March 9, 2012, NAIROBI, Kenya, and MUSCLE SHOALS, Alabama, United States – IFDC has released a video documenting the impact of the Extending Agro-Dealer Networks (EADN) project, which trained more than 1,400 agro-dealers throughout Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The video highlights EADN’s technology transfer activities, such as field demonstrations and field days, and the project’s role in association building and facilitating and strengthening linkages among actors in the value chain.
The 30-minute video includes interviews with agro-dealers and farmers who have benefited from the project, government agricultural officials, extension workers and project implementers. A shorter, seven-minute video provides highlights of the project as well. Both videos were produced by Mark Kamau on behalf of IFDC.
As a market-oriented initiative, the EADN project (2008-2011) focused on private sector development and investment in all segments of the agro-input value chain. EADN-trained agro-dealers play a vital role in the distribution of inputs to smallholder famers across the three countries, and particularly in remote regions.
“My clients have increased, and my business is growing,” said Elizabeth Massawe, an EADN-trained agro-dealer. “With the increased profits generated following the training, I was able to open another agro-input shop. If I had not received this training, I would not have been able to benefit my clients.”
Agro-dealer training conducted through EADN is representative of IFDC agro-dealer training around the world. IFDC has decades of experience in training agro-dealers to assist their farmer-customers. Agro-dealers learn to manage their businesses more effectively and to launch and manage trade associations that generate additional knowledge transfer. IFDC is currently implementing agro-dealer development activities in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tajikistan and Tanzania, among others.
