Monthly Feed the Future Report: Mali Cereal Value Chain Project (AID-688-C-13-00002)

The project's Deputy Chief of Party assumed duties on March 17th, and recruitment for key positions, including a BDS/Financial Services Manager and Security/Logistics Manager, was finalized. Staff recruitment for Nyeta and GFORCE in the Sikasso and Mopti satellite offices was nearly complete. The project team reprogrammed activities to expand its reach in Feed the Future intervention zones, with ongoing discussions to collaborate with larger extension services, such as the Compagnie Malienne de Développement de Textile (CMDT), Operation Riz Mopti (ORM), Direction Régionale d'Agriculture (DRA), and the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). These organizations were envisioned as potential partners for large-scale extension of proven technologies in cereal production, including improved seed and production techniques, and soil fertility management. Collaboration with these organizations aimed to increase the project's capacity for out-scaling best agricultural practices, while concentrating project staff efforts on post-harvest handling, marketing, processing, and management capacities of value chain actors. The project also refined its approach to facilitate gender integration in value chain development and work with vulnerable groups. The project expanded its activities beyond women-oriented interventions or support to women groups and female-owned enterprises, focusing on cross-cutting issues such as "functional literacy" for women and girls in collaboration with specialized institutions already working in these technical areas in Mali. Special attention was paid to groups involved in management of infrastructures supported under the IICEM project. The Mali Cereal Value Chain Project participated in the 1st Agricultural Finance Fair (FINAGRI 2014) in Sikasso from March 6-8, 2014. The event provided an opportunity for the project to meet, exchange, and identify potential financial and technical partners, as well as identify agricultural finance constraints with various stakeholders. The project's Value Chain Competitiveness Director presented a PowerPoint on Islamic Finance at the FINAGRI. Field missions and contacts with various actors of the cereal value chains identified inadequate input supply, particularly supply of improved and certified seeds, as a major constraint in cereal production and development of the cereal value chains. The project organized a regional workshop in Sikasso from March 17 to 18, 2014, to develop a plan aimed at facilitating agricultural inputs supplies for better production and commercialization of lowland rice, millet, and sorghum. Critical issues addressed included seed availability at the level of seed companies and different internal and external value chain financing mechanisms. A similar workshop on the rice value chain was scheduled to take place in Ségou from March 20-21, 2014.