Our programmes

In Tanzania, growing demand for cooking oil has been met largely by palm oil imports rather than increased sunflower oil production. Low working capital means that oil producers can only buy and process a fraction of farmers’ sunflowers, capping sunflower oil production at a quarter of its potential.

Farm Africa provided technical assistance to actors working across the Tanzanian sunflower sector to meet growing domestic demand for cooking oil. This project worked with agricultural cooperatives and 10,000 of their members to support farmers to establish or develop sunflower businesses.

Farm Africa worked with a consortium of NGO partners, authorities and communities in Ethiopia to sustainably manage the Bale Eco-Region, a biodiversity hotspot, and enhance the livelihoods of local people, helping to reduce poverty and the current reliance on unsustainable practices.

The programme involved supporting communities to increase forest-friendly businesses and sustainably manage livestock and rangelands. The consortium partners helped promote sustainable timber harvesting and strengthened forest coffee, honey, gum and resin value chains.

We supported women and young people to increase their incomes by developing businesses in rearing goats and producing milk, energy-efficient cook stoves and eco-charcoal.

Since 2006, Farm Africa and a consortium of partners have been working in Ethiopia’s Bale Eco-region on a participatory forest management scheme. This scheme supports local forests users and the government to manage the responsibilities and benefits of the region’s forests together.

During this project, we increased local communities’ ability to earn money from the forests while protecting its resources by piloting sustainable timber production and marketing and improving the inclusivity of forest management organisations. We engaged women and underrepresented groups to participate in project activities and helped communities reinvest their capital from the sale of carbon credits in local eco-friendly businesses.

Working in partnership with Soroti Sweet Potato Producers Association (SOSPPA) and farmers previously trained by Harvest Plus, this project ensured a consistent supply of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to help fight the effects of vitamin A deficiency.

Farm Africa partnered with Mercy Corps to equip groups dependent on aid with the knowledge, resources and access to markets they needed to become self-sufficient.

Growing Futures supported 800 young farmers in Trans-Nzoia County and 1,700 young farmers in Elgeyo Marakwet County to grow export-quality crops, set up sustainable relationships with buyers and boost their resilience to climate change and seasonal variability. The project helped young people in western Kenya set up profitable farming enterprises growing and selling vegetables that are in high demand, such as French beans, mangetouts, kale, tomatoes and cabbages.

This project in the Nou Forest in the Manyara region of northern Tanzania linked forest communities and district governments to form partnerships for more sustainable forest management. Thousands of people living in Tanzania’s Nou Forest are reliant on the forests around them to survive. But deforestation has become increasingly common as people chop down trees for timber, to sell as firewood, and to clear grazing land for their animals.

Part of the UK Government funded BRACED (Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters) programme, Market Approaches to Resilience (MAR) was an innovative three-year programme that tested market-based approaches to improve the resilience of vulnerable pastoralist and agro-pastoralist households to climate change in the Afar, SNNP and Somali regions. It was implemented by a consortium led by Farm Africa, with Mercy Corps, Lion’s Head Global Partners and LTS International Limited as partners.

A particular focus of the programme was to improve the economic participation and independence of women, who are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate shocks and trends. The MAR programme supported households, businesses and communities in better managing their resources and everyday risks. It worked with private investors to address climate risks by promoting appropriate economic opportunities, and designing financial models that help smooth risk.

Other approaches included strengthening climate information by funding weather station infrastructure and supporting participatory rangeland and natural resource management. It also supported microfinance institutions to incorporate climate risk into their risk management portfolios and help them develop innovative credit products. MAR supported financial institutions to expand mobile banking to remote areas. Overall, the MAR project directly benefited an estimated 178,620 people in Ethiopia.

Between 2012 and 2017, Farm Africa ran a project based in the central zone of the Tigray region where 80% of the population live in rural areas and levels of poverty and malnutrition are very high. This project worked directly with nearly 6,400 women and landless young people, providing them with crops, livestock and training.

Farm Africa worked with micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to provide the support they needed to evolve into profitable, growing agribusinesses. From a ketchup manufacturer to a green bean exporter, the project worked with a huge diversity of businesses engaged across the horticultural value chain.

Project activities catered to the specific needs of each business including bespoke management, financial and technical training, stakeholder mapping and facilitating mutually beneficial contracts between farmers, buyers, suppliers and traders.

We prioritised investment needs and critical areas that could spur business growth. We also worked with 15 MSMEs from the Tanzanian horticulture sector following the increasing demand for spices, fruits and vegetables in local and export markets.

With financial support from the Vitol Foundation, Cultivate provided businesses in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia with tailored business development support and training using scalable online delivery mechanisms. Drawing on Farm Africa’s experience of analysing value chains and supporting first-mile agribusinesses, Cultivate worked with start-up and early-stage businesses with a $20,000 – $1million turnover.

Based in Kenya, Cultivate aimed to increase demand and facilitate the supply of business development services to rural small and growing agribusinesses (SGBs) across eastern Africa. We helped businesses develop and implement effective business strategies, boost their productivity and production, meet commodity standards and improve marketing operations and market access.

Through Cultivate’s online business skills training sessions and technical advisory support, SGBs identified risks and opportunities, conducted market and opportunities analysis, fostered business resilience and improved their pricing, costing and profitability for sustainable growth.

In many regions in Ethiopia, soil degradation and damage to natural resources caused by climate change is threatening farmers’ livelihoods and affecting long-term food security.

Farm Africa partnered with Ten Senses Africa, an agricultural company dedicated to organic, fair trade and ethical business practices, to support smallholders living in Kwale, Kilifi and Lamu counties in coastal Kenya to establish or develop profitable cashew and sesame businesses.

Against the odds, farmers living along the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park are producing some of the world’s finest Arabica coffee. Amid outbursts of conflict, this extraordinary landscape produces raw coffee beans with spectacular potential, while the National Park provides a vital refuge for endangered animals including the mountain gorilla.

This project helped western Uganda upgrade its coffee value chain with a focus on delivering increased volumes of sustainably produced, quality Arabica coffee to premium export markets and including smallholder farmers in the value chain.

Farm Africa worked with the Ugandan coffee processor and exporter, UGACOF, to reduce losses during production, harvest and post-harvest handling; expand marketing opportunities for smallholder farmers and help them diversify into higher value export markets.

The project helped farmers deliver a consistent supply of quality coffee cherries to UGACOF who marketed the produce to European Union, and African, Caribbean and Pacific roasters.

Working with 17,000 farmers and selling 44% of all exported Uganda chillies in 2017, Northeast Chilli Producers Association (NECPA) is a key player in the chilli industry. Farm Africa helped NECPA adopt a more market-orientated business model, which opened up new export opportunities to chilli farmers. This involved helping chilli growers gain access to quality seeds and equipment, increase their yields and meet international buyers’ quality standards.