Solutions for African Food Enterprises (SAFE) is a multi-year program which aims to increase the competitiveness of the African food processing sector to expand availability of affordable and nutritious foods to local populations. The program builds upon a partnership with USAID, Partners in Food Solutions, and TechnoServe initiated in five countries.

The Coffee Initiative worked with local farmers in East Africa to improve agronomy and business practices, establish new coffee cooperatives and strengthen existing ones, and help cooperatives create business plans and access financing for wet mills.

A partnership with The Coca-Cola Company and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Project Nurture aimed to help more than 50,000 small-scale mango and passion fruit farmers in Kenya and Uganda double their fruit incomes. TechnoServe and its partners worked with farmers to identify new market opportunities, improve productivity and develop strong farmer business groups.

TechnoServe is partnering with The MasterCard Foundation to help rural young people ages 18 to 30 in East Africa transition to economic independence.

Access to finance is an obstacle to entrepreneurship, particularly in the agricultural sector in Africa. The African Agriculture Fund (AAF), a private equity fund, was created to help increase investment in agriculture and agribusiness in the region with the ultimate objective of increasing food security. TechnoServe serves as the implementing agency of the Technical Assistance Facility (TAF), which provides technical assistance to the portfolio companies invested in by the AAF. The TAF is funded primarily by the European Union and managed by IFAD. As of 2016 the TAF has funded 32 projects with 10 portfolio companies across Africa and supported five SMEs with their growth strategies. TAF has committed €3.6m and has €3.4m remaining for projects in the pipeline.

The Connected Farmer Alliance (CFA) is a public-private partnership that seeks to promote commercially sustainable mobile agriculture solutions and increase productivity and revenues for 500,000 smallholder farmers across Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. The program also aims to increase revenues for agribusinesses and agricultural value chain service providers.

The Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program is a unique green coffee sourcing approach that combines a focus on quality, sustainability, and productivity. It aims to secure a stable supply of the highest quality coffee for Nespresso, while simultaneously improving the livelihoods of the farmers that grow it through the lens of environmental protection. In 2013, Nespresso and TechnoServe entered into a partnership to pilot the rollout of the Nespresso AAA Program in Africa.

The two-year pilot in Ethiopia (Phase I, 2013-2014) leveraged and expanded upon TechnoServe’s Farm College agronomy training and wet-mill support curriculum in order to reach more than 4,000 farmers and support three wet mills. This pilot delivered significant impact to both smallholder farmers and wet mill businesses, exceeding many of its targets, and attracted match funding of $4.5 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and IDH (The Sustainable Trade Initiative) in 2014. This led to an expansion of program activities, so that in 2017, TechnoServe and Nespresso launched Phase II of the AAA Program to scale up activities in both Kenya and Ethiopia.

The expanded approach will enable Nespresso to achieve its target of sourcing high-quality AAA coffees from Kenya and Ethiopia while reducing poverty and improving resilience to climate change for approximately 57,000 total households by 2020.

So far, 215 wet mill businesses enrolled in the AAA Program have made significant strides toward compliance with social, environmental, quality, and economic standards, and more than 46,800 farmers have been trained across both countries, 48 percent of whom are adopting at least half of a set of recommended agricultural techniques to improve their yields.

Entrepreneurship presents a path toward economic independence for young men and women in Africa, particularly when formal employment opportunities are scarce, and the poverty rate among working youth is at nearly 70 percent. Small mom-and-pop retail shops play a critical role in many low-income communities by providing income for entrepreneurs, creating jobs, and increasing access to everyday products. TechnoServe and Citi Foundation are partnering to scale up a proven model that helps mom-and-pop shops become more profitable by connecting entrepreneurs with the knowledge, training, and tools they need to become successful retailers. Launched in October 2017, the Pan-African Youth Entrepreneur Development (PAYED) program will provide training and tailored advisory support 600 young entrepreneurs in Kenya, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire to develop opportunities in the micro-retail sector. The one-year program will target young entrepreneurs who are owners, managers, or employees of existing shops, while also piloting activities to help motivated youth launch new micro-retail enterprises. Through training and coaching, the program aims to increase adoption of best practices by 70 percent and increase sales by 30 percent.

Proven tools, methodologies and approaches that drive accurate and consistent outcome measurement remain a key challenge across international agricultural development. In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, TechnoServe’s Innovations in Outcome Measurement (IOM) project aims to identify breakthrough innovations capable of transforming agriculture and to develop a framework for scaling these innovations for business use. IOM is working to identify and test accurate, consistent and cost-effective measurement tools and methodologies for evaluating the outcomes of agricultural projects. The project also aims to identify the evidence needed by a range of relevant stakeholders to drive larger scale adoption of innovative agriculture technologies.

With large rural populations in Africa, it can be difficult to reach farmers for training and traveling to training can be costly and time consuming for farmers. The Mobile Training Unit project is an innovative agricultural extension training approach, which allows for large groups of smallholder farmers to receive audio and visual training lessons in rural areas. In 2013, John Deere and TechnoServe launched the Mobile Training Unit (MTU) project to help farmers in Ghana and Kenya. The project not only provides training through videos and hands-on demonstration, but also strengthens the organizations and linkages that farmers need to prosper and – increasingly – helps these farmers to enjoy the benefits of mechanization. Since 2014, the project has benefitted 47,194 people, helping them to earn an extra $29.9 million of income.

Demand for potatoes has increased in Kenya, where it can be a substitute for staple grains like maize, which experience high price fluctuation. Similarly, tomatoes are also becoming an important vegetable in the Kenyan diet. However, the supply of both vegetables is hampered by low productivity and weak market structure. TechnoServe, in partnership with Syngenta, is working to increase productivity and improve the market for these crops through the Mavuno Zaidi project, which aims to provide quality crop inputs, improve access to finance, and enhance the capacity of market service centers for farmers in the Rift Valley and Eastern Kenya. Since its launch in March 2016, the project has benefitted over 8,800 farmers, helping them to generate nearly $5 million in increased revenue.

Post-harvest losses in the value chain reduce incomes for mango farmers in Kenya. TechnoServe in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation launched the YieldWise pilot in July of 2015 to address key areas where post-harvest losses can be reduced, increasing incomes for farmers and the sustainability of the mango value chain in the Kenyan market. TechnoServe is working to test various technologies to improve the storage of the fruit and as of the end of 2015, a total of over 4,000 farmers had been trained in loss reduction methods. Additionally, TechnoServe is providing training to farmers and farmer business organizations on post-harvest loss prevention techniques. The program also hopes to increase market demand for the fruit by linking farmers to new potential buyers and appropriate value chain actors to financing.

"Mom and pop” shops play a critical role in developing economies around the world. In Kenya, where they are known as dukas, these small retail shops supply roughly 80 percent of consumer goods and are often run by women or families. But dukas face many challenges to efficiency, resulting in lower earnings for their owners. In partnership with the elea Foundation and Citi Foundation, TechnoServe is working to increase the profitability of 840 high-potential shops in Nairobi, the majority of which are women-operated or women-owned. Launched in late 2015, the Smart Duka initiative builds on the success of a similar effort in Latin America. The project provides one-on-one consulting and group training to improve marketing and merchandising; general business skills; relationships with lenders, suppliers and customers; and coordination amongst shops. The project is also exploring practical digital solutions that will enable Nairobi’s shopkeepers to manage inventory efficiently and make mobile payments.

The Kenya Market Assistance Program helps to promote employment and income generation in various market systems in Kenya by addressing key constraints to growth in these sectors. TechnoServe works to strengthen the dairy sector through improved breeding, feed, veterinary services and supply chain management. To date, TechnoServe has supported two dairy cooperatives, with a combined membership of 13,000 farmers to help set up a hay production business to improve feed for the cows.

The Smallholder Poultry Agribusiness Development (SPADE) initiative aims to sustainably improve the livelihoods of 12,000 smallholder poultry producers of indigenous chicken. Operating in Western and Nyanza provinces, SPADE comprises three primary activities: sustainably improving smallholder farmer poultry production; expanding access to financial services for smallholder poultry farmers; and improving poultry market access for smallholder poultry farmers.