Plateforme mondiale des Champs-Écoles des Producteurs

FAO in Malawi holds 3-day market symposium to link smallholder farmers to markets

26/06/2017 28/06/2017

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development (MoAIWD) will hold a farmers' market symposium from 26-28 June, 2017 aimed at linking smallholder farmers to the market. This market symposium will provide a platform where farmers/farmer organisations can interface with other value chain players including buyers, processors and input dealers. It will also help farmers/farmer organisations acquire a better and in-depth understanding of the market needs in terms of actors/players, demands by time of the year, quality and contractual arrangements available for more predictable and sustainable business ventures. Representatives of 32 Farmer Organisations (Cooperatives/Associations and Farmer Field School clusters) in Kasungu and Mzimba will participate in the event. It is also expected that 10 different agro-traders and suppliers will take part. The 3-day event has been organised into four broad segments. On Day1, there will be a general awareness session on market-oriented extension and overview of the Market Capacity Building Project. This will be followed by a preparatory/coaching session in the afternoon for the participating farmers on how to effectively interact with the market actors. On the second and third day, representatives of the farmer organisations will have an opportunity to interact with market actors coming to the symposium.

The market symposium will be held with support from the Government of Flanders, within the framework of an ongoing projects “Marketing Capacity Building Project for Smallholder Farmers in Mzimba and Kasungu Districts” being implemented by FAO in collaboration with MoAIWD. The project is in line with the government’s aspiration of achieving farmer-led agricultural transformation and commercialisation that entails treating farming as a business. In particular, it contributes towards priority 4 of the National Agricultural Policy - “Agricultural Market Development, Agro-Processing and Value Addition”. Thus, the project was conceived to support smallholder-farming households to produce for markets.

Contacts:
For more information on the market symposium, please contact:
CHIPALASA, Mike | [email protected] | FAO-Malawi Communications | Mobile +265-884-763-703 or
OKOTH, James Robert | [email protected] | Mobile +265-998-939-806