Agriculture Inputs & Services
Improving access to high-quality agricultural inputs and services is key to increasing agricultural productivity and addressing food security challenges. CNFA has developed market-oriented, private sector models and tools to support improved delivery of farm supplies, services and technologies. To fill critical service gaps, CNFA’s Farm Service model provides one-stop-shop access to agricultural inputs, machinery services, training, credit, veterinary services and products and marketing assistance for agricultural outputs. CNFA supports improvements across existing input and service networks—from village-level agro-dealers, regional wholesalers, as well as major input manufacturers and distributors—and facilitates investments in business expansions and startups.
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Agriculture Inputs & Services
Improving access to high-quality agricultural inputs and services is key to increasing agricultural productivity and addressing food security challenges. CNFA has developed market-oriented, private sector models and tools to support improved delivery of farm supplies, services and technologies. To fill critical service gaps, CNFA’s Farm Service model provides one-stop-shop access to agricultural inputs, machinery services, training, credit, veterinary services and products and marketing assistance for agricultural outputs. CNFA supports improvements across existing input and service networks—from village-level agro-dealers, regional wholesalers, as well as major input manufacturers and distributors—and facilitates investments in business expansions and startups.
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Gender
Women’s empowerment is fundamental to CNFA’s mission of stimulating economic growth and improving rural livelihoods. By building programs around measurable targets, CNFA works not only to increase women’s participation in and benefits from program interventions, but also to increase women’s empowerment in the agricultural sector. By supporting women-owned and operated businesses and training women in business skills and entrepreneurship, CNFA helps increase women’s access to inputs, information and markets, boost their share of household income and increase their control of income and household decision-making. This leads to increased spending on nutrition and schooling, improved food security and better quality of life for women and their families. Constructive male engagement is a critical piece of women’s empowerment. CNFA works with men, women and caretakers to teach all members of the household about the elements that enable women’s access to the resources that improve economic and nutritional outcomes for the whole family.
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Market Systems
CNFA integrates a market-systems approach across all of its programming by focusing on inclusive, resilient and sustainable interventions that identify systemic gaps in markets and reflect a deep understanding of the incentives and behaviors that motivate market actors. As part of this approach, CNFA ensures that actors are competitive in the local and global system; that the benefits to actors are inclusive of smallholder farmers, women, youth and other disadvantaged groups; and that programs are able to overcome market shocks. CNFA’s market systems interventions correspond to the areas of greatest need, closely monitoring results to ensure evidence-based approaches and leveraging new technologies, partnerships and practices to maximize impacts, therefore improving the ability of households and communities to access income.
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Nutrition
CNFA recognizes the important role that farmers and other agricultural market actors play in ensuring access to safe, affordable and nutritious foods. Drawing on our expertise in agricultural enterprise and market systems development, we work with farmers, agribusinesses, lead firms and governments to increase local production, marketing and consumption of these foods to improve diets and nutrition. By facilitating access to productivity-enhancing tools, finance, training and business linkages, CNFA helps agricultural entrepreneurs —especially women and youth— increase and diversify production, reduce food loss through value-addition processing and expand markets for nutritious foods. These approaches improve incomes, enabling farming families to purchase safe, nutritious foods that would otherwise be out of reach. CNFA works with diverse market actors to understand the sociocultural factors that influence consumption of healthy diets and then incorporate appropriate nutrition-sensitive behavior change messaging into their marketing and services to increase local demand. Our nutrition-sensitive programs utilize a whole of community approach and foster gender equity, to ensure that all household members, especially nutritionally vulnerable groups like women and children are able to access and consume affordable, nutritious diets.
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Private Sector Engagement
CNFA engages private sector partners to build inclusive market systems and drive solutions that achieve lasting impact, facilitating improved capacity, sustainability and wealth creation across the agricultural market system. To achieve this, CNFA works with the private sector to build and strengthen market-based agriculture systems in developing countries by harnessing expertise and capital resources, facilitating business-to-business connections, developing the capacity of small and medium enterprises and building the entrepreneurial skillsets of farmers and communities.
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Resilience
CNFA’s work enhances the ability of individuals, households, and communities to mitigate, withstand and recover from crises resulting from social, economic and environmental challenges. CNFA supports smallholder farmers and their communities to increase food security and manage risk by diversifying livelihoods, improving access to functional markets, building social and systemic support systems and promoting disaster risk reduction strategies. CNFA builds household and community assets and partners with governments and the private sector to improve the capacity of all actors to withstand shocks.
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Sustainable Agriculture
CNFA promotes sustainable agricultural practices by sharing expertise that enables farmers to increase productivity, improve quality and enhance market value of their crops to meet the economic and nutritional needs of families and communities. CNFA provides access to inputs and information on climate-smart natural resource management, such as improved water conservation, soil fertility and integrated pest management practices.
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