FtMA

Africa is recognized as the future breadbasket of the world. However, it still relies heavily on food coming from outside the continent, and its food import bill is projected to reach US$ 100 billion per year by 2030. Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) helps African smallholder farmers transition to commercial agriculture by providing adequate information, investment and support at all stages of the process – from seed to market. FtMA is a global consortium of six public and private organizations, each of which brings specific expertise, experience and assets. They are: Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA); Bayer Crop Science AG; International Finance Corporation; Syngenta Crop Protection AG; Rabobank; Grow Africa; the World Food Programme (WFP) and Yara International ASA.

FtMA empowers smallholders to become reliable market players through access to four integrated pathways: predictable markets, affordable finance, technologies and quality inputs – such as seeds and fertilizers – and handling and storage solutions.

The Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) is the new name for Patient Procurement Platform (PPP) which progresses in accordance with the objectives that were set. This means working on several activities to get to know exactly the objectives and the salient activities planned between the RDO, WFP, AGRA, the different cooperatives who are the main stakeholders in the PPP Project.

The project aims at supporting smallholder farmers to increase on-farm productivity and market access for their produce so as to improve on their livelihoods. The project has mobilized off-takers willing to offer forward delivery contracts to farmers and cooperatives and also mobilized input dealers willing to provide high quality seeds and fertilizers to farmers. The project supports 24,000 farmers grouped in to 80 cooperatives.

Achievement; a) Off-takers signed forward delivery contract with 80 cooperatives .Off-takers includes RGCC, PRODEVU/MINIMEX and SARURA. b) 20,000 farmers were trained in good agronomical Best practices (GAP) which include planting, Top dressing and Post-harvest handling .This was achieved through training of Lead farmers who trained other farmers .