The right to adequate standard of living is universal.
For smallholder farmers enterprises with profit potential, their ability to be successful is hampered by such challenges as insufficient access to quality inputs, inadequate storage, lack of channels to sell their farm produce, and limited access to suitable financial services, hindering this growth. By applying sustainable farming technologies boosting productivity, market-oriented agriculture, building strong value chains and through increased access to financial services, small-holder farmers can be economically empowered to grow their enterprises thus improving livelihoods.
Vi Agroforestry provides technical support to partners, as well as links and strengthens collaborations between partners and other private and public stakeholders. Vi Agroforestry promotes;
- Value Chain Approach: The Farm Enterprise Development component scope promotes the use of Value Chain Approach. Market-oriented production and value-addition is promoted, whereby small-holder farmers are able to capture a larger percentage of the final product and secure long-term market access. Vi Agroforestry builds the capacity of partners in collective action, how to seize opportunities in the different stages of the value chains from input suppliers, prioritization of key crops for commercialization, farm-level production, value addition, storage, post-harvest handling, transport and distribution to the consumer.
- Financial services: To increase the farmers access to financial services Vi Agroforestry support farmers to establish Village Savings and Loans Associations. Through the VSLA-group farmers can save and invest in their activities. With the opportunity to borrow money farmers are not as vulnerable to emergency expenses such as medicines and hospital visits.
- Agroforestry tree value chain: The agroforestry tree value chain offers strong economic possibilities – relatively untapped by partners and farmers. Vi Agroforestry builds the capacity of partners on how to improve the existing agroforestry system to grow more profitable agroforestry tree products, increase the capacity of farmers in agroforestry management, and sustainably produce, process and market agroforestry products while maintaining their biodiversity
