By Angel Navuri,Africa news Lilongwe

For the past year World Food Programme”s p4p pilot programme in Malawi has been working with farmers organisations to improve their bussiness skills and understanding of contract terms. One of the approaches WFP is using to improve business skills is to link small holders with the agriculture commodity excahnge (ACE) for Africa, one of the several commodity exchanges in eastern and southern Africa.

In september 2012, P4P witnessed the first results of this strategy. Six farmers organisations from Malawi were invited to ACE in lilongwe to take part in a WFP online for 531 tons of maize. For the session,represenattives of the six farmer organisations were invited to place their bids on the ACE internet platform. Three of the 12 represenatives were women (who make up almost 40 percent of the total membership.

A year ago nobody, least of all farmers themselves,would have imagined they would be able to bid online. Traditionaly , bidding would have been by writing a bid on paper , placing it in an envelope and posting it into a locked box at WFP office in Lilongwe.

For the New bidding procedure , the farmers represenatives were taken through exercises at the ACE offices that included setting realistic prices and profit margins and an introduction to how the ACE platform works. As none of the farmers had ever used a computer , ACE rural trade facilitators assisted each farmers organisation individually.

What was remarkable was the excitement of everyone involved that day. Farmers ,who until that moment had never even touched a computer , learned how to use a password, a mouce and the key board. But the day was clearly about more than the acquisition of basic computer skils , it represented a new opportunity for these farmers to decide ,plan and partcipate in the formal makeket economy.

“ l truly belive that , in the very near future , our farmers will be able to bid online from their own districts with minimal or non support from WFP. This is our ultimate goal”

“ l’m very happy that lam learning . This was the first time l have ever worked on a computer and l know its going to help better bussiness people,” said Macdonald German, a member of Chandawe Farmers Cooperative

For WFP and its partners , this day showed that giving resources, training,inputs and time the goal of improving farmers livelihoods through P4P is achievable. However , it takes more than just these things to buld the capacity of a small holder farmer to sell to institional buyers and engage with the formal market.

“It takes belief , teamwork and leap of faith from everyone involved” says Leigh Hilyard , WFP P4P programme officers. Adding that of all the sucesses weve had over the past year , watching Katcherenkhwanya , a 60 year old farmer from the farmers organisation Cheka , look on in stunned pride as his bid appeared on the main projector screen, was the most meaningful . l truly believe that, in the very near future , our farmers will be able to abid online from their own districts with minimal or no support from WFP. This is ultimate goal.

The results of BVO session were that five of the six organisations won contracts to deliver a total of 340 tons of maize maize for an average value of US$232 per ton ( the market price for maize) WFP will distribute the maize as part of its school meals programme in Malawi.

Since 2009, WFP has been working with some 14,700 small holder farmers in Malawi, grouped into 17 farmers organisations . These farmers have received support from WFP and its partners with establishing storage facilities , handling their grain after harvest , as well as with organisational strengthening , record keeping and bussiness management. Thus far in the 2012 marketing season, WFP has bought 8,946MT of maize and pulses through the ACE ,with an aim to support agriculture market development in Malawi. Some 11% of this total has been purchased from small holder farmers ,for a value of more than US$120,000.

In Malawi, maize is the major crop and food staple. Given limited off-farm employment opportunities, much-needed increases in household income for improving food security must come from gains in agricultural productivity through better technology and more profitable crops. In the past, agricultural policy promoted hybrid maize and, more recently, tobacco to increase smallholder income.

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