Expanding market access and value addition in selected agricultural value chains: the role of IAR4D in the Lake Kivu Pilot Learning Site

Limited access to profitable markets and production resources by smallholders restricts expansion and investment in technologies that could increase efficiency and add value to primary production. Two cases from the DRC and Rwanda, targeting the collective marketing, value addition and processing of banana and Irish potatoes, are used to demonstrate the IAR4D approach. The results show that, through collective marketing and banana processing, farmers are able to increase their returns by about 50% compared to the period before IAR4D interventions. The shelf life of the products was also increased drastically. Market efficiency improved for Irish potatoes by reducing transaction costs and decreasing the market intermediaries who would extract larger margins at the expense of the producers. Thus the tonnage of potatoes marketed increased from about 3 to 15 MTs in less than one year, while farmers were able to earn up to 10% higher prices through the IPs. Transformation to prevent postharvest losses experienced by farmers in general and members of IPs in particular is recommended. The use of flexible contracts, coupled with support from credit institutions, is also recommended.