INVC

Intergrated Nutrition in Value Chain (INVC)

INVC is a project under President Barrack Obama’s Feed the Future initiative. FUM is implementing the project in three districts of Malawi namely Dedza, Lilongwe and Mchinji. The project is targeting a total of 10 Extension Planning Areas (EPAs) and is targeting 60,000 farmers (30,000 Soya beans and 30,000 Groundnuts) in 2015.

Project Objectives

  • To strengthen the capacity of FUM in order that it sustainably deliver services to its members.
  • To enhance governance and capacity of farmer organizations (FOs) for effective delivery of service to its members.

Target Outcomes

  • Increased yield per hectare of land
  • Access to better markets by smallholder farmers
  • Improved produce quality
  • Knowledge of new farming technologies
  • Improved nutritional status of project beneficiaries

Outputs

  • Enhance service delivery by FOs to members for increased production and marketing of high quality produce
  • Re-enforce governance principles in the management of FOs in Malawi

Project Activities and Milestones

  • Linking farmers to better /structured markets
  • Training farmers in improved agronomic practices
  • Establishment of farmer organization (cooperatives)
  • Strengthening already existing structures

Key Achievements to date

  • Organized farmers into farmer organizations
  • Establishment of Cooperatives
  • Farmers are able to source better markets and negotiate for better prices
  • Training and development of business plans for FOs within INVC catchment areas
  • Equipped FUM board and management in the areas governance
  • Improved farmer yield per hectare

Project Management Plan

  • The Project Manager has the overall responsibility for the day-to-day management of the project. The Project manager has almost daily interface with coordinators in the INVC Secretariat i.e. Groundnuts Value Chain Coordinator, Marketing Chain Coordinator, Value Chain Competitive Specialist.
  • The Project Manager is assisted by one Monitoring and Evaluation Officer who also interacts with the Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator in the INVC Secretariat (almost on a daily basis)
  • The FUM M&E Officer works hand in hand with the ten (10) FUM Field Officers aka Farmer Organisations Facilitators
  • The Senior Programmes Officer, Gender HIV/ AIDS is tasked with mainstreaming Gender issues within the project and their counterpart in INVC Secretariat is the Gender and VSL Officer

Governance

This is one of FUM’s flagship projects as such all important decisions about the project are made by the senior management team under the tutelage of the CEO. However, the day-to-day operational decisions about the project fall within the realm of the Programme Manager within the framework of the approved work plan and budget.

Stakeholder Management & Communication

  • Farmers are the key players in the project; they have been trained in new technologies and business management
  • Government extension personnel have equally received various trainings to equip them with leadership and new technologies

Project Closure

The outputs will be handed over to the community. The exit plan has been to work with government extension personnel who will continue assisting the farmers.

Project Milestone thus far

So far the project has registered and reached out to 42,315 households/farmers.