Ethiopia
Feed the Future Ethiopia Farm Service Center Project
Overview:
The Feed the Future Ethiopia Farm Service Center Project (2015-2017), funded by USAID, provided technical support to the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) in establishing 20 Farm Service Centers (FSCs) throughout the Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR, and Tigray regions of Ethiopia. This was a follow-on project to the successful USAID Commercial Farm Service Program, which piloted CNFA’s Farm Service Center Model in Ethiopia.
Program Approach:
- Increasing Income and Access to Finance: CNFA’s Farm Service Center Model is a market-based private sector model that applies matching grants and training methodology to establish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that deliver farm supplies and services. FSCs are often located in larger townships and serve as rural development centers that meet the needs of private farmers in their communities. These centers improve access to finance and increase sustainable income by providing a range of agricultural inputs, machinery services, veterinary services and products, marketing assistance for agricultural outputs, training and information, and access to credit.
- Improving food security: The growing network of retail Farm Service Centers has a positive impact on thousands of smallholder farmers across Ethiopia and increases the viability and food security of the entire region. Additionally, ATA’s monitoring and evaluation information systems ensure that the full impact of this transformation is captured as data and can be leveraged to continually integrate lessons learned.
- Promoting gender equality: The project ensured that gender integration and environmental mitigation measures were fully incorporated in the roll-out of all new Farm Service Centers.