Connecting farmers to markets

As the world’s largest humanitarian agency, WFP is a major buyer of staple food. In 2010, WFP bought US$1.25 billion worth of food – more than 80 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

Malawi: Challenges and opportunities for traders selling to WFP

One of the approaches P4P is testing in Malawi to connect smallholder farmers to markets is to buy increasingly from small traders, provided that they source their commodities from smallholders. A promising approach that does not always work without glitches, as trader Boniface Chilomo can tell.

Guatemala: Progression Of A Farmers’ Organisation

In October 2011, we profiled Gilda Zepada, a member of the Guatemalan cooperative APALH and the benefits P4P trainings had on her life. The cooperative’s president, Raul Contreras, who attended the Third P4P Annual Review in Rome in November 2011, now tells us how the cooperative itself also progressed over the last few years.

Zambia: 'Take Farming As Serious Business' – Small Scale Farmer Encourages Others To Reap Benefits From What They Sow

Golden Lwiindi, 40, is a smallholder farmer in Zambia’s Southern Province. In the past five years, he has bred more than 50 goats, developed his farm, planted and sold a variety of crops, and bought a hammer mill. He says the secret to his success is  thinking of farming as a way to make money, not just as a traditional way of life – adopting new technologies and methods, crop diversification, record keeping and good planning also help.

Taking stock: WFP and stakeholders review P4P at mid-point

Seventy-nine WFP staff and seventy partners gathered at the headquarters of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome, Italy for the third global Purchase for Progress (P4P) Annual Review to collectively review progress and discuss key lessons during P4P implementation in 2011. There was overwhelming consensus that P4P is continuing to act as a catalyst and a platform to bring together partners.