Zimbabwe

Pilot Market Linkage Project (PMLP)

Project Spotlight Land Reform and Economic Changes Create Opportunities NCBA advisor Webster Miyanda (left) helps farmer John Matsangura prepare his field for transplanting. A simple drip irrigation system helped Matsangura increase yields during a two-year drought. NCBA works with its local partner SAFIRE to provide technical assistance and business linkages to help Zimbabwe's smallest producers access global markets. Full Story HTML | PDF

Project goal: To create a replicable model for improving rural livelihoods by improving farm production practices and developing successful local and federated farmer-owned group businesses with lasting linkages to markets for inputs, services, products and credit.

Funding: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) grant - $200,000

Time frame: August 2001 - December 2003

The Project
NCBA's CLUSA International Program worked with SAFIRE, a Zimbabwean non-governmental organization (NGO) that managed the overall project, to implement the Market Linkage Project. Drawing on its extensive experience in Zambia and Mozambique in organizing and linking farmer groups to agribusiness markets, NCBA adapted its CLUSA Approach to the Zimbabwean environment and trained SAFIRE staff in our methods. This approach created the skills and capacity within the local NGO that allowed it to continue its farmer group business development work after the project with NCBA closed.

The core of this project included NCBA innovations in developing and working with farmer associations, agricultural intensification, and agribusiness linkages.

Methods
NCBA's CLUSA International Program project in Zimbabwe focused on:

• adapting the CLUSA Approach to farmer group business development in Zimbabwe's economic and social conditions;
• training SAFIRE staff in the CLUSA Approach and building SAFIRE's development capacity;
• establishing the business management and organizational development system of "facilitators" at the group level and lead "facilitators" at the farmer association level;
• developing an agricultural extension system by training farmer-members of the associations, known as contact farmers, in new production methods and teaching them how to train other farmers. Crops emphasized for improvements include maize, groundnuts, tomatoes and paprika;
• developing Farmer Field Schools where farmers meet and learn improved farming methods through classroom training and work with demonstration plots;
• providing guidance to associations in identifying crops/markets, locating sources of inputs and structuring loan agreements;
• providing technical support to farmers on productivity enhancements and on small-scale farmer participation in outgrower schemes; and
• developing monitoring systems for the group businesses including credit/repayment systems.

A team of three NCBA employees worked to train 13 SAFIRE district and field staff facilitators in CLUSA methods, trained group business facilitators, monitor fieldwork with farmer associations, and implement other aspects of the market linkages project. NCBA's CLUSA International Program also provided consulting services to SAFIRE.

Like its projects in other countries, NCBA's Zimbabwe project relied on hiring local or regional staff to work directly with farmers to help overcome cultural barriers. NCBA's staff in the Zimbabwe includes two Zambian farmers who worked with NCBA in an earlier project. The farmers assisted the group businesses in Zimbabwe and helped implement the extension system. Their direct and practical experience with successful group businesses in Zambia helped Zimbabwean farmers better understand the benefits of group cooperation, how to develop market linkages and manage contracts, and why and how to use democratic principles and transparency in their new group businesses.

Results
NCBA and SAFIRE organized 172 primary level group businesses and 11 secondary-level, or federated, farmer associations. More than 1,400 small-scale farmers belong to these associations. The project goal was to organize 2,000 association members. The farmer-associations signed a total of six sales contracts with three companies to market their paprika, groundnuts and tomatoes-building relationships and market power the farmers had not previously been able to access.

Project farmers secured $210,000 in loans, and more than 1,200 farmers were registered for conservation farming training in the summer of 2002. Conservation farming is a method of production that enhances productivity and reduces both environmental impact and input costs. Farmers in the country are increasingly adopting these practices as farmers participating in the PMLP demonstrate the benefits of conservation farming to one another. One NCBA-assisted farmer association reported a 50 percent increase in tomato yields among their farmer members.

• National income per capita (2000): $460
• Annual growth rate (2001): -5.5 percent
• Agriculture: cotton, sugarcane, corn, coffee, peanuts, tobacco, wheat, cattle, goats, sheep, pigs
• Major imports: construction & agricultural machinery, transport equipment, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, data processing equipment & software; industrial machinery

• Population: (1999 est.) 11.9 million
• Population annual growth rate (2000 est.): 1.9 percent
• Languages: English (official), Shona, Sindebele
• Literacy rate (est. for adults): 76 percent

• Location: Southern Africa
• Area: 390,580 square miles (slightly larger than Montana)
• Capital: Harare