Stephanie Lynch writes in SPORE magazine about 

Agriculture’s potential for peacebuilding

Read the full article here.

In recent years, agriculture has become increasingly recognised as an entry point for building peace and resilience in fragile states. With up to two-thirds of employment and one-third of GDP in countries experiencing prolonged crises linked to agriculture, investment in the sector can be transformative for the resilience of vulnerable populations. To prevent fragile situations descending into crises and ensure the sustainable recovery of vulnerable populations, rural communities need the capacity to monitor and predict crisis and disaster risks, as well as to develop strategies to help minimise the impact of such risks on food production.

Connecting farmers to markets

With increased capacity to grow surplus produce, farmers need access to finance and markets to add value to their products and further increase their incomes. However, in fragile states, neither f

Safaricom launches digital solution for farmers

Safaricom has launched Connected Farmer, a mobile and web based service that will help agricultural processing businesses in production planning by opening a communication line with farmers.

Connected Farmer enables the organizations transact with farmers by leveraging M-PESA to make and receive payments securely. It also helps register and key in information such as expected production quantities helping processors plan especially on pick up and work force resulting in overall cost reduction in production.

Connected Farmer is a partnership between Safaricom and Mezzanine Ware – a company that specializes in developing mobile enabled solutions for businesses. The launch follows a six month pilot which saw 12 firms with 80,000 farmers sign up. The technology also help farmers in tracking sales and cash management.

For the full article, follow this link.

New version of 2-2 Trade Spreadsheets

February 22nd 2017 a new version 4-2 of the 2-2 Trade Spreadsheet was published HERE on the AgriProFocus on-line platform. 

This version 4-2 replaces version 2 of december 2016. Version 4-2 has some bugs solved and has nicer graphics to be copied from the spread sheet.

  If you have suggestions for improvements, please let us know!  

Improvements from version 3 were:

- lighter and faster response to input;

- published as excel template. When you open it, it produces a copy of itself. No risk of damaging the original anymore.

Best regards,

Rolf Schinkel

ATELIER D'INFORMATION DES ENTREPRENEURS AGRICOLES ET FIRMES SUR L'OUTIL 2-2Trade

le Vendredi 24 novembre 2016, s'est tenu dans les enceintes de l’hôtel Emeraude un atelier d'information et de formation sur l'outil de mise en relation Producteurs-Firmes. 26 Participants issus des Organisations de producteurs , institutions étatiques, ONGs, entreprises Privés, ont pris part à cet activité.

"It Takes 2-2 trade"  ou relations Producteurs- Firmes  se propose comme un instrument permettant la facilitation de la relation primaire de la relation existante entre producteurs (farmers) et grandes entreprises (firms). La connaissance des besoins des uns et des autres reste un préalable pour une relation d’affaires conséquente. Cette évaluation de la relation( forces et faiblesses) est suivi par une planification d'action conjointe pour l'amélioration et le maintien de la relation d'affaires.

L'outil a été développé par CDI / WUR, Royal Tropical Institute et

New version of 2-2 Trade Spreadsheets

December 2nd 2016 a new version of the 2-2- Trade Spreadsheet was published on the AgriProFocus on-line platform. 

New in this version:

- lighter and faster response to input;

- published as excel template. When you open it, it produces a copy of itself. No risk of damaging the original anymore.

If you have suggestions for improvements, please let us know!

Best regards,

Rolf Schinkel

Networks of Rural Producer Organizations in Uganda: What Can be Done to Make Them Work Better?

Article by: Evgeny Latynskiy, Thomas Berger, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany

Published in: World Development, Volume 78, February 2016, Pages 572–586.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X15002363

Asesmen ScopeInsight VECO di Indonesia untuk Kopi dan Cokelat

Pertama kali di tahun 2016, VECO Indonesia melakukan asesmen untuk 14 organisasi petani mitranya menggunakan SCOPEinsight –penyelia alat asesmen dan analisis terkemuka- yang mengukur level profesionalitas organisasi petani. Alat ini menyediakan mekanisme langsung untuk mengungkap kekuatan dan kelemahan sehingga organisasi bisa lebih mudah menyikapinya. Alat asesmen SCOPE Dasar berfokus pada delapan tema utama, yaitu: Manajemen Internal, Operasional, Manajemen Keuangan, Suplai, Pemasaran, Resiko Eksternal, Enabler, dan Keberlanjutan. Khusus untuk organisasi petani yang menggunakan alat asesmen SCOPE Pro, ada penilaian tambahan yang menekankan Kinerja Keuangan.

Laporan yang dihasilkan oleh alat SCOPEinsight ini tak hanya digunakan oleh VECO Indonesia untuk mendapatkan gambaran tentang kemajuan para mitranya. Laporan ini juga bermanfaat bagi organisasi petani, misalnya sebagai dasar mengembangkan kapasitas anggota organisasi dan mel

Dutch Seeds Debate

Support small farmers with seeds, services and education

This is the report of a debate organised by Agriterra in April 2016 in the context of the Small Farmers, Big Deal campaign.

One of the action points listed at the end of the report: “Developing the seed sector needs an integrated supply chain approach with better products (seeds) but also education and services that stimulate good farming practices, financing and market linkages. “

http://www.smallfarmersbigdeal.org/public/nieuws/5-verslag-gb-agriterra.pdf

Bonjour

Depuis lundi  le  23 Mai 2016;je travaillais  à Kigali avec le facilitateur du réseau ;et au cours de la semaine j 'ai participé à un événement sur la présentation de l' outil 2-2 trade ;qui  a été faite par les experts provenant de CDI  au Pays Bas et d 'AgriProFocus Pays bas .A Cette occasion ;on a suivi également des présentations des cas concrets sur l' utlisation de l 'outil 2-2 Trade pour les entreprises et les coopératives du BURUNDI  et du RWANDA. Cet événement a rencontré la participation de plusieurs membres et partenaires  du réseau et surtout les membres du secteur privé

Nous  vous partageons les photos de certains membres et partenaires du réseau pour vivre en image le événement .

Quality and innovation in food chains.

Lessons and insights from Africa

Editors: Jos Bijman and Verena Bitzer. Published: 2016 Pages: 274.

Improving product quality has become essential for food chains in developing countries. Quality and innovation in food chains: lessons from Africa presents a set of case studies on food quality improvement and innovation in African food chains, with cases from South Africa, Ethiopia, Benin, Uganda and Senegal.

The book is based on interdisciplinary collaborative research projects. An interdisciplinary approach leads to better insights in the opportunities and constraints for quality improvement, and helps public and private actors in seizing the opportunities and removing the constraints.

This publication shows how a co-innovation perspective can be developed and applied. Co-innovation entails the combination of technical, organisational and institutional changes, the involvement of various chain actors, and the introduction of complementary innovations at

Going beyond stereotypes to strengthen your Farmer-Firm trade relation

Around 100 participants gathered on March 24 at the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam for the AgriProFocus Expert meeting: 'It Takes 2-2-Trade'.

A sustainable relationship between farmers and their customers is paramount for good business. To achieve this both parties need to be aware of each other's strengths, weaknesses, and perceptions. In a structured way, the 2-2-Trade tool brings these strengths, weaknesses and perceptions to the surface. With a facilitated, structured discussion 2-2-Trade creates mutual understanding between farmers and their customers creating space for development and new initiatives and opportunities that bring benefit to both.

The meeting focussed on how trade relations can be made more sustainable and profitable by looking at the critical components of the relation and how the 2- 2 Trade tool can be used in business cases of the participants.

Three cases where 2-2-Trade has been applied were pr

RESOLVING THE CHALLENGES OF COLLECTIVE MARKETING AMONG SMALL HOLDER FARMERS

Smallholder farmers are scattered and, therefore, generally there is a need to bulk their produce in order to access lucrative markets. The present research wants to improve the capacities of collective marketing arrangements, like cooperatives, producer associations, village enterprises, etc. to resolve the challenges of collective marketing in face of competition.

Successful collective marketing experiences have been ‘build’ organizational assets that make their life easier. They regularly fine-tune their internal management and transaction modalities with members and non-members e.g. related with pricing, payments, and quantity or quality requirements. The process will focus on internal rules, contract conditions and control systems that have been developed in transactions with farmers and clients and that have proven effective and feasible in prevailing market conditions.

It is also widely recognized that fa

Market access and efficiencies

Chapter of the final conference report 'Promoting Innovation and Trade in Horticulture' November 2015.

A key breakout session during the horticulture conference dealt with access to markets for horticultural producers. The session was facilitated by AgriProFocus Uganda, Ms. Lucy Asiimwe Twinamasiko. Powerpoint presentations used in the session are available via the links below.

Conclusions from the discussions

1) For development partners: Enterprises (firms) and farmers should both be empowered to develop their technical and business management capacities for sustainable market access opportunities unlike the current limited focus on empowering farmers to supply to modern markets.

2) For horticulture value chain actors: There should be joint action, exchange and learning especially on capacity building initiatives and market information sharing at a regional level so as to promote sustainable development through effective and efficient regional trade initiatives.

3