Agri-ProFocus is working on Agri-Business Development Services (ABDS): those services that help farmers to market, manage and link up their business. With support of FAO, KIT and CTA, exemplary business cases were collected for a book on ABDS. For instance, the case of Bindzu in Mozambique.

ABDS is about those services that help farmers to market, manage and link up their business. Examples include market information services, business management training, post-harvest handling technologies, legal advice and market linking producers to buyers. These services have been around for a long time already. What is new though is that today a range of private and public actors is providing ABDS. These include the public extension system, private consultancy firms, NGOs and traders/ processors.

The different actors face similar challenges in servicing entrepreneurial farmers. The first challenge is financial sustainability, as rural outreach is costly and most farmers are unlikely to pay for themselves. The second challenge is inclusiveness: how do services target poor segments of farmers and gender issues? The issue of accountability is a related challenge, as service providers have double accountability to clients and donors.

The Bindzu case
Bindzu started in 2010 as an agri-company, growing fruit and vegetables on a 6 ha site close to Maputo (Mozambique). The four owners, recent university graduates, used fertilisers, agro-chemicals and equipment they got from South Africa. In the beginning, local farmers were sceptical of their ‘modern’ way of farming. Yet soon enough, they became impressed by the techniques, knowledge and ideas their young neighbours were using.

Here, Bindzu saw a market opportunity. They set up a shop in Moamba and started to sell farm inputs and supplies. The shop is now a convenient meeting-point for farmers, allowing Bindzu staff to listen to their needs and interests. That has led Bindzu to broaden its range of products and services: it now ploughs land for farmers, and sells irrigation systems and seedlings. It also helps individuals and farmer groups prepare business plans. It charges a reduced fee for this service, on the understanding that if the plans are successful, the farmers will pay the remainder of the fee and will come back to Bindzu to buy the inputs they need.

Writeshop
Bindzu is one of 13 service providers that brought their experience to the recent write-shop on Agri-Business Development Services (ABDS) from 8-12 October. Together with farmer groups, they concentrated on elaborating their business cases and putting their experience on paper at the ILRI grounds at Addis Ababa. Prior to the writeshop, the most exemplary cases had been documented from Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia and Mozambique. By presenting, discussing and analysing cases, the book aims to provide practical guidelines for improving ABDS.

The book has already received a first thorough edit in the week following the writeshop and a first draft is expected soon. Organisers Agri-ProFocus, KIT, CTA and FAO aim to follow-up on this publication by developing policy briefs and training modules in the first half of 2013.