Connecting farmers to markets

As the world’s largest humanitarian agency, WFP is a major buyer of staple food. In 2011, WFP bought US$1.23 billion worth of food – more than 70 percent of this in developing countries. With the Purchase the Progress (P4P) initiative, WFP is taking this one step further. P4P uses WFP’s purchasing power and its expertise in logistics and food quality to offer smallholder farmers opportunities to access agricultural markets, to become competitive players in those markets and thus to improve their lives.

The five-year pilot initiative links WFP’s demand for staple food in 21 countries with the expertise of a host of partners who support farmers to produce food surpluses and sell them at a fair price. By 2013, at least half a million smallholder farmers will have increased and improved their agricultural production and earnings. By raising farmers’ incomes, P4P turns WFP’s local procurement into a vital tool to address hunger.  Learn more

P4P latest

Uganda - Farmers in the north see good times ahead

In Uganda's impoverished Acholi subregion, farmers enrolled in P4P are part of a dramatic turnaround. The economy and trade are picking up and residents here are upbeat about the future.

Honduras – School meals provided by smallholders

The school meals program in Honduras reaches 1.4 million pupils with nutritious food. The program started in 1999 and is the largest social initiative in the country today. Thanks to P4P, Honduran smallholders are now increasingly providing food for the school meals.

Guatemala - Women take charge of their farms

Helping poor rural women become successful farmers is one of the best ways to build a food-secure world. That’s what P4P is doing in Guatemala by teaching women farmers how to grow more and better food that they can sell on local markets. It's just one example of what investing in women farmers can achieve.

Malawi – Farmers sell their maize online

Connecting smallholders to markets is the main goal of P4P. One of the approaches WFP is testing is to link them with commodity exchanges. In September, six farmers’ organisations from Malawi were invited to the capital Lilongwe to take part in a WFP online tender for 531 tons of maize.