Posts Tagged: Devex

Commercial Farm Service Program Team Answers Questions as part of #FeedingDev

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As part of Devex’s #FeedingDev campaign, the Commercial Farm Service Program (CFSP) in Ethiopia wanted to hear from you!  That is why CFSP opened the discussion for anyone to ask the team questions via Facebook and Twitter #CFSPquestions.  Here are video answers by Dr. Waktola Wakgari, Chief of Party of CFSP, answering questions that were submitted over the last two weeks.

Question 1:  Nowadays, the agriculture and agribusiness sector has the interest of promoting the “value chain approach” as a way to increasing smallholder farmers’ lives and livelihoods. Taking that into account, which stage of the agricultural value chain would you say is the most challenging in Ethiopia –  or rather, which stage of the agricultural value chain in Ethiopia requires the highest intervention to ensure farmers and their families have better lives?

Question 2: Would you say agrodealers are the best thing that happened to smallholder farmers or would you say that such merchants put the farmers access at risk of finding a fair price for products? If you say they put the farmers at risk more than they help, what should be done to minimize this risk of expensive and/or adulterated products?

Question 3: What do you do with the waste of vegetables grown and are not sold and that eventually have to be thrown away?

Question 4: How would you say a smallholder farmer could be safe from risks  of using hazardous plant protection products and what has been done up to now in relation to reducing the risk and protecting farmers’ lives?

Question 5:  How can one reduce the negative impact of plant protection products on environment?

If you have any questions about CFSP, please contact Kathryn Karl (kkarl@cnfa.org).

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Hear How CNFA is Building Input Supply Networks in Ethiopia

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Dr. Waktola Wakgari is featured in an op-ed published on Devex, as part of their #FeedingDev campaign, discussing the success of building a network of Farm Service Centers in Ethiopia. These stores serve as “one-stop-shops” for smallholder farmers by providing a complete range of inputs, services, information and output marketing linkages.

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CNFA Joins Devex’s #FeedingDev Campaign

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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.

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