An individual holds up a pen while participating in a community mapping exercise

Production

Helping farming communities increase the output and quality of crops in a climate resilient and sustainable way

An individual holds up a pen while participating in a community mapping exercise

History & Background

In Rwanda, Tanzania, and Malawi, many farmers face production challenges, including more limited access to inputs, high costs, limited trials and timeliness. Quality inputs — including seeds and fertilizers — are critical to a farmers’ ability to produce.

The Clinton Development Initiative (CDI) helps farming communities increase the output and quality of crops in a climate resilient and sustainable way by working with governments, seed companies, and other international organizations to help expand seed access and showcase best practices in climate smart agronomy and seed varietal choice.


Approach

We collaborate with technical partners to:

  • 1

    Build the capacity of farming communities

    to improve the quality and quantity of production and become certified seed producers and/or resellers

  • 2

    Identify areas of overlap to collaborate

    with partners which are beneficial across multiple sectors such as seed varieties and nutrition

  • 3

    Increase adoption of improved seeds

    and utilize on-farm demonstration plots so farmer can learn more about varieties

  • 4

    Expand access to improved varieties

    through registration in the country, working with government research stations to host trials and getting high performing seed varieties registered and into the hands of farmers


Impact

At the Clinton Foundation, we believe data should be used to guide how programs are designed and implemented. We leverage both quantitative and qualitative information in order to promote evidence-based decision-making and help the Foundation and our community of partners achieve greater results in people’s lives across the country and around the world.

  • 1.8K

    DEMONSTRATION PLOTS

    have been implemented and maintained through support from CDI across Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania since 2018. Demonstration plots are easily accessible teaching and knowledge sharing sites for farming communities.

  • 129

    COMMUNITY-BASED SEED DEALERS TRAINED

    129 farmer leaders in Tanzania have successfully completed Quality Declared Seed Multiplication training in partnership with the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) since 2018, enabling local access to high quality seed for more than 24,000 farmers.

  • 12

    VALUE CHAINS

    CDI is actively supporting access to reliable market opportunities across 12 different value chains in partnership with cooperatives — including macadamia, avocado, cauliflower, chili, broccoli, soybean, maize, groundnuts, beans, sunflower, poultry, and aquaculture — to enable income diversification for farming communities.

“The coming together of CIMMYT and CDI in 2019 was the beginning of an exciting partnership for deploying climate-resilient improved maize varieties in Sub-Saharan Africa for the benefit of smallholder farmers. Ongoing farm trials in Malawi as well as Tanzania, will help build a strong platform in catalyzing adoption of improved maize varieties and contribute to achieving the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”

Aparna Das, Global Maize Technical Program Manager, CIMMYT

“Working with partners is one of the most cost-effective ways of reaching many households with biofortified crops in a short a period of time. Our partnership with CDI will enable us to reach more than 10,000 farming households in 10 districts with vitamin A maize and iron beans within a year.”

Dellings Phiri, Country Manager, HarvestPlus Malawi