80% of Zambia’s food is supplied by smallholder farmers, working in mostly rural settings and in a highly fragmented food system. Most have limited access to quality and resilient inputs (such as seeds) and equipment. And they must contend with poor soil health, inadequate irrigation, crop diseases and pests, lack of access to financial services, as well as poor post-harvest handling. In addition, limited access to markets leaves most last-mile farmers unable to compete or build their collective bargaining power. As a result, farmers only achieve a low yield of 1-2.5 tons per hectare for staple foods such as maize, whereas they have the potential to achieve 6 tons per hectare.
These factors are exacerbated by the duplication of efforts among actors seeking to change the food system, unfilled gaps in the food system (e.g. seed suppliers), as well as the limited flow of information to farmers, farmer groups, and the private sector, all of which in turn hinders farmers’ decision-making and ability to exploit opportunities, explore new markets, and scale production. Moreover, conflicting expectations among farmers, farmer groups, input suppliers, and off-takers creates barriers to efficient coordination within the food system. For example, competitive off-takers prefer to source from organized farmer groups, but most farmers are unable to aggregate among themselves, due to such reasons as farmers needing access to cash at different times.
AgriEn Network is a market facilitator that bridges the many gaps between input suppliers and crop off-takers. First, AgriEn conducts a market system analysis to understand gaps in each local food system, their causes, and local opportunities that are not currently being exploited. Then, it neutrally convenes various discussions among local actors, such as on scaling organic fertilizer, digital solutions in agriculture, and promoting specific products like honey. These convenings facilitate actors to identify shared pain points and to develop potential interventions and partnerships. In addition, AgriEn directly links farmers with input or output market actors, capacity building opportunities, equipment suppliers, and more. AgriEn also shares key information and relevant opportunities with its entire network through its social media channels and email newsletters.
For example, AgriEn has facilitated partnerships to strengthen tens of thousands of households’ resilience in vulnerable environments; aggregate farmers in the least developed communities and sell their output to local fast food shops; facilitate technology transfer (such as a hammer mill) and commercialization in the agricultural sector; promote grassroots innovation, such as corn shellers and other tools that can be built locally; open new markets for partners or re-open markets that were previously closed due to waning interest from farmers; open a new equipment supplier company; and more. The Network serves tens of thousands of farmer households and hundreds of producer groups across the country.