Banner image: The Feed the Future activity provides a training in Sud Kivu Province, DRC. Photo credit: Thierry Bikuba Cirimwami

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), farmers face a myriad of obstacles to crop production. Chief among them is control of the devastating pest, the fall armyworm. Since the pest’s invasion in 2016, many farmers throughout the country have lost crops or seen their yields significantly reduced. Greater access to crop protection products and other basic productivity-enhancing inputs, such as quality seed and fertilizer, can help farmers combat fall armyworm and increase yields. However, many farmers live in remote areas with poor road networks and thin local markets, severely limiting access to agricultural inputs and services.

Grant co-investments with private sector actors have been used as a key lever in agricultural development projects to stimulate the private sector to provide inputs and services to underserved customer segments, like rural smallholder farmers. Through grants targeted to micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) agrodealers, the Feed the Future Management of Fall Armyworm in Maize for Smallholder Farmers in DRC Activity, implemented by Land O’Lakes Venture37, is co-investing with agrodealers across eight provinces to grow their business and reach smallholder farmers with safe and effective agri-inputs. Through the grants offered so far, the activity has identified several lessons to effectively co-invest with MSMEs, incentivizing partner businesses to expand into new geographies, offer new and safe products, and provide technical training to their customers on the proper use of crop input and protection products. 

Design the solicitation and application process with MSMEs in mind 

To ensure solicitations are responsive to MSMEs and that they are equipped to apply, the solicitation and application process needs to be hands on. For example, the Activity inventoried and consulted with agrodealers across the eight provinces it operates in to seek input on the design of the Request for Application (RFA). This not only familiarized and prepared agrodealers for a forthcoming solicitation but it also enabled the Activity to ensure that the solicitation would garner interest and applications from agrodealers. Rather than post the RFA online, the final RFA was shared directly with agrodealers, and the team held an informational session for agrodealers to ask questions about the application process.

The activity is currently co-investing with nine agrodealers — and is in the process of selecting a new cohort of additional agrodealer grantees. The agrodealer grantees are a mix of village-level retailers, small and medium-sized retailers based in urban and peri-urban areas, and middlemen who procure agricultural inputs from large retailers in Kinsasha or from neighboring countries. Grant awards currently range from $7,350 to $15,000, matched by a minimum 50/50 investment from each agrodealer. While selecting grantees, the activity’s due diligence process illuminated applicants potential for reach and their administrative constraints (limited record keeping, missing legal paperwork, weak supply procurement practices). This provided a starting point for the project to provide tailored support to the selected grantees. 

Co-creation is key

To support win-win outcomes for both agrodealers and farmers, successful co-investment needs to start with co-creation from the very beginning. Even for small grant awards co-creation was deemed a necessary step to ensure the agrodealers could “own” the solutions for their business growth while also receiving advice on business strategy, marketing, and sourcing of quality and safe agro-inputs. Given the difference in scale and capabilities of the various agrodealer grantees, the co-creation process set the stage to enable the activity to tailor life of grant assistance based on need. 

The co-creation process supported agrodealers to define their business goals and prepare realistic plans to expand into underserved areas. During the process, the activity worked with grantees to define achievable milestones. Milestones included organizing sensitization sessions on product and services offerings and signing collaboration protocols with and training agricultural input resellers at the village-level. These milestones are enabling agrodealers to grow their village reseller and farmer networks at the last-mile and ultimately increase sales. 

Further, the Activity’s experience with its first two grantees revealed that agrodealer grantees were very effective at reaching farmers with technical training and information on agri-input use, integrated pest management, and good agricultural practices. Providing training presented a value add to agrodealers as it built relationships with farmers, resulting in both new and repeat customers. Given this result, the Activity has encouraged its most recent grantees to include the provision of technical training to farmers through additional milestones. These include establishing product demonstration fields in remote villages and training farmers on good agricultural practices and safe and effective use of inputs.

Design for scale

Co-investment activities need to be designed for scale to increase smallholder farmer access to and use of agri-inputs. This includes investing with a diversity of agrodealers and ensuring that agrodealers are receiving capacity building support over the life of the grant. As previously stated, the Activity has recruited a diverse cohort of agrodealer grantees to co-invest with. This includes medium-sized agrodealers who can procure inputs in bulk to supply smaller agrodealers, including several of the Activity’s other grantees. These small sized agrodealers are in turn building out their networks of village level retailers who supply smallholder farmers at the last mile. 

Furthermore, during the life of the grant, the Activity continues to work closely with agrodealers to ensure that they are meeting their milestones. The Activity provided business management training on correct record keeping, budgeting and cost-benefit analysis, and business planning. The Activity is facilitating linkages between agrodealers and larger commercial input suppliers to reduce procurement of low quality, illegal, and toxic crop protection products. The Activity has also facilitated technical training for agrodealers, delivered by the Activity’s partner Villa Crop Protection, to increase knowledge on various crop input products, safe and effective use in line with the Activity’s Pesticide Evaluation Report and Safer Use Action Plan, and how to market these products. 

The first nine agrodealers supported by grant co-investments are already increasing their reach, sales, and clients’ knowledge through training. A recent survey revealed that over the past year the agrodealers have added a total of 217 new selling points with an average radius of 60 kilometers from their main retail outlet. Sales of agri-inputs have also increased with sales of improved varieties of maize seed, in particular, increasing by 12% in the last year. Further, the agrodealers have trained 9,677 farmers, half of whom are women, on proper use of crop input and protection products and fall armyworm identification and management. 

The power of co-investing with MSMEs

This experience illustrates the power of co-investing with MSMEs to expand their reach to underserved farmer customers and overcome last mile delivery challenges. By designing the solicitation and application process for MSMEs, co-creating business plans and grantee milestones, and designing co-investment activities for scale, agricultural development projects can incentivize stronger private sector partnerships in remote rural areas. 
 
To learn more about the activity’s co-investments with agrodealers, read this story about an agrodealer who is expanding his business and increasing farmer access to and knowledge of crop protection products: Ruphin Mutebua's Story: A Spokesperson for Crop Protection.