The Smallholder Market-led Project (SMLP)
Smallholder Market-led Project
The Smallholder Market-led Project (SMLP) is a six-year project that uses the availability of confirmed markets as a driver for promoting smallholder production for household nutrition and sale of marketable surplus. Both intervention areasfollow a clear value chain development approach that includes all players from production through to processing, services and marketing.
The project's goal is to contribute to national poverty reduction. The development objective is to enhance food and nutrition security and incomes among smallholder producer families through diversified agricultural production and market linkages. By the end of the project, rural poverty should be reduced by 20 per cent in the targeted chiefdoms and food insecurity reduced by 50 per cent in currently food deficient households. The project's three major outcomes are:
- the project chiefdoms engage in effective planning and decision-making;
- soil and water resources are sustainably managed for market-led smallholder agriculture in the project chiefdoms; and
- smallholder producers in the project chiefdoms supply crop and livestock products to market partners, while subsistence farmers are enabled to produce sufficient nutritious food for themselves.
The project will be implemented over a six-year period in 25 chiefdoms in the rainfed Middleveld and Lowveld areas of the Lubombo and Shiselweni regions. It will target poor smallholder farmers that are
- food-deficient and living at a subsistence level; and
- economically active and able to sell surplus production.
The farmers will be assisted in increasing their farm productivity and production through access to irrigation, inputs, training and access to services. Economically active farmers will sell surplus production to wholesalers to increase income. Along selected value chains, employment opportunities will be created for young people, for example in managing collection and information centres. The activities are tailored to the capacities of smallholders, including women and families affected by HIV/AIDS.
Source: IFAD
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