EthioPEA Alliance

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Date of Operation: 2012 – 2017

Primary Implementing Partner: PepsiCo Foundation, United Nations World Food Program, Government of Ethiopia.

Regions of Operation: Amhara

Goal:

Expand Ethiopia’s potential to be an international source of chickpeas for export while increasing the availability of nutritious food domestically.

Project Objectives:

  • Optimize chickpea production through technology and quality control
  • Support local business development among millers, processors and packers
  • Apply capacity-building best practices

Description:

The EthioPEA alliance is an innovative public private partnership between the Government of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculutre, USAID, World Food Program and the PepsiCo foundation. This public-private collaboration will seek to expand Ethiopia’s potential to be an international source of chickpeas for export while increasing the availability of nutritious food domestically. The partnership aims to address constraints and build capacity throughout the chickpea value chain.  It will seek to foster economic growth and improve the availability and affordability of nutritious, locally sourced food products, including chickpea-based ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF), for low-income populations as well as others in Ethiopia and in export markets. Ethiopia is uniquely suited to launch such an initiative as it is already the continent's largest producer of chickpea and the sixth largest producer in the world.

USAID will help to support both the commercial and nutrition objectives of the Alliance, providing technical, financial and training assistance. The PepsiCo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of PepsiCo, along with the United Nations World Food Program will coordinate with Valid Nutrition, a manufacturer of highly fortified nutritional pastes, to develop a chickpea-based RUSF. PepsiCo is also conducting agriculture pilots and a business case analysis for increasing chickpea productivity. WFP expects to use the chickpea-based supplementary food product in its nutrition work in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. It will support farmers’ cooperatives and food processors to develop the product and maintain high quality production standards.  The Government of Ethiopia will support the Alliance through policy and research as the project supports the country’s development goals.

Ethiopia is Africa’s largest producer of chickpeas, but there remains high potential to increase yields and improve quality for export and develop local processing capacity for the domestic market. In support of the country’s agriculture sector development plans, and with financial and technical support from USAID, PepsiCo launched an agricultural pilot for the project in 2011. This pilot included a sustainable agriculture chain with benefits for socio-economic development in Ethiopia as well as for PepsiCo’s business. USAID and PepsiCo also explore the potential to use locally produced chickpeas in a therapeutic food product, which could be more cost effective than current alternatives and generate demand for small-holder production and create jobs.

Expected Results:

  • Utilize pilot program to understand growing characteristics of chickpea varieties of commercial importance to PepsiCo, as well as of relevance to the WFP’s chickpea-based supplementary feeding product
  • Engage adjacent smallholder plots in activities for training and technology transfer, such as establishment and maintenance of drip irrigation systems
  • Use pilot results to form a proposal to scale up project to a larger area and perhaps include additional areas
  • Use pilot results to better understand chickpea volume needs for WFP’s supplementary feeding product and for PepsiCo’s global business