Connecting farmers to markets

As the world’s largest humanitarian agency, WFP is a major buyer of staple food. In 2012, WFP bought US$1.1 billion worth of food – more than 75 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 20 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

New initiative to reduce post-harvest losses

Almost one third of the local farming production in sub-Saharan Africa is lost every year due to inadequate post-harvest management and household storage. In combination with its efforts to increase food production in the region, P4P is strongly promoting a greater focus on food preservation. Through a new post-harvest loss reduction initiative recently launched in Burkina Faso, WFP and its partners are combining their efforts to dramatically reduce these losses.  

P4P supporting women in their struggle for access to land

Like in many other countries, the rural environment in Kenya can be particularly challenging for women. Traditionally it is the men who control all land while women are used as a labour force. Despite deeply rooted structural challenges – P4P has contributed to a meaningful improvement for women farmers. The example of Elijah Lelei who gave land to his wife Magdalene is now celebrated as a success story across the country. 

From Subsistence Farmer To Business Woman

Beyond enabling smallholder farmers to access quality markets, P4P has emerged over the years as a stepping-stone for many low-income farmers – especially women – to improve their livelihoods. This is the story of Biba Sanou, a woman whose involvement in P4P helped her move up the social ladder in Western Burkina Faso.   

Record purchase from P4P-supported farmers in Ethiopia

WFP recently bought almost 19,000 metric tons of food produced by smallholders in Ethiopia. With a value of more than US$6 million, this is WFP’s largest contract with P4P-supported farmers' organisations to date. A key to the successful deliveries has been the forward delivery contracts, enabled by a successful collaboration between donors, banks, farmers’ cooperatives, NGOs and the government.