The Agricultural Market Development Trust (AGMARK) signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoU) with HUB Technical Assistance at the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership’s (AFAP) Maputo office this week.

The MoU was signed by AGMARK’s managing director, James Mutonyi and HUB Technical Assistances’ CEO, Gãstao Figueira with AFAP’s Mozambique country manager, Sergio Ussaca, standing as witness.

HUB Technical Assistance is a Mozambican institution that will implement the Mozambique agro-dealer Development Program (MADEP) which was funded by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA),  four provinces in Mozambique.

Through this partnership, the organisations will implement AGMARK’s hub agro-dealer model and plans on targeting 400 hub agro-dealers. The agro-dealer model has already been a success in Kenya, providing affordable and accessible farming inputs to small holder farmers.

Sergio Ussaca, AFAP’s country manager said signing this memorandum is a landmark towards feeding the future. “It is important for AFAP to make these connections,” said Ussaca, “these partnerships maximise our progress rate.”

The agreement allows for both institutions to identify and train agro-dealers and retailers in fields that include business management, marketing and product handling. The hub agro-dealers and retailers trained will be linked with AFAP’s financial mechanisms to increase small holder farmer’s accessibility and affordability to fertilizers and other farming inputs.

“AFAP works to partner with any organizations that support the Comprehensive Agricultural Agenda Development’s goals of using agriculture to ensure food and economic security in Africa,” said Jason Scarpone, AFAP’s president and CEO.

“This program and partnership between AGMARK and MADEP will contribute to AFAP’s objective of increasing fertilizer user’s and usage,” Ussaca said. He added that this will develop sustainable and competitive fertilizer markets.

AGMARK is an AFAP funded Kenyan organization with years of experience on implementing agro-dealer development programs.

Mutonyi explained that hub agro-dealer model owes much of its success to the way it has placed agro-dealers on the doorstep of smallholder farmers.

“Small-holder farmers are always looking for accessibility and affordability more than anything else,” said Mutonyi.  Adding that through the hub agro-dealer model, agro-dealers are all amalgamated in one hub for easy access.

“By reducing distribution bottlenecks in rural markets, hub-agro-dealers reduce costs for farmers while helping agro-dealers make more sales,” said Mutonyi.

For an illustration of the hub agro dealer-model click here.