ABF and its partners reach new heights in empowering African smallholders

ABF and its partners reach new heights in empowering African smallholders

The Agri-Business Facility for Africa (ABF) and its partners have made significant strides in enhancing the business skills of agripreneurs (agricultural entrepreneurs) in Africa.

Within a year, ABF’s advised partners trained more than 200,000 smallholder farmers in Farmer Business School (FBS) increasing the number of total trained smallholders from 1.71 million to 1.93 million, with 35% being women.

These smallholder farmers have gained invaluable insights to navigate challenges and seize opportunities within their value chains, boosting income through diversified production. Moreover, ABF’s partners extensively implemented the Cooperative Business School (CBS) with an immerse growth from 1,200 to 3,000 participating cooperatives with more than 19,000 participating managers trained.   

ABF advises amongst others on FBS and CBS adaptation and provides implementation guidance to diverse partners. This collaborative effort has extended beyond the cocoa sector, for which the FBS has initially been developed, with 39 value chains benefiting from FBS training, and about 10 from CBS, covering a diverse range of agricultural products.

The customized training approaches have enabled agripreneurs to gain invaluable insights in planning and economics, healthy nutrition and farm management, investment decisions, financial management, cooperative management and strategies for increasing incomes.