Commercial Alliance for Smallholders in Horticulture, in Mali

Since 2014, the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg), in partnership with USAID, has been implementing the "Project for the Deployment of vegetables Technologies in Mali" to fight against poverty and malnutrition. This partnership has allowed, among other things, to significantly increase the production of vegetables. Today, the mastery of best agronomic practices and the increase in productivity offer an opportunity for producers to increase their income through the marketing of their products. With a market-driven approach, vegetable production and marketing in the Feed the Future (FtF) areas can be undertaken to generate wealth year-round. This new initiative is focused on increasing the income and resilience of vegetable producers in Sikasso and Mopti by improving productivity and market access.
The lack of private-led, profit-oriented approach is cited as a key contraint to to developing the potential of vegetables in Mali. The involvement of the private sector through long-term purchase agreements, coupled with strong organizational, financial and environmental management of key players in the plant value chain, will support sustainability. The public-private partnership to be developed aims to : - Improve awarenss in application of Good Agricultural Practices in vegetable production to improve product quality, - Improve postharvest management practices among producers and improve awareness in efforts aimed at minimizing losses along the entire vegetable value chain, - Build viable agri-business capacity across the value chain and improve access to local and regional markets by faciliting contract farming and organizing farmers into production, processing and marketing clusters/hubs, - Raise awareness and demand for safe and nutritious vegetables among target consummers and enhance access to functional market information by providing market analysis trend/ forecasting information to beneficiaries and stakeholders along the vegetable value chain, - Facilitate access to financial products and services through linkages to rural financial markets (financial institutions, microcredit schemes) and business development service providers.
The implementation approaches for the public-private sector partnership will aim to address the challenges and opportunities identified in the project target areas in Sikasso, Mopti and Timbuktu region as well as use the lessons learned from these priority regions
Parts of the project resources will be committed to validating new technologies, and developing integrated approaches and methodologies for long-term and sustainable production and postharvest management technologies (including processing). Prioritized vegetable production and postharvest technologies will be scaledup through diverse pathways to help ensure increased adoption, including strengthening of partnerships with public sector development agencies and the private sector to support extension services, market penetration and value chain upgrading.