IFAD-Supported Horticulture Program To Boost Incomes And Jobs to Rural Kenya

A multi-million dollar program supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will boost incomes and improve health and quality of life for poor rural people in Kenya. The Smallholder Horticulture Marketing Programme will help farmers improve crop quality and yields and find the most cost-effective ways to get produce to the market. It will also encourage growers to add value to crops by transforming them into a range of products such as purées, dried fruits and conserves.

The program will focus on potatoes, bananas, cabbage, kale, tomatoes and other crops grown mainly by the poor. It will concentrate on produce sold in the domestic market rather than the export market. “If we can identify the inefficiencies in the marketing chain between the time a crop is grown and the time it reaches the consumer, we can address them,” said IFAD’s President Lennart Båge. “This should translate into more dollars in farmers’ pockets.”

Read the press release at http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2007/34.htm.