Transforming Vegetable Markets aims to deliver training to more than 200,000 smallholder farmers in Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Uganda
East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation (EWS-KT) has, in partnership with Wageningen Plant Research and SeedNL, announced the launch of Transforming Vegetable Markets (TVM).
TVM is a four-year initiative to improve smallholder farmer livelihoods and strengthen the vegetable sector in Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Uganda.
The project will also evaluate its impact on smallholder vegetable production, sharing data and evidence on the effects of quality agronomic interventions on farmer progress over time.
With funding from the Directorate-General for International Cooperation of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, TVM will provide direct training in climate-resilient, sustainable vegetable production practices to more than 200,000 smallholder farmers.
An estimated 75 per cent of these farmers will adopt improved techniques to increase their productivity and net annual income, East-West Seed explained.
By expanding local vegetable production, TVM also aims to improve consumer access to affordable, nutritious vegetables.
”In addition to transforming farmers’ livelihoods, the TVM initiative will serve as a learning pilot, expanding what we know about effective interventions,” East-West Seed stated.
TVM will measure and validate its impact on smallholder vegetable production, with data shared on a public dashboard and through knowledge dissemination events.
The initiative will track key metrics – including farmer knowledge acquisition, technique adoption rates, vegetable yields, and income gains – and assess the cost-effectiveness of this farmer support model.
“EWS-KT is excited to embark on this four-year journey, which builds on our extensive work with smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia and invites cross-country innovations in both farmer training and monitoring and evaluation,” said Stuart Morris, executive director of EWS-KT.
“We anticipate that TVM’s findings on value for money and scalability will inform future agricultural investments, research, and market development.”
“Wageningen Plant Research is proud to be involved in this innovative programme, and to apply our expertise to validate TVM’s data and findings,” noted Flip van Koesveld, international project manager at Wageningen University and Research.
”We expect the learnings from TVM to have far-reaching impact on how to measure and assess farmers’ knowledge development, changes in production methodologies and outputs, and economic outcomes.”
“As a knowledge broker for the Netherlands seed sector, we are thrilled to broadcast data and learning that will be useful to the global seed sector, public and private institutions, and other sector stakeholders,” added Willem Schoustra, SeedNL program director. ”There is much to be learned from this three-country initiative.”
The TVM initiative is funded by DGIS, with additional funding from EWS-KT, and is implemented by a consortium led by EWS-KT alongside Wageningen Plant Research and SeedNL.
