FT ESA: SQM Project

Challenge
Livelihoods of African maize farmers are being threatened by degraded, nutrient-starved soils and farmers’ limited access to fertilizer or improved maize seeds. This has also been contributing to increased food insecurity in the region.

Approach
Musoma Food Company Limited (MFCL) hopes to change this trend. MFCL, was awarded £329,451 grant through the Food Trade East and Southern Africa (Food Trade ESA) Challenge Fund, which was provided with the aim of mitigating some of the challenges identified by improving value chain coordination.

Solution

MFCL set up the ‘Sustainable Quality Maize Project (SQM Project)’ to support smallholder maize farmers increase business
efficiency with the result of enhancing productivity and the quality of maize. Adherence to quality involves training on acceptable East African cereal and grain quality parameters, with the aim of strengthening the farmers in the area of good agronomic practice, post-harvest handling and business skills.

With the support of Food Trade ESA, MFCL came up with a training offer to farmers known as ‘Maize Farmer Training Programme’. The programme has already resulted in the increase of maize production from six bags per acre to over 30.