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Elton Manguwo

THE impending operationalisation of the US$67,43 million Smallholder Agriculture Cluster Project (SACP) in 2023 by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) is expected to enhance small-scale farmers’ participation in the various components of the agricultural value chains.

SACP project coordinator Dr Godfrey Nehanda yesterday were targeting to increase equitable smallholder participation in market oriented and climate smart value chains by growing household nutrition through sustainable transformation of the small-scale farming.

The US$67, 43 million project was put together by IFAD and OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) with a combined US$50,7 million with the Government adding US$5,4 million and private sector US$7,2 million.

“The thrust of the programme is to establish partnerships between farmers and value chain lead enterprises by bundling up farmers into production clusters to bolster their production to meet the demand of lead value chain enterprises,” revealed Dr Nehanda.

SACP will cover five provinces of Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Midlands and Matabeleland North.

“We are targeting 18 out of the 60 rural districts, as well as 428 wards grouped into production clusters to allow for effective aggregation and economies of scale in smallholder-based value chain development,” said Dr Nehanda.

He added that clusters would be confirmed through viability assessments and community consultations to nurture potential for sustainable and inclusive value chain development.

The project aims to complement its sister project the Small Irrigation Revitalisation Programme(SIRP) by promoting agriculture business and market driven agriculture production so farmers can realise value from their farming operations.

Farmers will be trained on basic business development skills and financial literacy to capacitate them to negotiate with product up takers.

“Component two of the programme seeks to facilitate the commercialisation of smallholder agriculture through improved productivity and product quality, pre-processing, marketing and reduced food loss,” said Dr Nehanda.

As Government pushes to exploit the youth and female demography, which makes up more than 60 percent of the country’s population, the SACP project will have 50 percent women beneficiaries and 30 percent youths out of the 78 240 who are set to benefit.

“SACP prioritises the mainstreaming of gender and young people participation in agriculture value chains,” said Dr Nehanda.

Additionally, the programme will attend to policy formulation by convening policy dialogues between policy makers and beneficiaries.

The project coordinator highlighted that SACP will address the gaps in the country’s smallholder value chain organisation, which results in low productivity and low farmer income through cluster identification and venture capital mobilisation complemented by technical services for the agricultural production groups.

The beneficiaries will also have improved access to irrigation water, domestic water supply and 150 kilometres of rehabilitated road networks for easy access to production zones.

Agriculture is an important industry in the development of the country’s rural areas while uplifting the population from poverty.