Making markets work more effectively for smallholder farmers

The Market Access Program (MAP) was a 10-year programme, implemented by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) across 14 countries in Africa between 2008 and early 2019.

It sought to address the key constraints experienced by smallholder farmers with regard to market access, namely a lack of knowledge around best practice post-harvest handling techniques; a lack of up-to-date market information; ineffective systems for sorting, grading, storing, transportation and aggregation of produce; and poor market linkages. AGRA issued grants to local partner organisations in the programme countries to implement specific interventions that targeted these constraints.

AGRA appointed Genesis to conduct an end-of-programme evaluation. The purpose was to provide a reasoned and independent view of the overall performance of the programme.

The evaluation also assessed the success of the AGRA interventions in making markets work for the smallholder farmers in five of the programme countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mozambique. The evaluation served as a final learning exercise for the programme.

Based on the findings of the evaluation, Genesis provided recommendations for AGRA to consider for future programming to maximize its effectiveness at making markets work for smallholder farmers.