USAID Yalwa
Niger
Overview
The five-year Feed the Future-funded USAID Yalwa Activity (2020-2025) strengthened the capacities of farmers, producer organizations, agribusinesses, and rural households in the Maradi, Tillabéri, and Zinder regions of Niger to meet the growing demand for affordable, safe, and nutritious food. Yalwa means “fulfillment” or “blossoming” in the Hausa language.
Impact
- 95,452 farmers participated in Yalwa activities
- $48 million generated in annual sales for local farmers
- 67,000 producers and market actors applied improved management practices and/or technologies
- $3.3 million leveraged in private sector investment
The $29 million Activity supported USAID’s regional Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced (RISE) program, which worked with the Government of Niger to help citizens escape poverty and build resilience to natural, economic, and other shocks. USAID Yalwa included a ground-breaking component on food market systems and followed five years of progress generated by the USAID-funded Resilience and Economic Growth in the Sahel – Accelerated Growth (REGIS-AG) program, also implemented by CNFA.
Approach
USAID Yalwa’s market systems facilitation approach was based on collaboration with catalytic local actors and networks. Yalwa worked primarily through unions to provide services to producer groups (access to agro-inputs, finance, skills development, etc.), while building their capacity to provide services without Activity support. The approach leveraged commercial investments to build long-term linkages between buyers and sellers, ensured delivery of inputs and services, and supplied nutritious food. It also built the skills of farmers, traders, and processors so they could earn a profit from their businesses, seek out nutritious foods, and become self-reliant.
The Activity used a private-sector driven approach to:
- Enhance the performance of market systems in the cowpea, small ruminant, and poultry value chains.
- Increase the use of high-quality inputs and services such as seeds, fertilizers, and livestock and poultry feed, improving food production and storage and supporting improved marketing, production, and access to finance and other relevant market information.
- Increase local consumption of nutritious, safe, and affordable foods by promoting demand and helping market actors to supply these foods to targeted populations.
- Address barriers to market participation by working with communities to encourage entrepreneurship and leadership.
Partners
To implement USAID Yalwa, Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) collaborated with both international and local partner organizations, including the Association for the Revitalization of Livestock in Niger (AREN), Nigerien Association for the Revitalization of Local Initiatives (Karkara), Helen Keller International (HKI), and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA).
