Project News

Fu Jambo? (Hello). This is our 4th newsletter from component 2 (Value Chain and Agribusiness Promotion) in SHEP Biz. This newsletter summarizes priority interventions which SHEPBiz implements as pilots.

Interventions are taken by SHEP Biz in our target 5 counties, namely Nakuru county, Busia county, Homa Bay county, Tharaka Nithi county, and Kilifi county, where SHEP Biz project has selected the priority commodities and the value chains (VCs). SHEP Biz focuses on export avocado VC in Nakuru, milled rice VC in Busia, processed groundnut VC in Homa Bay, in-shell macadamia nut VC in Tharaka Nithi, and roasted cashew nut VC in Kilifi.

SHEP Biz has established VC platforms in the target counties as was released on project news vol.2. Each VC platform, which is composed of stakeholders on the target VC, has developed the action plan that describes the challenges and actions required for the VC strengthening. Among the various challenges on the VC, one most serious problem was considered as the bottleneck on the VC. SHEP Biz set the action required for solving the bottleneck as priority intervention. SHEP Biz takes the priority interventions as pilot activities implemented with small numbers of agri-MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) in the counties and considers effective agribusiness support and VC promotion measures can be/ should be taken by the government. In case that any pilot achieves success by end of 2023, the success model will be extended to other possible agri- MSMEs by the end of the project.

Series of survey of target agri-MSMEs involved in the priority interventions have been implemented in the 5 counties by SHEP Biz in the period from October 2022 to January 2023. Selected agri-MSMEs are avocado aggregators in Nakuru, rice millers in Busia, groundnuts processors in Homa Bay, macadamia nut producers in Tharaka Nithi, and cashew nuts processors in Kilifi. SHEPBiz together with the agri-MSMEs continues with the priority interventions.

This is the beginning of the priority interventions. We will keep reporting our project activities.