Linking Farmers to Markets
“From Field to market is our Motto” we strive to give farmers access to markets and eliminate the middle man resulting in improved incomes for the farmers.
At ABC we focus on establishing a long-term relationship between the smallholder farmers on the other hand agribusiness that is processors, exporters, and retailers.
We are working with a lot of smallholder farmers to bypass the low production capacity of smallholder farmers to achieve economies of scale.
Farmers are producing commodities but they often struggle to sell those commodities at better markets hence at the end of the day they sell to the middleman, to break that chain ABC is playing a critical role in linking farmers to markets directly skipping the middleman.
We are strengthening the linkages between smallholder farmers and the end-users
At the Agriculture Business Centre, we believe that the market drive activity and production in the different value chains that we are currently developing.
Ready markets provide an incentive to increase the production capacity for smallholder farmers as they will be able to participate effectively and profitably in commercial markets.
Market linkages play a critical role in the agricultural business as it facilitates economic efficiency by promoting the exchange of goods, services, and other resources.
At ABC we believe that accessing markets for agriculture produce means that the farmer can get a better good selling price by selling directly to the market rather than selling to the middleman.
For ABC farmers to meet the market requirements such as grade, quality, demand, and expectations, they are trained by extension officers on various aspects from land preparation to post-harvest.
These trainings are meant to equip the farmers with the best techniques on how to produce goods that meet the market requirements easily.
Aggregation and Bulking
Commodity Associations that were formed by ABC in the various wards of Gokwe South aggregate their farm produce and sell to various markets that are facilitated by the ABC.
Aggregation of farm produce by the farmers helps them to achieve economies of scale thereby increasing their bargaining power to secure better prices.
We also believe that aggregation is a key factor in the development of the agriculture sector because it can generate a higher level of efficiencies.
Aggregation reduces the logistical costs of transporting farm produce from smallholder farmers that are located in the district as they will be converged at one point.