This manual is intended to support trainers who are helping Farmer Organisations (FOs) and their members in Sub-Saharan Africa to improve the quality of their grain. In so doing, it is expected that the income earning opportunities and the food security of the learners’
households will be increased. Learning how to supply quality grain to WFP and other buyers is a corner stone of the capacity building activities provided by the Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative. P4P is a partnership of many actors and stakeholders spanning the sectors of smallholder development, market development and food assistance brought together around the WFP food demand platform. By developing the capacity to sell to an institutional buyer such as WFP, smallholder farmers through organizations can acquire the knowledge, skills and confidence needed for engaging with formal markets.
To date, PHHS training for P4P has not been standardised across countries, and only limited opportunity has been taken to capitalise on best practice for both the method of delivery or for training material content. For this reason, WFP had a vision of a core training package
that could be used across P4P countries but would at the same time retain sufficient flexibility to cater for local variations, local languages and the specific needs of different FOs.

In September 2011, WFP commissioned the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) to review the PHHS training provision in P4P countries. From the wealth of data gathered an image of P4P training emerged that was diverse in nature and generally appreciated by both trainees and trainers. The diversity was a result of different partners in each country with different experience of PHHS and different approaches to training. Subsequently, NRI was engaged to create a standardised training package the result of which is this training manual and a
complementary set of training presentations.
The training package is primarily targeted at Sub-Saharan Africa but it is hoped that in time it can be adapted for use elsewhere. It was developed to address the requirements of a wide range of both trainers and trainees across many countries, consequently it is presented in a loose-leaf ring-binder format to make it easy to customise to local requirements. Inside the folder, there are simple A3 poster foldouts with cartoons and minimal text, A4 pages with short blocks of text with frequent illustrations, and reference material consisting of longer blocks of text for explaining the theory behind important PHHS issues. To complete the training package, PowerPoint presentations and training facilitators’ notes have been developed that are suitable for the instruction of higher level trainers (explained later), whilst it is intended that the training of farmers is achieved by practical sessions supported by some visual material.