Pro-poor Marketing Development Initiatives for Sub-Saharan Africa based on the Commercial Village Approach (CVA).
Farm Concern International, FCI, is a Christian Regional Market Development Trust, developing pro-poor marketing models and strategic alliances to enhance economic growth among poor communities. Implementing smallholder commercialisation and market oriented programmes across Sub-Saharan Africa, FCI is currently linking over 50,000 smallholder farmers and vulnerable communities to markets based on Commercial Villages / Private Sector business partnerships. The FCI’s poor clientele are equipped with skills to adopt cost effective smallholder commercialization approaches, increase proactive participation along value chains and enhanced access to viable domestic, regional and International markets.
To build Pro-poor market development initiatives and commercialization of poor households in Sub-Saharan Africa for enhanced community empowerment
Commercialized African households with increased incomes and better livelihoods
Farm Concern International implementation approach is based on ‘The Commercial Villages Approach’ a model designed by FCI aimed at commercializing villages across Sub-Saharan Africa and establish market linkages with formal, semi-formal and informal buyers. Strategic business partnerships between commercial villages and buyers have emerged as a sustainable approach to pro-poor development. FCI is further supporting commercial villages to establish agro-value addition through cottage agro-processing businesses units (CABU). Private sector-based marketing strategies for CABU are designed for competitive forward linkages with large-scale agro-processing companies.
Farm Concern International has developed various private sector strategic partnerships with multinationals, export companies, hypermarkets, chain stores, market intermediaries, local traders, agro-processing companies, services providing companies and various private sector companies offering a new platform for sustainable pro-poor development based a Business Model through the Commercial Villages Approach.
Collaboration partnerships with International / National Research Institutes, Universities, Development Agencies and Community Based Organization opens a systematic approach for commercial villages to access technical and market information.
Under the Commercial Villages model, FCI clusters smallholder farmers within a neighborhood into commercial groups of 20 to 30 households and further cluster approximately 20 commercial groups to form the Commercial Village. Commercial Villages comprises of 300 to 500 Household depending on the density of project sites and then gets them to establish formal linkages with the private sector so as to access to stable value chains and the high value markets.
The CVA Conceptual Framework
The Commercial Villages Approach, CVA, therefore recognizes that there are numerous impediments that make the smallholder producer communities unable to access the high value markets. CVA thus endeavor to answer these bottlenecks through the five strategic areas all geared to make the rural communities able to participate in the high value markets as a respected partner. CVA therefore has 5 pillars for its;
- Pillar 1; Market Research
- Pillar 2; Establishment of the Commercial Villages
- Pillar 3; Capacity Building and Extension Support
- Pillar 4; Private Sector Partnerships
- Pillar 5; Market Access and Development
Events & updates:
‘The Role of smallholder commercialization and marketing in technology adoption and scale up’ are FCI experiences shared at the ASARECA Inception workshop for technology uptake and up scaling support initiative (TUUSI), Entebbe – Uganda, February 2007
‘Smallholder commercialization, community / private sector partnerships and pro-poor market access’ are FCI initiatives shared during the Round II Proposal development workshop for the World Bank – Kenya Agricultural Productivity Programmes, co-ordinated by KARI, Nakuru, Kenya, January 2007
FCI shares experiences of the Commercial Village Approach approaches Indigenous Vegetables commercialization and market access case study in Kiambu, Kenya during a workshop on Indigenous Vegetables in Hyderabad, India, December 2006.
Pro-poor market development initiatives and approaches initiated by FCI are extensively shared during the CGIAR Annual General Meeting, , as FCI was selected to participate under the Innovative marketplace category of the CGIAR AGM06, Washington DC, December 2006
FCI shares experiences on Private Sector partnerships in Orange Fleshed Sweet potatoes smallholder commercialization during the 14th Triennial Symposium of The International Society for Tropical Root Crops, Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Kerala, India
Role of commercialization of traditional crops in community based health and nutrition is shared by FCI during the Regional Meeting on Biodiversity, Nutrition and Health held at AICAD, Juja, Kenya 31st Oct – 1st Nov 2006. Delegates thereafter toured FCI commercial villages offering a platform for commercial villages members to share experiences, Nairobi-Kenya, November 2006
Vitamin A for Africa (VITAA) meeting held on 9 - 11 Oct 2006, developed a road map for increased Vitamin A in Africa and further appointed FCI to co-ordinate the Kenya Chapter, as University of Nairobi having served the office for 3 years hands to FCI, Kigali, Rwanda, October 2006
‘African Leafy Vegetables evolves from underutilized species to commercial cash crops’ working paper is presented during the Research Workshop on Collective Action and Market Access for Smallholders, 2-6 October 2006, Cali, Colombia
Commercial Villages Conceptual Framework 
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