Project Fact Sheet for 51140121

Project / Programme Title

Strengthening the missing middle in Agribusiness for Rapid Transformation

Brief Project Description

The planned intervention presented by International Development Enterprises (iDE) “Strengthening the Missing Middle in Agribusiness for Rapid Transformation” – SMART - is a five year program and the planned support by the Embassy of Sweden (EoS) is 45 MSEK. The intervention’s overall objective is to reduce rural poverty through increased income for smallholder farmers, based on improved delivery of agriculture services that will allow smallholder farmers to get involved in more lucrative agriculture sub sectors and by increasing the market share for local production in rural and urban markets. Mozambique has had a strong and consistent economic growth the past decades (since end of the civil war). However, despite an annual growth rate of around 7 % there is still wide spread poverty. There are considerable inequalities in the country, especially rural versus urban areas. A matter of great concern is that the poverty has not decreased during the last decade. In Mozambique it is estimated that around 80 % of the workforce is involved in the agriculture sector and large majority of these are smallholder farmers, growing low-value and rain-fed staple crops, with limited or no access to markets. The smallholder farmers in Mozambique are to a large extent classified as working poor based on the fact that their productivity is low. It is assessed that the agriculture sector has the potential to be the engine in a more inclusive growth in Mozambique, based on a productive employment approach which will enable poor people to improve their living conditions. To obtain the objective of sustainable inclusive growth based on integrated agriculture development from a smallholder perspective there is a need to increase productivity, improve quality, adopt climate resilient agriculture practices, reduce no value adding cost and engage closer with the market actors. iDE’s vision is to develop markets that are inclusive and sustainable, with minimum of market distortion. The smallholder farmer should move from largely subsistence agriculture practices to a more market based agriculture that will be more profitable and will classify as a productive employment. Through the SMART program the aim is that smallholder farmers should have more access to and demand for agriculture inputs and services, should engage more with market actors and improve production (quality and quantity). The intervention will be built around the so called Farm Business Advisor (FBA), which are smallholder farmers that has been identified by iDE to have the potential to become a micro entrepreneurs through capacity building and access to quality inputs. The FBA in its turn will function as advisors and provide agriculture inputs to smallholder farmers in her/his local context. Access to inputs, such as improved seeds, fertilizer and pesticides, is limited in rural Mozambique. And smallholder farmers have limited knowledge on how to use these inputs. In parallel with the development of FBA and the smallholder farmer networks, private actors will gradually be involved in the intervention with the aim to take over iDE’s role as suppler of inputs and capacity building. iDE also aims to facilitate the contacts between the different actors, with the objective that the smallholder farmer networks and private actors should work together and enter into agreement/contracts. The aim with these contracts is to establish a formal risk sharing mechanism, mainly related to production and off-take. A successful implementation of the FBA model is built on the logic that the private sector should also prosper. To further strengthen the possibilities for smallholder farmers (main target group) to modernize their agricultural practices iDE aims to review/improve their enabling business environment, with a specific focus on access to technologies and finance. Throughout the intervention there will be a gender inclusive and transformative approach which aims to increase women’s involvement in agricultural value chains and to seek to significantly increase their income. The intervention should also be built on a sustainable environmental approach focusing on climate smart agriculture. The intervention will have an inception phase of eight months to establish the final program baseline and target, taking into consideration a large number of economic, social and environmental aspects and define exact geographical implementation area. During this period a number of assessments will be conducted: value chain, market, gender equality, environmental impact, conflict sensitivity and security & safety. A majority of these will be carried out by iDE. The program’s inception and implementation phase will be conducted in parallel. The intention with the inception phase is to fine tune the intervention based on the prevailing conditions, which is assessed as a necessity to optimize the future results and to ensure EoS’s (Sida’s) requirements within the areas of gender equality, environment /climate, conflict sensitivity and safety/security. The inception phase should not be seen as an independent part of the intervention, but more as a tool to achieve the results. The intervention will have one agreement for the entire program period, but iDE should submit specific reporting for the inception phase. The conclusions/recommendations from the above assessments will be instrumental for the entire program development.

Donor

SWEDEN

Donor Agency / UN Agency

Suécia

Government Counterparts

Map

Project Information

Project Status

Ongoing

Mozambican Project Number

Fonte de Recurso

Actual Start - End

2016-11-22 / 2022-12-31

Planned Start - End

2016-11-22 / 2022-12-31

Date of Signature of MoU/Contract

n/a

National / Regional

Regional 

Type of Implementation

NGO Implementation 

Project Contact Person

Olov Atterfors | 21 480 300 | olov.atterfors@gov.se 

Project Internet Link

 

Comments

 

Funding Information

Aid Modality

Investment Projects

Currency

SEK

Type of Funding

Grant

On/Off Budget

Off Budget

On/Off Treasury

Off Treasury

Funding Totals

Disbursements

3,204,000 EUR

Commitments

5,604,000 EUR

Undisbursed

2,400,000 EUR

Historic Funding

Disbursements

0 EUR

Commitments

0 EUR

Funding 2016

Disbursements

1,200,000 EUR

Commitments

5,400,000 EUR

Disbursements 1st Quarter

0 EUR

Disbursements 2nd Quarter

0 EUR

Disbursements 3rd Quarter

0 EUR

Disbursements 4th Quarter

1,200,000 EUR

Funding 2017

Disbursements

804,000 EUR

Commitments

204,000 EUR

Disbursements 1st Quarter

0 EUR

Disbursements 2nd Quarter

0 EUR

Disbursements 3rd Quarter

0 EUR

Disbursements 4th Quarter

804,000 EUR

Funding 2018

Disbursements

1,200,000 EUR

Commitments

0 EUR

Disbursements 1st Quarter

0 EUR

Disbursements 2nd Quarter

600,000 EUR

Disbursements 3rd Quarter

0 EUR

Disbursements 4th Quarter

600,000 EUR

Funding Forecast 2018

Disbursements

0 EUR

Commitments

1,200,000 EUR

Funding Forecast 2019

Disbursements

0 EUR

Commitments

900,000 EUR

Funding Forecast 2020

Disbursements

0 EUR

Commitments

900,000 EUR

Funding Forecast 2021

Disbursements

0 EUR

Commitments

600,000 EUR

Classification

Channel of Delivery

Sectors

100.0%

31100 Agriculture

MDGs

• Not Applicable

Focal Regions

Maputo
100.0%

• All districts