How does the Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) contribute to the equal Right To Food?
Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) celebrates World Food Day 2024, under the theme “Right to Food for a Better Life and a Better Future,”
FAO states, “The realization of the right to adequate food is more than a moral duty or policy choice. It is a human right of every person everywhere to be fulfilled through appropriate actions by governments and non-state actors.”
“It is the right to have continuous access to the resources that will enable you to produce, earn or purchase enough food to not only prevent hunger but also to ensure health and well-being.”
Smallholder farmers produce 1/3 of the world’s food and are vital to creating food-secure systems worldwide. FtMA has a mission and vision to reduce the barriers that inhibit farmers from realising sustainable delivery of high-quality produce and food at the last mile. The FtMA Farmer Service Centre (FSC) model bridges the services, knowledge, training, and investment gap between farmers in the communities, and private sector/public sector actors seeking to engage them. To date we have impacted 615,000 farmers, benefiting more than 2.6 million families with improved food security. For improved access to food to occur, we needed to create systems that are reliable, sustainable, and commercially viable.
Here are 4 ways we are contributing to better food systems and the Right To Food for a Better Life and a Better Future;
- Fostering engagement and further education at the farmer level
For FtMA this means increasing education and training that offers access to better agricultural practices, quality seeds and inputs (fertiliser etc) that lead to better-produced crops.
- We found that by conducting training on best agricultural practices, access to finance options, crop protection and post-harvest handling, we can curb some of the bottlenecks that lead to lower production yields of crops and lower incomes for farmers.
- In addition, the acquired business skills have made the farmers and FSCs capable of competing in formal markets where they can negotiate better pricing and dictate fair terms for market engagement for their crops to go beyond. This increases their confidence to invest their profits in the business and pursue farming on a larger scale, ultimately leading to increased production of high-value chain crops.
- Increasing access to inputs through our key value chains
FtMA has worked to increase access to inputs and improve productivity-enhancing services and incomes for farmers through various crops.
- FtMA operates in over 10 value chains (Maize, beans, soya, sorghum, rice, and potatoes among others) ranging from staple crops to legumes and horticulture and recognises the importance of crop diversification to improve nutrition and ensures that the crops being planted suit the climatic conditions of a particular area.
- Developing our chosen value chains enhances food and nutrition security, maximises financial returns for farmers, reduces post-harvest losses and establishes reliable open markets for crops. There is also training provided on creating awareness about the benefits of growing and consuming nutritious foods. For example, in Kenya, high-iron beans are a good rotation crop, and they are steady income earners.
- Bringing together like-minded partners that come in from the beginning to the last mile to provide solutions geared towards empowering farmers.
- Our robust network of over 1500 partners in 3 countries has meant that we can offer services and access to inputs and solutions against several challenges
- By building trust and transparency we have brought together, strategic partners, implementing partners, service providers and funding partners that prioritise scale and improving markets for our farmers. FtMA is leading the efforts in encouraging the production of nutritious crops, linking farmers’ produce with millers and processors, and using capacity development efforts as a platform for nutrition education and awareness-raising. Our off-takers can provide a more stable market for our FSCs to sell their crops. These offtakers allow structured market access that enables farmers to grow and sell more sustainbly.
- Addressing the impact of climate change on our farmers and food security
Climate change represents a major threat to Africa’s achieving sustainable development goals. Food availability, diversity, access and safety are being affected by climate shocks and stresses but through the programme, we have been able to provide training on climate-smart techniques to over 982 FSCs on soil fertility management, irrigation practices, and agroforestry among several others.
- Encouraging crop diversification and the planting of indigenous foods can help reduce emissions, optimize land and water use, increase biodiversity and require less pesticides.
- It is imperative to address the impact of climate change events on the quality of crops farmers can produce as this subsequently affects the commissions for FSCs that they can make through our partners and by diversifying their production. This also impacts the inputs, financing, and other resources they can access. For example in Tharaka-Nithi, Meru, and Narok in Kenya, the drought and reduced rainfall last year meant lower yields that affected the volumes aggregated, sales and ultimately our access to food in the country. We win the trust and support of the farmers by ensuring they can access inputs and best agricultural practices that factor in the ever-present changes in our climate.
Through some of these key factors, we can contribute to more secure food systems that ensure higher quality food is produced by our smallholder farmers and they can sustain their production for present and future generations to come.
Learn more about FtMA through our website linked here. Have a question? Send us a message to us on our contact page, and make sure to follow us on LinkedIn for all our updates.
