Impact at Scale: Farm to Market Alliance’s Journey to Growth as a Catalyst for Agricultural Innovation
By Sanjna Sudan and Elisa Choi
Smallholder farmers play a key role in achieving global food security and building stronger food systems and are responsible for producing as much as one-third of the world’s food. Despite this, many smallholder farmers are not only food insecure themselves, but their vital food production often faces big challenges such as lack of access to technical expertise and equipment, affordable financing, market information and climate change, among many others. Therefore they face difficulties in being able reach formal markets. Without structured market access, they cannot invest in sustainable, profitable and innovative farming practices that can enable them to thrive.
The Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) is a public-private consortium of agriculture-focused organizations dedicated to making markets work better for farmers. It addresses the challenges faced by smallholder farmers through Farmer Service Centres (FSCs), which act as crucial links to farming communities by facilitating access to essential resources and structured markets. In 2023, FtMA expanded its reach significantly, increasing the number of FSCs by 44 percent, from 1,898 to 2,740. This expansion positively impacted over 615,000 farmers, benefiting more than 2.6 million families with improved food security. Additionally, over 67,000 metric tons of crops, valued at more than US$31 Million, were aggregated and sold through the FSCs. The programme also supported the planting of over 1.2 million trees and currently, 30 percent of FtMA-supported farmers are adopting climate-smart agricultural practices.
In 2017, FtMA joined the WFP Innovation Accelerator’s sprint programme, which provides technical support and funding to promising innovations and in 2020, was selected to join the Scale-Up Enablement Programme where they were provided continued support to scale their reach and impact.
Today, FtMA has scaled at WFP to its current role where it can leverage its networks and scale to pilot new innovations in agriculture.
“FtMA serves as a critical platform for launching agricultural innovation pilots due to the organization’s strong connections with rural farming communities. The FSC (Farmer Service Center) model, which serves as a sustainable last-mile agent, provides WFP’s innovation teams with streamlined access to small businesses, farmers, and communities — all through a single, efficient access point.” says Faith Mutuse, Innovation Product Manager at WFP Kenya.
Here are some insights from FtMA’s journey:
#1 Serving as a catalyst and incubator for agricultural innovations in Africa
The Farm to Market Alliance acts as both a catalyst for smallholder farmers and an incubator for agricultural innovations in Africa. By leveraging its network and connections to local markets, FtMA has built a comprehensive and sustainable ecosystem that addresses the critical challenges these farmers face.
One such challenge is Striga, also known as witchweed, which is regarded as the most severe pest threat to African food security. This parasitic weed, which affects 40 million farms across sub-Saharan Africa, attacks the roots of staple crops like maize, sorghum, millet, cowpea and dryland rice, reducing yields by 20 to 100 percent on 50 million hectares of cropland.
To combat this, Toothpick Company, a WFP Innovation Accelerator portfolio innovation, developed Kichawi Kill, a novel bio-herbicide technology. This solution has been developed to restore crop yields, rejuvenate farms and ensure food security and income for farmers. As one of the first commercialized bio-herbicides in the world, Kichawi Kill has significant potential to be scaled across Africa, helping millions of smallholder farmers protect their crops from Striga infestation.
FtMA’s robust network played a pivotal role in the success of Toothpick Company during its time in the WFP Innovation Accelerator’s sprint programme. Serving as an incubator, FtMA’s network enabled Toothpick to identify agro-dealers as their most effective and efficient sales channel. As a result, in 2023, the company introduced an improved product iteration, reducing costs and extending shelf life. This development allowed Toothpick to refine its distribution tactics and communication with farmers.
Eventually, this led to a substantial increase in the number of farmers purchasing Kichawi Kill to more than 4300, demonstrating the demand for innovation and the increased ability to reach farmers. For every US$28,000 invested, farmers could earn more than US$ 100,000 from their produce (more than 3x the investment).
“Reflecting on our sprint journey with the WFP Innovation Accelerator, our collaboration with the Farm to Market Alliance was particularly enlightening, especially as we tested and rethought our sales and distribution strategies for Kichawi Kill. Ultimately, everyone in this sector shares a common goal: achieving the best outcomes for smallholder farmers. A collaborative mindset is key to ensuring success and WFP and FtMA have exemplified this,” says Claire Baker, Director of Toothpick Company. In addition, the organization was awarded with the Sankalp Award this year.
#2 A conduit for capacity building and knowledge sharing
Through its Farmer Service Centres (FSCs), FtMA equips smallholder farmers with essential training and technical assistance, focusing on best agricultural practices, post-harvest handling, climate smart agriculture and access to finance.
Globally, over one-third of soils are significantly degraded, which presents serious challenges to food production, water distribution, carbon storage and, ultimately, farmer livelihoods. However, smallholder farmers may not have access to this knowledge nor have the means to address these challenges on their own, which is where the community fostered by FtMA becomes indispensable.
Through FtMA and WFP Tanzania, Viamo’s “Voice Companion” is currently being piloted to provide farmers with accessible farm-based knowledge and best practices. This innovation in the WFP Innovation Accelerator’s portfolio was sourced through the Moonshots 4 Development Innovation Challenge which was a joint programme by the Asian Development Bank, CGIAR. IFAD, IDB Lab, IMF, the World Bank and WFP innovation Accelerator in 2023. Viamo is an AI-powered voice assistant that works on basic, non-internet phones, allowing users to ask open-ended questions and receive personalized, real-time responses via voice call. Using Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Processing (NLP), it offers a conversational, interactive experience that enhances inclusivity for users with limited tech literacy.
“We’re looking forward to Viamo’s pilot project through FtMA’s network. It will give us valuable insights, as we leverage AI in a unique, on-the-ground way to help farmers access the resources and reliable information they need for a successful harvest and improved productivity. This is particularly crucial in the current era of climate change, where the entire food system has become more unpredictable than ever” shares Kazungu Byemaro, Country Coordinator at FtMA Tanzania.
#3 Builds local collaborations and brings together partners and lessons learned
As an alliance, FtMA brings multiple stakeholders, including agribusinesses, financial institutions and development organizations together. By leveraging pooled resources, expertise and networks, FtMA acts as a catalyst for the development and expansion of innovations tailored to the needs of smallholders. Through piloting, iterating and scaling innovations the WFP Innovation Accelerator and FtMA deliver the most effective solutions for farmers, prioritizing scalability over novelty. This often also means embracing failure and continuing to build on lessons learned.
For example, one innovation introduced through the WFP Innovation Accelerator was a scalable machine technology designed to treat aflatoxin-infected maize in Africa. However, despite its potential, this solution did not gain traction with the local smallholder farmer community due to its high cost and complexity. As a result, it was discontinued.
“At FtMA, we do our best to properly identify, vet and filter innovative solutions that can genuinely improve the livelihoods of the smallholder farmers we work with. We are committed to first understanding the needs of farmers then we work to introduce innovations that can support them on the ground. We’ve had great success with both high-tech and low-tech solutions, with the focus remaining on the ability to scale and increase accessibility to farmers in terms of cost, market access, and cultural fit,’ shares Derek Arthur, Head of Partnerships at FtMA.”
Smallholder farmers are vital to global food systems, so supporting their needs and ensuring their access to markets is crucial for achieving a food-secure future for all.
To learn more about FtMA, reach out to the FtMA team at Info@ftma.org or check them out on LinkedIn.
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