Capacity Building and Empowerment of Market Intermediaries. Train suppliers and intermediate aggregators To institutionalize incentives for farmers to produce high quality and safe maize and soybeans, the grain aggregators will be the most important actors to ensure that contaminant mitigation is effectively managed along the entire supply chain. In year 2, the project will continue to work with the seven existing aggregators who supply grain to Nestlé and received training during year 1. An additional 10 new aggregators will be identified as well and receive project support. The value chain mapping exercise was completed in year 1. This report confirmed that middlemen are important actors in the maize and soybean value chains. They play a prominent and important role in the market linkage between the farmers and buyers of commodities. Different classes of middlemen exist, however the project value chain analysis indicates that none of them have any knowledge about the targeted contaminants. Planned warehouse owners and middlemen training topics: -Detection and mitigation of contaminants -How to maintain good grain quality in a warehouse -General principles of grain quality management -Post-harvest handling of grains at the farmers’ leveland collection centers During the value chain mapping exercise, a total of 55 commercial warehouses were identified in the project area. These facilities are essentially stores located in the local markets or close to the markets where commissioned agents and wholesalers store their grains for future sale. Through interviews with the facility operators, it was established that none of them were aware of the targeted contaminants and had no education about what a standard warehouse and proper management to mitigate contaminants should be. These stores are usually not well maintained, with poor ventilation, an unhygienic environment, grains are usually stored on the floor, and relative humidity is not checked. Force Toxin is the main fumigant used in fumigating the stores, which can increase aluminum residue. Most warehouse owners are not aware of best management and design practices for high quality warehouses. During year 2, the project will work with both of these groups to increase the quality of grains in the local markets. Both will receive training on how contaminants can lead to rejection of grain sales to aggregators. Those warehouses that adopt the best practices laid out within the trainings will be linked with middlemen as stores where contamination will be minimized. Enh...
Capacity Building and Empowerment of Market Intermediaries. In the third year, the project will continue to work with the six Nestlé aggregators, 15 non-Nestlé aggregators, and 83 commercial warehouse owners on how to maintain good quality grains at collection centers and warehouses as well as on establishing physical standards for grading of grains. Most of these actors are now aware of targeted contaminants and have knowledge about what a standard warehouse should include and proper management practices to mitigate contaminants. Some of the actors still have challenges with poor ventilation, unhygienic environments, poor grain storage practices, and unacceptable relative humidity levels and humidity monitoring. The project will continue with weekly visits to all these groups to see that they adopt the practices that they were trained on and these issues are addressed. A monthly activity plan, which will include topics like warehouse management and quality-based purchase standards, will be jointly established with each group and each month each group will be evaluated against the plan. The activity will also work with aggregators to train their agronomists to cascade the knowledge they receive to farmers, to test grains for contaminants prior to sending to Nestlé for pre-shipment and sharing the results, to promote the investment in color sorting machines, and to map out the various communities that can supply them with high quality grains.
