Agricultural Value Chains
The Trade Hub’s agricultural activities are driven by USAID’s Feed the Future Strategy and focus on intra-regional trade in targeted value chains: maize, soybeans and groundnuts. Primary support is directed to the Feed the Future focal countries within the region (Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia) with special emphasis on encouraging investment and technology transfer from South African or-ganizations in line with USAID’s Strategic Partnership with South Africa.
‘Sourcing at Magic’ is North America’s largest, most comprehensive garment/fashion sourcing event, featuring more than 800 apparel, accessories and footwear firms. SATH supported Formosa Textiles, a Lesotho denim and textile garment manufacturer, to exhibit at the Sourcing element of Magic, which exposed the company to hundreds of sourcing executives, designers, merchandising managers and private label buyers.
From March 5-9, SATH and the World Institute for Soy in Human Health (WISHH), a SATH grantee, facilitated the training of ten regional companies on animal feed manufacturing techniques, processes and trends at the International Grains Program (IGP) at Kansas State University (KSU). This is the first time feed manufacturers from the region have trained in the US.
SATH supported companies that attended the Fancy Food Show in Washington DC, in July 2011, recently reported orders and positive developments as a result of their participation. Rozendal Vinegar comments, “This is a great show for us and the exposure has been amazing”.
In Nampula, northern Mozambique, SATH explored areas of interest between agricultural commercial buyers and exporters on enhancing the economic empowerment of women farmers.
As a result of the 2011 SATH trade mission to Nampula and Zambezia Provinces, Mozambique, SA Groundnut, a South African company, established a production joint venture with Quilimane-based Madal SARL to conduct groundnut trials in the area. During the trade mission, Hector Lazarus of SA Groundnut was introduced to key groundnut role players in Mozambique and recognized the potential to expand the company’s production and trade footprint. With the assistance of the USAID-funded AgriFuturo Project, with whom SATH has a close working relationship, Mr. Lazarus was introduced to Madal and a memorandum of understanding was concluded between SA Groundnut, AgriFuturo and Madal allowing for groundnut trials to take place.
SATH's support of the Farmer's Union on Malawi's efforts to introduce genetically modified (GM) cotton into Malawi paid off, as the government agreed to allow commencement of trials of Bt cotton. This is a first but major step that should lead to Malawi accepting GM cotton as a commercial crop throughout the country. The wide-spread use of more drought and pest-resistant GM cotton seed varieties will lead to more jobs, particularly for women, more revenue from this popular cash crop, and is expected to have a knock-on effect in other countries in the region such as Zambia and Tanzania. Bt cotton seed does not affect politically sensitive staple food crops, and has a large impact on yields of cotton grown under small-scale dryland farming conditions.
Activities