CASA: Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness

Project description / objective

CASA demonstrates the business case for global and national investment in climate-resilient agri-food systems that increase smallholder farmer incomes. CASA facilitates increased investment in agribusinesses by showcasing the commercial and development potential of inclusive business models, through a market systems development approach that:

• demonstrates the commercial viability - and builds the investment-readiness - of small and medium-sized agribusinesses with smallholder farmer supply chains
• helps investors to increase the impact of their investments through the provision of technical assistance and grants to agribusiness partners
• strengthens the voices of smallholder producers (especially of women in agribusiness decision-making) and their positions within supply chains (e.g. through improved offtaking or aggregation arrangements)
• fills the information, evidence and learning gaps holding back investment and the adoption of inclusive business models.

Market system focus

Ethiopia – soybean

Soybean’s high oil content makes it the leading oil crop in Ethiopia and is prioritised by government for the edible oil industry where it has great potential against palm oil imports. The oil cake residue is a nutritious feed supplement (70-75 per cent) for livestock, poultry, fisheries, and swine farms. Amhara, Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz regions account for 90 per cent of the soybean and Ethiopia produced an estimated 180,000 metric tons in 2022/23 from smallholders and commercial farmers. Soybean is important for increased food security and income, but also contributes to environmental sustainability by intercropping with cereals.

CASA Ethiopia’s work is focused on introducing direct contract farming models between smallholder farmer cooperatives and oil processors, with embedded services in access to, and use of, improved seed and inoculant, Good Agricultural Practices training (including climate adaptation elements) and agreed price mechanisms.

Malawi & Rwanda - aquaculture

The fisheries and aquaculture sectors in Malawi and Rwanda are important in contributing to food and nutritional security, livelihoods of the rural population and economic growth of the country. They contribute 4 per cent to GDP in Malawi and less than 1 per cent in Rwanda. Aquaculture is one of the few value chains that is less vulnerable to the increasing direct exposure to climate risks and weather shocks such as drought and floods in Malawi and Rwanda. In addition, the local production of fish is still below domestic demand.

In 2024, in the face of globally rising feed costs, the work in this value chain has focused on access to finance and alternative feeds such as the black soldier fly larvae.

Malawi & Rwanda - poultry

Poultry has the potential to transform economic livelihoods of smallholder producers in Malawi, especially for women and youth, and contribute to better household nutrition. Inclusion of smallholders downstream of the poultry value chain will generally contribute to the transformation of the agricultural sector through diversification and commercialisation. Poultry makes a substantial contribution to food and nutrition security. It provides energy, protein and essential micro-nutrients to humans. It has short production cycles and the ability to convert a wide range of agri-food by-products and wastes into meat and eggs. Poultry is the fastest growing agricultural sub-sector, especially in developing countries such as Malawi and Rwanda.

The global poultry sector is expected to grow as demand for meat and eggs is driven by growing populations, rising incomes and urbanisation. With broiler production facing increasing feed costs, the value chain support has pivoted in 2024 into dual purpose and indigenous poultry and is also exploring alternative feeds.

Nepal - dairy

The dairy sector offers promising returns to smallholder dairy farmers by supporting them to maintain regular cash flow from milk sales. This provides other benefits for crop-livestock integrated farming practices. Keeping dairy animals offers smallholders the farmyard manure for increased vegetable production at smallholder household level. It also promotes a diverse farm-level ecosystem, resilient to climate changes.

Dairy farming in Nepal is considered one of the major economic activities for farming households. Milk is an extremely valuable raw material that can be used to make a wide range of high-value products. In recent years there has been a push to commercialise dairy farming.

Nepal & Rwanda - vegetables

Vegetables are gaining prominence as valuable crops in Nepal and Rwanda, involving around 500,000 households in Nepal (311,000 in Rwanda). The vegetable sub-sector contributes 9.7 per cent to Nepal's GDP (15 per cent in Rwanda). In Nepal, only 18 per cent of vegetable farmers engage in commercial cultivation, with just 5 per cent deriving their primary income from vegetables. Conversely, in Rwanda, 80 per cent of vegetable production is sold locally, 17 per cent consumed, and 4.4 per cent traded informally with neighbours. Both countries exhibit growth potential due to unmet domestic demand and import substitution. Vegetable farming, crucial for food security, provides micro-nutrients, vitamins and income. 

Women often manage vegetable gardens alongside, increasingly, cereals and livestock. There is scope to promote women’s economic empowerment by focusing on production and improving aggregation and marketing.

Programme interventions

Market systems development - Component A

Implemented jointly by Niras and Swisscontact, Component A works within seven agriculture value chains in Ethiopia, Malawi, Nepal and Rwanda (and formerly Uganda). It supports agri-SMEs to prepare for and secure investment while growing their smallholder farmer supply chains, connecting farmers to commercial markets and increasing their incomes, and building resilience in the face of climate change. CASA provides agri-SMEs with technical assistance and grants to demonstrate their commercial viability and investment-readiness. 

Technical assistance facility (TAF) - Component B

Implemented by Technoserve across multiple countries, Component B supports agribusinesses that work with smallholder farmers in countries across Africa and Asia, helping them to grow in ways that drive meaningful benefits for farmers in the form of increased incomes, jobs, and resilience to climate change. CASA TAF does this by partnering with some of the largest development investors in the agriculture sector to provide technical assistance to their portfolio companies. The approach involves a deep dive into selected large-scale agribusinesses to draw up inclusive business plans. These become roadmaps for the agribusinesses to strengthen their supply chains, deliver commercial and social value to smallholder farmers and shareholders, and promote returns, development impact and resilience to climate change.

Research, learning and communications - Component C

To fill the information and evidence gaps holding back investment, Component C, previously implemented by CABI, carries out research and communications activities to identify constraints, opportunities and evidence gaps; shapes debates on smallholder / agribusiness models to influence investors, governments and donors; and creates networking opportunities through events and stakeholder engagement. Now implemented by NIRAS, the Component C team currently focuses on disseminating and communicating about the learning from the implementation experiences of the CASA Programme. 

CASA’s crosscutting themes:

• climate change and the environment
• gender equality and social inclusion
• food and nutrition security

Notable results (systemic change, poverty impact)

Market system changes

By the end of Year 7 (March 2026), Component A:

• supported 97 partnership projects, including 14 enabling-environment projects and 83 that strengthened the business operations of agri-SMEs or producer organisations, to improve smallholder farmers’ participation, production, market access, income and climate resilience
• reached 436,643 smallholder farmers (45 per cent women), of whom 362,395 (48 per cent women) were involved in new or improved offtaker or aggregation arrangements, or through Covid-19 or global food crisis responses
• leveraged USD $20.6m ($8.8m through partner contributions and $11.7m in third-party investment in commercial loans and private equity) in commercial investment into 26 agri-SMEs supported with technical assistance to improve their investment-readiness (of 67 supported to become investment-ready)

By the end of Year 7 (March 2026), Component B:

• supported 40 agribusinesses with inclusive business plan development and technical assistance, furthering smallholder farmer inclusion and commercial growth
• reached 135,000 smallholder farmers through agribusinesses in more than 20 value chains
• leveraged approximately USD $17.9 million in investments into inclusive agribusinesses, promoting sustainable, climate-resilient, equitable growth in the agricultural sector

Policy support is expected to have influenced 13 policy and investment decisions by governments / investors through engagements managed by the programme.

Impact on poverty

• Change in per cent of target households below the poverty line (as measured by the Poverty Probability Index)
• Mean food insecurity and dietary diversity scores of CASA target households
• Per cent of target smallholder farmers with improved climate resiliency score

[results updated March 2026]