2020 Annual Report

Promoting Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture in Rwanda

During 2020, the Feed the Future Rwanda Hinga Weze Activity continued to improve the nutritional status of women and children and increase the resilience of Rwanda’s agricultural and food systems. Recognizing that good nutrition education forms the basis for improved food security, the Activity worked with women farmers on ways to feed their families by using home garden resources, combining available local foods to create nutritious meals and applying best practices for household hygiene.

These efforts were coordinated with Rwanda’s National Early Childhood Development Program. Hinga Weze also provided pictorial training material for women farmers without literacy skills, as well as text-based cooking guides for those with higher literacy levels. The Activity reached more than 22,000 children with nutrition interventions and supported 27,000 households to increase their incomes to purchase nutritious food. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Hinga Weze moved online to provide training on food safety and home gardens to Master Trainers, who in turn provided this training to beneficiaries. Aiming to introduce more animal-sourced foods such as poultry and eggs into communities, 46 Hinga Weze-sponsored care groups received 9,200 chickens to generate income and boost nutrition for women and children. Care group members were also coached on poultry-farming best practices, were linked to potential buyers, and often acted as agents to raise and sell one-day-old chicks. To date, Hinga Weze has distributed more than 112,600 chickens to 18,000 households in 10 districts across Rwanda.

Leveraging Public-Private Partnerships in Georgia

CNFA’s USAID Agriculture Program forged partnerships with the private and public sectors – establishing new market opportunities and promoting digital solutions to facilitate virtual market engagement. In collaboration with McDonald’s Georgia, the USAID Agriculture Program worked with farmers and agribusinesses to add locally produced vegetables and culinary herbs to McDonald’s supply chains.

By helping farmers implement internationally recognized food safety standards and practices, Georgian producers saw an increased demand for their agricultural products in both local and international markets.

The Program also worked with the Government of Georgia to facilitate digital engagement and learning—a safer alternative in the face of COVID-19. Together they launched a government website that supports start-ups looking to expand their businesses. Collaborations with USAID and UGT—a leading Georgian provider of digital information and communications technology solutions—led to the development of the “Mobile Harvest” application, which streamlines harvest and post-harvest accounting and inventorying, enhancing agricultural production and operations in the country.

Bolstering Farmer Incomes in Côte d’Ivoire

The USDA-funded Maximizing Opportunities in Cocoa Activity (MOCA) continued to increase productivity and efficiency in Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa value chain by strengthening the capacities of cocoa producers, cooperatives, input suppliers and processors to boost farmer incomes and enhance the production of quality cacao.

Recognizing the potential for higher value markets in the cacao sector, MOCA took a unique approach and designed a program to facilitate relationships between producers and stakeholders. MOCA introduced quality control protocols and best practices with participating producers, monitored agricultural, harvest and post-harvest practices and facilitated trainings using the “learning by tasting” method inaugurated by Guittard Chocolate. With results achieved by this program, Guittard Chocolate has committed to purchasing beans from the CAPRESSA and CAVA cooperatives using innovative quality-based pricing established on physical and sensory results.

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, MOCA worked with 10,000 beneficiaries to implement activities that improve the supply of high-quality inputs and services, including the distribution of adequate pruning tools and technologies and the facilitation of financial services and loans. In 2020, more than 3,000 farmers received pruning tools and training on good agricultural practices to reduce post-harvest losses due to handling practices and black pod disease. Through these measures, farmers applied improved techniques and technologies on 6,760 ha of land. MOCA also facilitated access to finance for over 5,000 farmers and cooperative members through loan and financial service providers, banks and microfinance institutions.

Bringing Technical Expertise to Southern Africa and Moldova

The USAID John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program pivoted its in-person assignments to virtual sessions, keeping volunteers and hosts safe while opening new opportunities to share knowledge with broader audiences through Feed the Future Innovation Labs and partners.

Working with the Feed the Future Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL) at the University of Illinois and the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS), F2F initiated a tri-partite collaboration to support agro-processors in Southern Africa. In this collaboration, F2F volunteers recruited from AOCS members will provide support in operations, machinery maintenance, supply chain management and business management to medium and large oilseed processors in the Southern Africa region.

In Moldova, volunteers helped the Moldova Agrarian University develop a low-cost student recruitment plan, leading to a 15 percent increase in this year’s students and assisted the Moldovan Organic Value Chain Alliance (MOVCA) in marketing its e-learning platform and boosting high quality forage production. The F2F Program also conducted five remote assignments in the country: one with Agrostoc on communications management, two with MOVCA on cover crops and two with the Selectia Research Institute on web management and needs analyses.

During November 2020, the program also initiated a joint effort with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management (IPM IL) at Virginia Tech to reduce crop losses due to pests through an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach. Adapting to pandemic safety measures, these F2F partners moved to virtual training and conducted a two-part webinar on IPM and safe pesticide use. Drawing a diverse audience and robust discussion from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, the webinars focused on exposure reduction, cleaning practices and safe application methods to safeguard farmers, their produce, consumers and the environment.

Providing Gender-Inclusive Agriculture Assistance in Pakistan

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in Pakistan, the USAID-funded Pakistan Agricultural Technology Transfer Activity (PATTA) collaborated with local governments and private-sector actors to adapt, commercialize, promote and disseminate agricultural technologies to smallholder farmers, including women farmers.

PATTA addressed the problem of high post-harvest losses in areas like Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) province, where 90 percent of households depend on agriculture but access to agricultural technologies and quality inputs is limited. Recognizing the critical role women play in promoting agriculture and food security, PATTA navigated COVID-19 restrictions to in-person gatherings by collaborating with local radio stations to organize multiple series of women-centric agricultural technology tele-demonstrations in GB and similar provinces. The demonstrations featured women representatives from PATTA’s agribusiness partners and promoted agricultural technologies to women farmers to help them grow more nutritious food, raise healthier livestock, expand farm operations and generate higher income.

PATTA also shifted its efforts to digital support via technology promotion through magazine and newspaper publications, discussions in virtual roundtables, conducting SMS/robocalls and online farmer outreach campaigns. Throughout 2020, PATTA’s digital outreach services improved farmers’ access to critical agricultural technology and information, reaching millions of male and female Pakistani farmers. By the end of 2020, PATTA supported approximately 554 micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, commercialized 377 agricultural technologies, generated $23.54 million in technology sales, facilitated $5.75 million in sales for smallholder farmers and created 2,995 jobs.

Facilitating Knowledge Transfer and Exchange in Azerbaijan

The USAID Private Sector Activity (PSA) in Azerbaijan overcame the dual challenges of war and COVID-19 in 2020, partnering with institutions in Azerbaijan and the U.S. to provide opportunities for smallholder farmers and youth and build agricultural capacity.

Through its partnership with the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce, PSA facilitated the second annual U.S.-Azerbaijan Agriculture Forum, held in Oklahoma in early 2020, to build agriculture-related linkages between the U.S. and Azerbaijan. With the groundwork laid by the forum, PSA partnered with Oklahoma State University and the Azerbaijan State Agricultural University to develop a Dual Master’s Degree for students studying agriculture – the first of its kind in Azerbaijan. The agreement, which follows an MOU that was signed between the universities, aims to enroll up to 10 dual-degree master’s students in the new International Agriculture program starting in the fall of 2021—with the goal of facilitating cooperation between agriculture experts in the U.S. and Azerbaijan.

PSA also launched a “Stay Home” campaign aimed at displaying the hard work that farmers and food processors are doing during the global pandemic, while communicating the importance of social distancing. To support the campaign, PSA beneficiaries engaged in food production volunteered to participate by taking pictures with signs asking people to “stay home.” These photos were distributed across the project’s areas of implementation, as well as to key partners and stakeholders.

Developing Business-to-Business Linkages in Nigeria

The five-year USAID Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Investment Activity, which works to strengthen the enabling environment for agribusiness finance and investment, facilitated $39 million in third-party investment for agribusiness partners in Nigeria.

One of the Activity’s lead partners, Thrive Agric Ltd., closed a $6.75 million debt transaction with Sterling Bank. The Activity supported the upgrade of Thrive Agric’s digital Agricultural Operating System platform, allowing it to integrate with the systems of financing sources such as banks. The upgrade made possible the seamless disbursement of cash and inputs, and the management and monitoring of farmer activities financed through the platform. The funding will enable Thrive Agric to expand its maize production and output in the 2020 wet season, affecting 25,000 out-grower farmers spread across Kaduna State.

The Activity also supported Alluvial – an innovative private firm that provides comprehensive value chain support to smallholder farmers – in its efforts to secure a grant of $20.4 million from the Mastercard Foundation’s COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Program. Through this grant, Alluvial will support 65,000 farmers over a two-year period through its community block farming model, which organizes disparate communities into independent but collective business units. The grant will be deployed to small and medium enterprises, emphasizing women- and youth-led agribusinesses across multiple states and value chains, including the Activity’s focal states of Kebbi, Kaduna and Benue.

Driving Economic Growth in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria

In November 2020, CNFA’s USDA Food for Progress-funded West Africa PRO-Cashew Project officially launched in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, adapting its efforts to create a growth-friendly climate for agribusinesses despite restrictions related to COVID-19. The launch was attended by the U.S. Ambassador to Abidjan, Richard K. Bell, and the Ivorian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani.

PRO-Cashew also laid the groundwork for a collaboration agreement framework in the countries where CNFA implements the project, particularly Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria. As part of these efforts, MOUs with agricultural ministries and research centers were signed in Nigeria and Ghana. Through these collaborative framework agreements, PRO-Cashew aims to support the establishment of national strategies in each of the project countries and discuss the harmonization of regional policies. PRO-Cashew also launched its selection process for agricultural extension grant recipients in three project countries—Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Ghana.

This process resulted in the selection of seven partner agro-food companies – two in Nigeria and five in Côte d’Ivoire – that will benefit from $1.2 million in funding over three years. The grants will be used to improve business linkages between producers and agro-food companies, facilitate cashew marketing and build the capacity of producers to improve product quality and yields. In total, more than 55,000 producers will receive support through these activities, with an expected turnover of $65.4 million by the end of the project.

Boosting Capacity of Georgian Hazelnut Growers

The Georgia Hazelnut Improvement Project (G-HIP), which runs through 2022, supports smallholder farmers and adds much-needed post-harvest handling infrastructure across the country. G-HIP lends significant support to the Georgian Hazelnut Growers’ Association (GHGA), which has grown to more than 25,000 trained members and led its first election for an executive committee and chairman – the first such election for a trade association in Georgia’s history.

G-HIP also partnered with GHGA in 2020 to facilitate the creation of six husking, drying and storage facilities, providing growers with improved access to proper post-harvest handling procedures necessary for improved quality and prices for growers. In 2020, G-HIP contributed to a significant milestone in the Government of Georgia’s efforts to combat the Brown Marmorated Stinkbug (BMSB) by monitoring BMSB and establishing environmentally friendly “Attract and Kill” stations using U.S. manufactured pheromone-based pest monitoring and control products in 500 villages in the Samegrelo, Guri, Imereti, and Adjara regions, covering more than 60,000 hectares of hazelnut orchards and reducing the direct chemical treatments of these areas.

Enhancing Export Potential in Egypt

The Feed the Future Egypt Food Security and Agribusiness Support (FAS) project worked from 2015 to 2020 to increase incomes, productivity and food security for 14,000 Upper Egyptian smallholder farmers. The project strengthened input suppliers, agriculture processors and support services to scale up agricultural interventions and develop products aimed at higher-value export markets.

Recognizing the potential of certifications to enhance market value, FAS also collaborated with the Egyptian Agriculture Quarantine and the Agriculture Export Council to facilitate the certification or “coding” of 41 pomegranate collection centers and approximately 2,000 farmers. During its last year, FAS also established eight Farm Service Centers featuring demonstration plots that showcased irrigation technologies. These provided the centers with a low-cost, high-impact method for teaching farmers how to sustainably improve water use efficiency and crop yield across Upper Egypt.

Increasing Yields to Combat Food Insecurity in Liberia

The five-year, USAID-funded Feed the Future Liberia Agribusiness Development Activity (LADA) collaborated with nine agro-dealers to distribute 48.75 MT of improved rice seeds to 1,499 smallholder farmers in Lofa, Nimba and Bong counties through its seed voucher program.

Seed Voucher Fairs, conducted under LADA’s COVID-19 Food Security and Early Economic Recovery Response for Smallholder Farmers, were also part of the project’s work to complement Government of Liberia efforts to mitigate the risk of food insecurity in the next harvesting season due to the effect of COVID-19 on agricultural input supply chains.

Farmers who received these seeds and applied timely planting and good agricultural practices reported crop germination rates of 90-98 percent and an increase in yields compared to the previous year. In Lofa County, for example, yields analysis conducted at the production fields of four farmers confirmed an average projected increase of 59 percent from the last season. The farmers plan to use seeds from this season’s harvest during the next planting season.

Burkina Faso

The five-year USAID Yidgiri Activity is designed to strengthen market systems, sustainably increase household incomes and improve the nutritional status of women and children in Burkina Faso. USAID Yidgiri is part of the second phase of the USAID Regional Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced (RISE) program, which supports vulnerable communities in Burkina Faso in their efforts to prepare for and effectively manage recurrent crises, and to pursue sustainable pathways out of poverty. It also follows 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.

Early in the pandemic, USAID Yidgiri implemented COVID-19 mitigation measures and mapped out core intervention areas to build resilience in Burkina Faso’s increasingly volatile market environment. Throughout 2020, the activity conducted assessments—such as its Markets and Nutrition Pathways Assessment—to inform the activity’s efforts to increase the consumption of nutritious, safe and affordable foods through local market systems in 2021 and beyond.

The project also developed approaches to address conflict-sensitivity and youth integration, partnering with leaders of three local producer unions and the technology company NewPath to support youth entrepreneurs through technology and business training. By establishing inclusive market systems, USAID Yidigiri continues to improve the capacity of farmers, producer organizations and small- and medium-sized enterprises to access financial services and products.

Niger

The five-year USAID Yalwa activity strengthens 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. USAID Yalwa supports USAID’s regional Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced (RISE) program, which works with the Government of Niger to help citizens escape poverty and build resilience to natural, economic and other shocks. USAID Yalwa includes a component focusing on food market systems and follows 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.

In 2020, USAID Yalwa supported 28 business clusters to facilitate market engagements and improve their business-readiness capabilities. The business cluster approach supports the development of mutually beneficial commercial relationships between producers and buyers. By facilitating business-to-business relationships, the clusters increase market system efficiency, inclusion and resilience.

Zimbabwe

Amalima Loko is a five-year USAID-funded Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance program designed to improve food security in Zimbabwe through increased food access and sustainable watershed management. The $75 million program seeks to elevate the livelihoods of more than 67,000 vulnerable households across five districts of Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland North: Binga, Hwagne, Lupane, Nkayi and Tsholotsho. Implemented by CNFA, Amalima Loko builds on the legacy of its predecessor, Amalima, a seven-year Resilience Food Security Activity also implemented by CNFA that worked to sustainably improve food security and nutrition for vulnerable Zimbabwean households.

Currently, Amalima Loko is in the refine and implement stage, collaborating with partners and participants to research information gaps, understand the local context, analyze needs and behaviors and build upon the work of Amalima to find pathways to break the cycle of food insecurity. The project will fine-tune its approaches, test innovative concepts and adapt and scale promising ideas, moving away from approaches that are not supported by evidence.

Throughout the coming year, Amalima Loko will conduct community-led assessments through its Community Visioning process. At the same time, Amalima Loko will start high-level planning with the Government of Zimbabwe on watershed resources and roll out proven interventions, such as supplementary feeding for pregnant and lactating women and children under two.

Mali

The USAID Feed the Future Mali Sugu Yiriwa activity is a five-year, $19 million program that started in January 2021 and marks CNFA’s return to Mali after nine years. The Activity aims to empower private and public market actors across the market system, with a strategic focus on pro-poor and gender- and nutrition-sensitive value chains in 46 communes in the Sikasso sub-zone to affect sustainable, systemic change. Sugu Yiriwa will enhance market access and business linkages, improve access to and use of quality and affordable inputs and services and increase market demand for the consumption of nutritious and safe foods. The Activity is part of USAID’s Mali Global Food Strategy and CNFA will implement the program with sub-recipients MALIMARK and Helen Keller International. CNFA will also collaborate closely with the RTI-implemented sister program, USAID Feed the Future Mali Séné Yiriwa, implemented by RTI, which will focus on empowering farmers and producer organizations to spur agricultural growth.

The Sugu Yiriwa activity is currently in its rapid operational and program start-up phase and marks CNFA’s return to Mali after nine years. In a shortened first year of only six months, the Sugu Yiriwa team will finalize the selection of the value chains, conduct baseline studies whose results will contribute to the design of its Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning plan, identify key pro-active market players in the Activity’s Zone of Interest and begin holistic support to input suppliers and ago-dealers. It will also complete the Markets and Nutrition Pathways Assessment, which will be critical to establishing a strong base to launch Sugu Yiriwa’s nutrition programming, hold business-to-business forums and support the establishment of the initial business clusters in its first year.