Project News

Habari yako? (How are you?). This is our 2nd newsletter from component 2 (Value Chain and Agribusiness Promotion) in SHEP Biz. This newsletter summarizes what we have done from the beginning of 2nd phase till now.

The 2nd phase of the Project has started in February 2022. As first activity of the phase, the project members reported the results of VC surveys implemented in 10 counties during 1st phase, which ended at the end of year of 2021. The project members have shared lots of information which were collected through the surveys and issues/ bottlenecks on each VC with county agribusiness officers, whose role is to promote local agribusiness in each county. We had lively discussions on each target VC with the county officers. Also, some supplementary surveys were carried out for updating information of the survey results.

After that, we have organized VC platforms at 5 counties, namely Nakuru, Tharaka Nithi, Busia, Homa Bay, and Kilifi, where we implement pilot projects in the 2nd phase and 3rd phase of the Project till year of 2025. Various actors including agriculture-related Micro/ Small/ Medium enterprises (MSMEs) and related organizations on each target VC (Avocado, Macadamia nut, Rice, Groundnut, and Cashew nut) were invited to the 1st VC platform. The project members shared the issues/ bottlenecks and opportunities on target VC with participants, and the participants formulated draft of pilot project activities of county through workshop. In addition, the participants elected 5 to 10 committee officials of each VC platform who are to lead the pilot project activities in each county.

The project members discussed the drafts of pilot project activities which were developed by VC platforms, and formulated action plans and implementation plans of the 5 VC platforms. On the action plans, necessary actions, action implementers, action beneficiaries, and possible collaborators are listed. The implementation plans prioritize actions which should be taken in next 6 months, i.e., July to December 2022. Number of target beneficiaries and target areas of each action are also described on the implementation plans. The plans were delivered to the 5 target counties and were finalized through discussions with committee members of each VC platform and county officers. The project members and VC platform committee officials are to carry out the actions based on the action plans and implementation plans.

We will update the progress of pilot activities in the counties in next newsletters.