Investing in farmers
Maendeleo Agricultural Enterprise Fund (MAEF)
The Maendeleo Agricultural Enterprise Fund (MAEF) is a new FARM-Africa initiative which builds on the advances made by the Maendeleo Agricultural Technology Fund (MATF) between 2002 and 2011. During that period MATF gave out grants enabling smallholder farmers in rural and peri-urban areas to: access new technologies; gain skills; and to be linked to profitable markets.
MAEF will build on these initiatives and enable smallholder farmers to be more enterprising. Specifically, MAEF aims: to increase agricultural productivity in eastern Africa in a sustainable manner through investment in innovative technologies which can then be scaled-out and replicated by other farmers; to add value to farmers’ harvests through improved post-harvest handling and simple agroprocessing techniques; to bring their produce to profitable markets to maximise their gains; to generate income; and to enable rural households to lift themselves out of poverty and food insecurity.
For more information on MATF and MAEF, please visit the project's website.
Call for Concept Notes for funding from MAEF
In July 2011 FARM-Africa launched a call for Concept Notes inviting applications from Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya for funding from The Competitive Value Chain Fund (CVCF).
The Competitive Value Chain Fund Grant
MAEF has three separate funding streams. The July 2011 call for Concept Notes invited applications for grants from the first of these three streams: The Competitive Value Chain Fund (CVCF).
The theme of the first call for Competitive Value Chain Fund Concept Notes is women farmers in the agricultural value chain. FARM-Africa will award six grants for projects of up to three years duration. The successful projects that receive funding will enable women farmers to access profitable markets in East Africa.
On launching its call, therefore, FARM-Africa stipulated that Concept Notes should focus on enabling women farmers to exploit market opportunities along product value chains for specific, and proven, technologies. Read the call for concept notes here.
Funding applications were received from 324 people. From these, 14 were shortlisted to be developed into full proposals for grants.
Projects are selected by an Advisory Panel consisting of two sector specialists from each of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, as well as by FARM-Africa’s Nairobi-based Regional Director and its MAEF project team. The Advisory Panel serves both to award the grants and to use their knowledge and experience to provide ongoing support to those projects which receive funding.
The Fund’s Advisory Panel Members
A panel of advisory members will now judge those 14 proposals and award grants to a final six.
Membership of the Advisory Panel has now been finalised. Members of the panel are:
Tanzania
Stella Rwiza
Stella has worked as the Chief Executive Officer of the Community Banks Association in Tanzania and before that was the Monitoring and Evaluation Manager at the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation. She has an MSC in Agricultural Economics.
Vincent Akulumuka
Vincent presently works as an Agriculture Advisor at Irish Aid, Tanzania. Before that he was a Communications and Advocacy Adviser at Save the Children, UK. He has an MSc in Agriculture Development and Environment from the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia in the UK.
Kenya
Felister Wambugha Mvoi Makini
Felister is the Deputy Director for Outreach and Partnerships at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) in Nairobi, Kenya. She has a PhD in Plant Pathology from Greenwich University in the UK.
David Tyrell
David is presently the Managing Director of Dascot Ltd Business Consultants in Nairobi, Kenya. Before that he was the Managing Director of Aventis Cropscience Kenya Ltd. He has an MBA from Leeds Polytechnic in the UK.
Uganda
Dr Joseph Oryokot
Joseph is presently the Technical Services Manager for the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) in Kampala, Uganda. Joseph holds a PhD in Crop Science from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Peter Abong
Peter is presently a Technical Adviser for the Vegetable Oil Development Project, a project implemented by Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture and funded by the World Bank’s International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Investing in farmers
Maendeleo Agricultural Enterprise Fund
The Maendeleo Agricultural Enterprise Fund (MAEF) is investing in small-scale farmers in East Africa so that they can improve their productivity. We introduce new technologies and support farmers as they adopt them. This has a far-reaching impact as increased yields mean more food and income for the community as a whole.
George's story
George lives in Uganda’s Luwero district. Like most farmers in this agricultural area, George is reliant on his rice crop to feed his family of ten, and provide income for household essentials. George, and many of his fellow farmers were finding it increasingly difficult to grow enough rice to survive.
MATF provided funding to a local organisation that was keen to share the benefits of growing upland rice with farmers in Luwero district. This upland rice grows well in drier areas meaning that farmers can grow rice outside the wetlands in the valleys. It also yields a much larger harvest in less time than the wetland varieties traditionally grown in the region.
Bigger harvests mean bigger surpluses to sell at market. As a result, farmers were also taught about marketing and collaborating to get a good price for any rice they had to sell.
George’s harvest has almost doubled, and is now more than enough to sustain his family. Money earned from selling the extra rice has paid for the uniforms and books his children need to attend school. The training has improved George’s agricultural knowledge and now he now has the skills, knowledge and confidence to grow maize too.
Best Practices
MATF - Improving Livelihoods Through Innovative Partnerships
Adobe PDF - 2.05mb
Working Papers
08. Socio-Economic Assessment of Four MATF-Funded Projects
Adobe PDF - 1.2mb
14. Scaling-up Success - FARM-Africa\'s new strategy for development
Adobe PDF - 444kb
FARM-Africa opens calls for Concept Notes to its new enterprise fund
FARM-Africa’s Maendeleo Agricultural Enterprise Fund opens its call for Concept Notes.
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Upland Rice Project in Uganda goes from strength to strength
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r 25,000 farmers in central and eastern Uganda have benefited from the Upland Rice Project. It is estimated that since the start of the project, gross margins per acre have increased five times for farmers, increasing their income and enabling them to feed themselves and their families.
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