishments and look forward to the program’s continued success.

From November 8-12, Roy traveled to Ethiopia to visit two CNFA programs: the Agricultural Growth Program-Livestock Market Development (AGP-LMD) project and the Commercial Farm Service Program (CFSP). While in country, Roy met with USAID staff to discuss the successes and milestones of each project and then met with each teams’ staff members. After meeting with staff, Roy remarked, “Both AGP-LMD and CFSP are excellent projects with strong staff and management capacities who are continually adapting to implementing constraints and opportunities. It is clear to see how both programs are making positive contributions to the Feed the Future initiatives in Ethiopia. I look forward to the opportunity to return to Ethiopia to visit program activities and grantees in the future.”

From November 12-14, Roy traveled to Georgia to visit two ongoing CNFA Programs: The Restoring Efficiency to Agriculture Production (REAP) program funded by USAID and the Rural Economic Development (RED) program funded by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). Since 2006, CNFA has implemented seven agricultural development programs benefiting more than 200,000 smallholder farmers and more than 300 agribusinesses in Georgia. While in Georgia, Roy discussed CNFA’s past and present successes with U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, Mr. Richard Norland, USAID Mission Staff and the Food Safety and Rural Development Attaché of the European Union Delegation to Georgia, Mr. Juan Echanove. Roy also visited two of CNFA’s past grantees from the MCC funded Agribusiness Development Activity (ADA): Farm Service Center in Gurjaani, Agrospero, and a milk processing factory in Tibaani village of Kakheti region. In addition, Roy visited one of REAP’s 37 recently approved grant projects that will establish a modern farm service center that will benefit more than 6,000 farmers from Signagi district of Kakheti Region.

From November 15-17, Roy continued his tour with a visit to CNFA’s newest USAID funded program, the Agricultural Support to Azerbaijan Project where he met with USAID and program staff.

 

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AGP-LMD is Featured on AllAfrica.com

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Read how USAID is empowering women in Ethiopia through trainings in livestock production, leadership and entrepreneurship.

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AGP-LMD is Featured on USAID’s Impact Blog

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Read how USAID is empowering women in Ethiopia through trainings in livestock production, leadership and entrepreneurship.

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AGP-LMD Attends the African Livestock Exhibition and Congress

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Check out photos from AGP-LMD’s participation in the African Livestock Exhibition and Congress (ALEC).  AGP-LMD sponsored 20 of its value chain businesses to participate with booths.

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U.S. Awards Eight Grants to Ethiopian Enterprises

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USAID’s Livestock Market Development Project Kicks Off School Milk Day Events

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The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), today kicked off the first of 14 events known as “School Milk Days” at the Wushawushign Primary School in the Amhara Region.  The purpose of these events is to increase the awareness and knowledge of school age children, parents, and teachers about milk.

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