Programme Summary

The SeFaMaCo programme is a partnership that has been developed by Farm Concern International (FCI) with stakeholders through a Landscape Analysis process that involved over 20 institutions which included; private companies, informal wholesale buyers, small & medium enterprises, financial services providers, development organizations, research institutes, Government agencies, farmer organizations, consumers, schools and consultants.

The project will be implemented in Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania targeting 1,016,113 beneficiaries. The implementation approach is based on a partnership approach with FCI as the lead partner and three levels of partnership: sub-grantees, private sector innovation fund and strategic partners).  The SeFaMaCo intervention therefore aims at offering viable business opportunities and unlocking the unexploited incomes opportunity along banana and sweet potato value chains based on the following target highlights: 1,010,001 clients, 192,992 smallholder farmers (SHF) as commercialization project clients, 1,582 villages under the Commercial Villages Model, 934,400 households, 56,064 farm workers, 570 informal wholesale buyers, 100 women informal wholesale buyers. 525 smallholder seed multipliers, 74,752 women farmers comprising 40% of the target SHF and 18,688 youth who comprise 10%. The capacity of 15,580 farmer organization leaders will also be enhanced.

Over 1,000,000 smallholder Farmers to benefit from SeFaMaCo programme targeting banana and sweet potatoes in Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia

Over one million banana and sweet potato smallholder farmers are set to benefit from the SeFaMaCo programme in securing access to clean planting material, increased farmer skills knowledge and reliable markets for improved economic livelihoods. SeFaMaCo programme is a four year initiative, titled Integrated Value Chain development and smallholder farmer commercialization of Banana and Sweet potato for Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia based on a Seed- Farmer-Market and Consumer model. 

Speaking during the launch of the programme in Moshi, Kilimanjaro region at Farm Concern International (FCI’s) office, the Director of Crop Development at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Mr. Twahir Nzallawahe called on farmers in the targeted regions to participate in the project due to the benefits that will result therein... Read more

Banana Value Chain has Immense Commercialization potential in Uganda and Tanzania

Banana is an important staple food for nearly 400 million people in many developing countries, especially in Africa. The total global production ranks fourth after maize, rice and wheat (CGIAR, 2014). The production of the ten leading banana producing countries is estimated to be about 95.9 million metric tons (FAOSTAT, 2012). Uganda and Tanzania are among the two African countries featuring among these top 10 producers, contributing about 11.57%) and 3.9 million metric tons (4.0%) respectively. In 2012 the volume of global gross banana exports reached a record high of 16.5 million tons (FAO, 2014). The SeFaMaCo landscape analysis conducted by Farm Concern International (FCI) shows that Uganda has an estimated demand of 10 Million TC plantlets, against the production capacity of about 600,000 plantlets annually. This huge deficit in supply presents an opportunity for commercial seed enterprises... Read More 

Going back to the roots: SeFaMaCo signals commercialization of orange fleshed sweet potato and banana in East Africa

For generations East Africans have been relying on various crops as staple foods providing a strong basis for food-based nutrition. These include bananas and sweet potatoes. On this premise, between October 2013 and May 2014, Farm Concern International decided to undertake a value-chain wide landscape analysis with the ultimate aim of commercializing smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania. The Gates Foundation sponsored project was dubbed Landscape Analysis for Banana and Orange Sweet Potato (OSP) Seed Farmer- Market & Consumer Value Chains for Tanzania, Uganda & Ethiopia, or more commonly known as SeFaMaCo... Read More

The Need to Transform The Sweet Potato Value Chain. Currently at 18.28% of it's capacity; Ethiopia, Tanzania & Uganda

For several years Farm Concern International has carried out various value chain analysis, implemented various programmes and worked closely with smallholder farmers and buyers that deal with Sweet Potato. The Sweet Potato is known as the world’s most versatile and under-exploited food crop produced mostly by smallholder households in over 100 developing countries and ranked 5th on fresh-weight basis after rice, wheat, maize and cassava (FAOSTAT 1998). Farm Concern International is working with smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda with a keen focus on commercialization of the Sweet Potato... Read More

Programme Highlights

Success Stories