Great River Business Limited enables farms to become viable business ventures through the ‘micro-farmers association’ concept. It promotes peer learning among smallholder farmers and enables better access to markets, services and information on good agricultural practices and business development. Specifically, Great River supports its out-growers in maize, groundnut, soybean and sorghum production through input credit for certified seed, fertiliser and weedicides, which are paid in kind. The company also facilities the provision of crop services including ploughing, threshing and aggregation. A new partner for MADE, Great River joined the programme in 2019/2020.
MADE interventions
- Facilitated the recruitment and training of five Farm Enterprise Advisors.
- Organised training in farm business management, agronomic practices, climate-smart agricultural practices and in the use of Aflasafe.
- Supported field demonstrations of Aflasafe.
- Facilitated networking events such as a pre-harvest season conference.
- Facilitated commercial partnerships with other businesses including Martins Agribusiness and IWB.
Impacts
- Increased smallholder farmer outreach from 1,500 to over 2,500 in 2019.
- Increased company profitability and smallholder farmer productivity through introducing effective and efficient agribusiness operations.
- Strengthened Great River’s systems for working with smallholder farmers.
- Increased Great River’s aggregation capacity from 2 MT to 10 MT of maize in 2019.
