Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Creation and Development of Market Institutions
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free, automated information hotline to smallholder farmers across Ethiopia access to best-
practice agronomic advice, “revolutionizing traditional agricultural extension.” Within the first
three months of the program the hotline had received about 1.5 million calls from 300,000
farmers.106
Ethiopia’s ATA has learned from early failures attributed to “(i) Weak and disjointed links
between selected projects and interventions, which are doomed to failure because of lack of
impact, and; (ii) Absence of skills and operational capacities to implement projects and
programs… “Even projects that are well designed and well-resourced often fail to meet
objectives due to a lack of strong project management and systematic implementation.” It now
focuses on three main areas:
1. Crop and livestock market systems, which are the main sources of livelihood for rural
households and which are critical for food security;
2. Systems areas (such as seeds, cooperatives, and soil health), which are treated as the
main pillars of crop market systems, and which “must be addressed at a structural
level…to…help ensure sustainable transformation of agriculture, eliminating the
problem of coherence and thus the lack of overall impact.”
3. Crosscutting initiatives (such as gender mainstreaming and climate change), which
help strengthen market systems and systems program areas and avoid unintended
consequences.”
ATA has also made it a priority to link farmers to markets, for example by working with
agricultural cooperatives to help producers of injera (Ethiopian bread) source tef grain directly
from farmers, using forward delivery contracts, and helping brewers source some 1,000
tonnes of barley by providing pre-financing of inputs as well as extension services to
farmers.107
Nigeria’s Growth Enhancement Support (GES) Program
Launched in 2012, the GES entailed a fundamental policy shift from considering agriculture
expansion as a development obligation to treating it as a business opportunity. Though it did
not end provision of subsidized agricultural inputs, the GES transferred responsibility for their
supply from the state to the private sector.
The new system was based on three main pillars:
1. A profit-oriented network of agricultural input dealers to supply farmers;
2. Commercial lending to agro-dealers, underwritten by the Central Bank of Nigeria; and
3. A system of cashless e-wallets (electronic vouchers) used by farmers for their
transactions.
By 2015 the GES had registered 10.3 million smallholder farmers, produced 15.5 million
metric tonnes of food annually, and increased food security for 30 million people. By creating a
106 Addis Ababa Standard (2014), Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency Creates a Hotline to Help Smallholder
Farmers Nationwide, available a Accessed June 2017].
107 Gebremedhin, K. (2013) “Ethiopia’s progress in agricultural development & the role of Bill Gates-initiated ATA,” available
a
[Accessed June 2017].