Agribusiness Systems

Equitable growth through competitive agribusiness

ACDI/VOCA takes a comprehensive, analytical approach to increasing efficiencies along entire value chains – from crop production, through processing and marketing, but always with an eye towards quickly improving the productivity and profit margins of large numbers of smallholder farmers. Our interventions minimize market distortions and build the capacity of private sector participants to act on their own behalf. Every commercial crop must meet the specific quantity, quality, presentation, packaging and delivery schedule requirements of a particular market.

Increasing Competitiveness, Linkages and Market Access

ACDI/VOCA also identifies and then targets weaknesses in commodity chain support services or infrastructure to increase opportunities and profits for entire regions or sub-sectors. For example, we have been a leader in introducing warehouse receipts and inventory credit systems that enforce international quality standards, allow farmers to use their commodities as collateral for loans and reduce seasonal price volatility. ACDI/VOCA has helped draft pro-growth legislation and regulations that have facilitated cooperative formation, trade liberalization and favorable tax treatment. We have played a major role in developing efficient, sustainable systems for building and maintaining rural road and irrigation infrastructure while creating new employment opportunities. Our financial service team has contributed expertise to solve rural finance constraints. We have helped develop internet-based market information systems tailored to the needs of farmers and intermediate traders and end-markets.

Associations, Cooperatives and Capacity Building

To help farmers capture a larger market share and a larger portion of the final sale price, ACDI/VOCA trains them to master crop-specific technical skills, acquire market knowledge and approach farming as a business. We also assist farmers to organize themselves as shareholders in commercial business operations of sufficient scale to access more competitively priced inputs, research, telecommunications, finance, transportation and other services so that they may compete successfully with larger, more capital-intensive producers. These shareholder-owned businesses provide an efficient vehicle for not only transferring technical and business knowledge but also eliminating policy constraints, promoting gender equity, protecting the environment and addressing health challenges such as HIV/AIDS and malnutrition. We help smallholders add value to their crops through improved processing and packaging technologies, through arbitrage or through more focused marketing campaigns.

Public-Private Alliances

In an age when foreign direct investment in developing economies greatly exceeds donor funding for projects, ACDI/VOCA helps leverage resources and apply them effectively. ACDI/VOCA’s Cabinda Agribusiness Development Alliance project in Angola is jointly funded by Chevron and USAID. In support of its specialty coffee project in Colombia, ACDI/VOCA has joined forces with International Coffee Partners to implement a project under USAID’s Global Development Alliance to improve farmer business skills and coffee production standards. Our multinational SUCCESS Alliance cocoa development project involves USAID, USDA, the World Cocoa Foundation and Mars.

ACDI/VOCA’s food and agricultural systems programs are achieving a substantial and sustainable increase in the purchasing power of hundreds of thousands of rural households worldwide. These programs trigger a “virtuous cycle” of asset accumulation and expanded opportunities for income, health and nutrition as a growing number of commercial enterprises are motivated to provide this new consumer base with goods and services.