Building impact at scale: scaling up agri-food interventions from the Rethinking Food Markets initiative

In September and October, a series of highly anticipated workshops took place in three of the countries that have been testing grounds for sustainable and inclusive agri-food system interventions in the RFM initiative: Nigeria; Uganda, and Ethiopia.  These workshops focused on assessing whether the variety of intervention bundles that have been tested across the different country contexts, and commodities had the potential to be scaled, and, if so, what could be done by stakeholders to properly prepare the enabling environments so that they could thrive.

These workshops bought together farmers, processors, regulators, policymakers, development professionals, researchers, and other local agri-food stakeholders, to ensure that these potentially impactful innovations could be effectively replicated or broadened to reach larger user groups.

Targeted issues and tested interventions

These workshops aimed to lay the groundwork for scaling interventions by guiding participants through the scalability assessments and empowering them to develop tailored strategies. You can learn more about the concepts of scalability and scaling preparedness here.

Nigeria: Novel food preservation methods to reduce post-harvest losses

In Nigeria, there is a major issue with produce being safely and efficiently transported from the northern production hubs, to the exponentially growing urban areas in the south of the country.  Part of the issue is that there is insufficient cold storage, and packing methods and materials, as well as poor infrastructure and a lack of resilience in the varieties of seeds used.  Altogether these issues are leading to large amounts of postharvest food loss, which can neither be sold nor consumed.

The research interventions in this area have been focusing on innovations in cold storage and transportation of fresh produce to keep them unspoiled for longer, solar powered dehydration of perishables to preserve them over longer periods; introducing new and more resilient seed varieties with complementary training to farmers about the benefits of using more diverse varieties; and improved market information to ensure food is more efficiently moved around the country.  These were bundled with cash input loans to provide the means for agri-food stakeholders to take effective action.

Uganda: Quality traceability and competitive, reliable inputs for farmers

In Uganda the initiative had identified the dairy value chain as one where the market was already performing well, and quality had been steadily increasing, but where value was not being returned to farmers for these improvements.  The dairy sector in Uganda has grown significantly between 2010-2023 with processing and export activity skyrocketing, driven in part by increases in productivity and quality at the farm level by farmers using new breeds of cow.  Expectedly, farmers are seeking rewards for this increase in yield and quality, and while processors claim they are willing to pay for this, there is little change in price due to a lack of visibility on quality in the value chain.

Using Milk Collection Centres (MCCs) as the focal point for change, the initiative’s first intervention in Uganda bundled several components to track the quality of produce,  At the centre of the bundle milk analysers were implemented within MCCs to allow testing of all incoming milk.  This has been supported by a tracking app for farmers and MCC staff, and a data visualisation portal targeting enabling decision-makers such as regulators.  To encourage similar quality improvement in farm outputs across the sector, the team also tested a poster making farmers aware that the MCCs can test milk, a video training to support improvements in the compositional quality of milk, and pasture improvement demonstrations. 

The second intervention bundle in Uganda looked much wider than the dairy value chain to address the twin issues of limited awareness amongst farmers of new, higher-quality agricultural inputs, and physical inaccessibility for many farmers.  This bundle showcased the EzyAgric Digital Platform, which is used to sell competitively priced, and genuine agricultural inputs via a secure payment method with a guaranteed money back scheme if farmers are dissatisfied.  The platform then offers timely, affordable, and country-wide delivery of the inputs to farmers, offering reliability and trust to farmers, while removing a layer of risk from farm management.  The platform was paired with digital literacy training and agronomic training with a focus on the safe use and handling of agrochemicals.

Ethiopia: Weather monitoring and collective marketing to grow the sesame market

The interventions in Ethiopia conversely aimed at addressing the issue of growing a sustainable and inclusive export market that matches a country’s production potential. There, sesame is the leading oil crop and the second most exported agricultural commodity.  However, Ethiopia makes up only 2.54% of the global sesame production, with key constraints including untracked weather variability; low adoption of technologies; poor finance and infrastructure; high production and transaction or marketing costs; low crop diversity in the sesame growing areas resulting in high disease infestation; a lack of a sesame seed system; and heavy government intervention.

The research teams alongside implementation partners combined the following components to the sesame value chain: a digital information service that could provide market information and weather data, paired with collective action training and support for the growers to collectively act voluntarily.  While the collective actions strategies were expected to reduce transaction costs and increase average output price per unit, the digital information services are expected to support increases in sesame yields, and increases in cash income from crop production. 

Common scalability workshop takeaways

Across the workshop series, several common themes emerged related to the scalability of interventions.  Key challenges discussed included the impact of seasonality and market fluctuations, infrastructure and logistical constraints, technological limitations, and the need to build trust while managing behavioural risks.  Macroeconomic factors, such as high inflation, were also highlighted as increasing risks and creating additional barriers for smallholder farmers to access markets.

In the Nigeria workshop, key challenges included seasonality risks, high fuel costs, logistical failures, and distrust toward new services, exacerbated by high inflation and insecurity.  Participants highlighted the need for better infrastructure, technological advancements like solar drying, and more flexible loan options, while addressing gender impacts and improving farmer-trader links.

Participants in Uganda focused on the need for training for MCC staff, maintaining milk analysers through partnerships, and sourcing hard-to-find replacement parts.  The discussion on the scalability of the EzyAgric intervention revealed the need for ongoing training and overcoming distrust or user access needs in technology, particularly among women who face interface and language barriers.  Meanwhile, in Ethiopia, the limited mobility due to civil conflict presented a significant barrier, despite the potential offered by expanding telecommunication services.

Formal impact reports for these intervention studies will be available in the coming months as the initiative comes to an end.  Workshop material will be added to the KISM library shortly.

The final workshop in the scalability and scaling preparedness series will be hosted in Honduras on 22nd and 23rd November.  We will report on this in Spanish after the event.