Annual Report

2012 Annual Report

2012 Marked Significant Changes for CNFA. This year, we successfully completed programs in Georgia, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe, having helped thousands of smallholder farmers overcome development challenges by teaching sustainable agriculture practices, facilitating access to finance and credit, and building networks of input retailers all around the world. By using market-driven solutions to achieve food security, CNFA builds the competitiveness of rural entrepreneurs by providing assistance at all steps along value chains.

In Georgia, we addressed the country’s severe shortage of agricultural machinery by using a combination of matching grants and private sector investment to establish 21 machinery service centers. This network generated almost $2 million in sales, increased annual incomes of small-scale farmers by more than $6 million and created 195 jobs. We improved smallholder productivity, incomes and livelihoods by building an enterprise-based network of agrodealers that serve as a one-stop shop for agricultural inputs and supplies in Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. In Africa alone, CNFA has supported the development of more than 7,000 agrodealers, who have sold more than $170 million in goods and services to 3.2 million small scale rural producers over the last five years. In Ghana, we built the local capacity for smallholder cocoa producers by developing business centers to link cocoa producers to cocoa purchasers resulting in 12,000 farmers doubling both their yields and incomes.

2012 also marked the awarding of four new programs valued at $56 million in three new countries—Bangladesh, Ethiopia and South Sudan. In Ethiopia, we are applying our proven track record of market-driven value chain development to increase the competitiveness of selected livestock, meat and dairy value chains. CNFA’s second new program in Ethiopia is employing its Farm Service Center model as a platform for larger-scale, public-private partnerships to expand Ethiopian smallholders’ access to inputs, trainings and services. In Bangladesh, we are starting to build an agro-inputs retailer network which will serve 1 million smallholders and generate more than $100 million in sales. To help mitigate local conflicts in South Sudan, CNFA is developing a cattle identification and livestock ownership/registration system to help reduce both cattle raiding and sale of stolen cattle.

While 2012 may have been the year of change for CNFA, our priority of supporting the smallholder farmer remains constant. For 28 years, CNFA has actively engaged rural farmers and entrepreneurs in new income-generating activities of their own–enabling them to build brighter futures for themselves and their children. Though new development challenges continue to evolve, I am confident CNFA will remain at the forefront of helping rural farmers improve their livelihoods and in ultimately achieving global food security.

JOHN H. COSTELLO
President and Chief Executive Officer, CNFA