Empowering Youth through Market Access Initiatives

Climate smart seeds are the foundation of agriculture, and their quality directly impacts food production. We highlight the crucial role of seed quality assurance, transformative initiatives to empower youth and smallholder farmers, and how Grow Ghana is safeguarding food supplies and ensuring a resilient future for the continent.

Empowering Youth and Smallholder Farmers through AGRA’s Market Access Initiatives in Rwanda;

Despite the promising landscape, young Rwandan agri-preneurs and smallholder farmers often encounter significant obstacles that hinder their full participation in the agricultural value chain. Chief among these challenges are limited access to markets, high transaction costs, inadequate access to finance, and a lack of technical skills in modern agricultural practices. The complexity of navigating these barriers has historically stifled agribusinesses’ growth and limited young farmers’ economic contributions.

However, a unique partnership has taken root, connecting smallholder farmers directly with markets and fostering sustainable agriculture. At the center stage, AGRA, with a mission to catalyze agricultural growth, is sowing seeds of transformation – driving initiatives that bridge the gap between youth agri-preneurs and market opportunities, fostering economic development and creating decent jobs for youth.

 Africa’s The Grow Ghana initiative is a two-year project led by Yara in collaboration with the African Fertilizer Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) and supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through AGRA. The global impact of the Russia-Ukraine war disrupted supply chains and limited the availability of fertilizers, heightening the vulnerability of farmers to food insecurity.

In response, the Grow Ghana initiative targeted over 100,000 farmers, including vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities and women, with the aim of enhancing food systems resilience and improving livelihoods.

The initiative has provided 18,000 metric tons of premium fertilizer to farmers at no cost and ensured access to affordable, high-quality crop nutrition solutions.Results included the engagement of 270 retailers and distributors in a market systems approach to distribution, creating job opportunities for over 500 community-based agents.

 Food insecurity remains a concern in the southern Africa region, particularly in Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. So far, most of the affected countries are taking several steps to meet the expected shortfall as the region enters the lean season.

For instance, Zambia has secured an arrangement with its neighbour, Tanzania, to procure 650,000 Mt of maize, despite scepticism by the private sector in terms of logistics. So far, the Government of Malawi has also mobilized nearly 100 million USD equivalent to about 161,576 MT maize out of the required 261,574 MT needed to meet the lean season requirements.

As part of the drought mitigation plan, the Government of Zimbabwe has issued 651 import permits to private companies to procure at least 3.2 million tonnes of maize. Despite these efforts, drought and conflict affected parts of the region are faced with Stressed (IPC Phase 2) to Crisis (IPC Phase 3) conditions, further driven by the early onset of the lean season. 

Critical role of seed quality assurance in food security;

Recognizing the vital role of seed quality in Africa’s agricultural landscape, AGRA hosted the National Regulatory Agencies Workshop, in Dar-es-Salaam Tanzania, bringing together key stakeholders across 13 African countries to discuss the critical role of seed quality assurance in food security.

At the same time, Rwanda hosted the 2nd Seed Congress, that discussed highlighted Rwanda’s huge potential to becoming a seed production hub.

The separate seed conferences emphasized the need to strengthen private sector effort in the through several regulatory, technological and infrastructure changes, so as to increase food security in the continent.

The events aligned with AGRA’s significant investments in strengthening seed systems across Africa and, ensuring smallholder farmers have access to improved crop varieties.

“Seed is one of the most critical inputs in agricultural production and has the greatest potential of increasing on-farm productivity and enhancing global food security,” said Dr. George Bigirwa, Director CESSA.

Investing in Community Resilience key to reducing Climate Change Impacts: Evidence and Action in Ghana

It is no secret that Africa is currently bearing the brunt of climate change impact despite its minimal contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions that have been the main driver of the global warming phenomena that accelerates climate change.

The effects of global warming, have manifested through extreme and more intense weather events such as drought, erratic rainfall, windstorms, cyclones and the consequential losses in  land degradation, soil fertility, that are exacerbated by pests and increasing temperatures pose a major threat to Africa’s health, livelihoods, and food security.