Agro-enterprise and Market Development

Of particular interest are production and marketing of ecological organic products and healthy foods. The thematic area focuses on upscaling best practices such as PGS certification of organic products, information sharing, promotion of microfinance practices, market linkages and capacity development.

The small holder farmers have continued to generate low incomes from their farm produce due to poor farming practices, failure to engage in value addition/processing and weak marketing strategies. Poor farming practices are attributed by poor agroecological practices in soil health, pest and disease management, inaccessibility to quality farm inputs and weak technical skills. This results in low yields and poor-quality farm produce that do not yield adequate incomes for improved livelihoods among the farmer groups.

Weak engagement of farmers in value addition and processing is attributed by poor capacities among the farmers and limited engagement of youth innovators in agriculture. The youth and women will be engaged in start-up and incubation projects to enhance their incomes and increase agricultural shelf life of products. Value addition will increase shelf life of produce and transportation hence creating cottage industries for youth employment hence increasing value for farm produce and pastoral products.

There is a growing potential on organic agriculture markets with more consumers being more conscious about their health both locally and internationally. The consumers are however interested in getting assurance of the quality of organic products in the market. Accessibility to organic foods and lack of structured markets for farmers has continued to contribute to low incomes. To address these issues, SHF need to embrace agro ecological farming practices, value add their products and adapt good marketing practices.