As a result of the March 2012 coup in Mali, the U.S. Government is reassessing its non-humanitarian assistance. Agricultural assistance has focused on supporting farmers and herders to increase production in the current planting season. Particularly in light of dire food needs, this assistance is critical to improve farmers’ and livestock producers’ access to inputs, increase yields and production, strengthen market linkages, and increase resilience to drought. 

While development programming—including in the areas of health and food security—is under consideration for resumption as part of a case-by-case policy and legal review of the situation in Mali, it is important to note that the U.S. Government will continue to provide assistance to meet humanitarian needs across Mali.

Over the next five years in Mali, Feed the Future aims to provide targeted assistance to increase average yields of irrigated and lowland rice—by 33 percent and 66 percent, respectively—as well as double sorghum yields and increase, by 50 percent, millet yields in targeted areas. Additionally, crops using new technologies will be expanded by 100,000 hectares. More than 255,000 children will be reached with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality. Significant numbers of additional rural populations will achieve improved income and nutritional status from strategic policy engagement and institutional investments.

To meet its objectives, Feed the Future Mali is making core investments in four key areas:

1. Technological Advancement  Advances development of key agriculture sectors by adapting technologies to local conditions and disseminating these to Malian agricultural producers.
2. Value Chain Development  Identifies major constraints to sector development (from farm to market) and means of addressing them in order to raise the efficiency of production and trade, thus raising rural incomes and reducing costs for consumers.
3. Enabling Environment  Enables sector and value chain development by empowering selected public and private institutions to plan, develop, implement, and monitor agricultural and food security strategies and policies.
4. Nutrition  Targeted nutrition interventions will be integrated into agricultural production and trade (value chain) components to ensure improved nutritional outcomes for Malian populations in geographic regions of emphasis, as well as social and behavior change communication for improved infant and young child feeding practices

Target Regions

Feed the Future in Mali will concentrate its interventions in 143 targeted communes in three of Mali’s eight regions—Sikasso, Mopti and Timbuktu—and the two communities in the Millennium Challenge Corporation intervention zones in the Alatona district of Segou region. Target areas were primarily selected for their agricultural production potential and low nutrition statuses, while also taking into account population size, current U.S. Government programming, other donor activity, physical accessibility, and safety and security issues.

Highlights

Research, Extension and Advisory Services. Feed the Future implements activities to strengthen producers’ knowledge and application of improved seeds and farming methods. Private-public partnerships will help ensure that science and technology applications are relevant to the sector’s development and are sustainable over time. Activities to improve agricultural education provided by the University of Bamako/IPR (Institut Polytechnique Rural) and specialized agriculture technical schools will further expand the knowledge base of improved cultivation practices. To address inequalities and raise women’s returns in the production and processing of millet and sorghum, Feed the Future will promote measures to reduce the time intensity of farming and processing activities in which women are dominant. 

Millers, Processors, Traders and Marketing. This program area will strengthen producers’ and communities’ capacity to connect to aggregators, millers and processors in order to improve the quality and marketability of their products. Together with appropriate research and extension services, strengthening market linkages along the value chain raises returns to agricultural investments and labor. Feed the Future Mali will also deepen and strengthen its partnership with the Observatoire du Marché Agricole (OMA) to improve market information systems for cereals and livestock, including the expansion of SMS (Short Message Service) updates provided via cellular telephone. Women can particularly benefit from improved livestock market information systems due to their significant role in lowland rice and small ruminant production and marketing. Additionally, Feed the Future Mali is exploring partnership possibilities with major players in several agro-industries that would also contribute resources, expertise, and opportunities to this program.

Enabling Policy Environment for Agriculture and Nutrition. Feed the Future supports the Government of Mali’s efforts to improve the policy and legal environment for agriculture and nutrition. Ongoing or future areas include business licensing, seed policy, intellectual property protection, and other policies affecting input market development and commercialization (including exports) of cereals and livestock.