MASAP: Markets and Seeds Access Project

Project description / objective

MASAP works in Zambia and Zimbabwe to improve food security and livelihoods for smallholder farmers, especially women and youth, through cultivation of traditional grains (sorghum and millets) and legumes (groundnuts and cowpeas) creating income opportunities and climate resilience supported by strong institutions, national policies and innovative private sector actors.

Market system focus

Traditional grains and legumes commodity markets

Low production by individual smallholder farmers (SHF) and high aggregation costs discourage private sector commodity buyers from engaging them in contract farming, limiting SHF access to competitive input and output markets and the opportunity to increase household incomes.

Agricultural mechanisation & processing services

SHF face high post-harvest losses and poor product quality due to use of unmechanised processing methods and inadequate storage facilities, limiting market access and profitability. Lack of mechanisation also limits productivity and output and hence household incomes.

Traditional grains and legume seed markets

Seed companies focus mainly on high-value commercial crops, leading to a seed supply gap of traditional grains and legumes. Secondly, the current policy framework does not adequately support farmer-managed seed systems for seeds of traditional, climate-resilient and nutritious crops preferred by SHFs, limiting SHFs’ ability to legally, profitably and sustainably scale up production. Farmers continue to use retained seed, which loses its vigour, viability and productivity over time.

Agricultural finance services

Private Sector companies working in MASAP-supported traditional grains and legumes value chains struggle to access affordable finance. This limits their ability to provide inputs to contracted outgrowers and to buy back seed and commodities on time.

Agricultural insurance services

Climate change has led to increased unpredictability in rainfall patterns, often resulting in total crop failure for SHF contracted by private companies, leaving them in debt. Affordable and appropriate insurance is needed to address this challenge.

Programme approach

MASAP supports the development and growth of competitive traditional grains and legumes markets by facilitating contract arrangements between SHF and private seed and commodity off-takers. The programme also supports Community Owned Businesses and Associations (COBs) to enhance their capacity to run profitable and sustainable businesses. The businesses provide critical services to farmers that include land preparation, weeding, threshing and processing.

Programme interventions

Traditional grains and legumes commodity markets

Technical assistance to SHF group formation and strengthening
MASAP provides training and mentoring on governance, business management and conflict resolution. Farmers groups/associations and COBs are also trained in group dynamics and business management to make them ready for contracting by the seed and commodity companies. This makes it easier for the groups to access inputs and outputs markets and increase productivity.

Strengthen private sector players in the MASAP-supported value chains
MASAP supports private companies to work with smallholder farmers as outgrowers producing both seed and grain from traditional cereals (sorghum and millet) and legumes (groundnuts and cowpeas). The programme provides bespoke catalytic funding to companies, helping them to transform and optimise business models and improve their governance systems. The companies provide ready, reliable and profitable markets for the seed and commodities produced by the farmers contracted as outgrowers.

Agricultural mechanisation & processing services

Innovation grants facility to advance the business activities of producer groups and COBs
MASAP provides matched grants through competitive calls to MSMEs, producer group and COBs, prioritising marginalised groups. These grants support businesses to purchase essential on-farm processing equipment and inputs. The groups and COBs provide services to farmers that include tillage, threshing, weeding and agro-processing.

Traditional grains and legume seed markets

Scaling up the availability and accessibility of breeder and foundation seed from national and private breeding institutions
MASAP provides funding and technical assistance to public breeding institutes and private seed companies to produce breeder and foundation seed which they supply to seed companies to multiply and produce certified seed. The support aims to build capacity to enable the institutes to effectively continue to supply early generation seed post-MASAP.

Support to the governments in strengthening the regulatory framework for formal and farmer-managed seed systems (FMSS)
MASAP has supported the ministries of agriculture in Zambia and Zimbabwe to set up national seed working groups. The groups are working closely with the ministries to develop national seed policies that recognise and register FMSS. This will enable FMSS to be commercially traded and to increase production. The groups are also working with seed associations to reduce the sale of counterfeit seed which undermines the growth of competitive seed markets.

Agricultural finance services

Incentives to enhance private sector business models for growing seed and commodity markets for target crops using hybrid financing mechanisms
MASAP subsidises commercial interest rates by 10% (lowering an 18% rate down to an 8% net rate for commercial borrowers) to create sustainable financing modalities tailored for selected private sector players in the MASAP value chains. This is expected to build relationships between companies and financial institutions to enable companies and smallholder farmers to continue to access commercial funding post-MASAP. Catalytic grant support for technical assistance and operational costs is provided to companies to de-risk innovations (such as running outgrower schemes) which they would not do in the absence of such support.

Agricultural insurance services

Incentives to intervention partners to insure their crops against adverse weather conditions
In Phase 2, MASAP has co-designed a satellite-backed micro-insurance package with ACRE Africa, Minerva Risk Advisors (in Zimbabwe), and the Zambia State Insurance Corporation. To ensure affordability and protect the programme’s investment, the initiative uses an input cost-based insurance model, with MASAP subsidising 50% of the premium in the first year for participating implementing partners.

Enduring systemic changes

Traditional grains and legumes commodity markets

Market access dynamics have transitioned from fragmented, ad hoc trading to structured, institutionalised commercial channels. MASAP partner market actors have adapted their procurement structures to actively absorb smallholder seed and commodity volumes, establishing a new operational norm that guarantees reliable market linkages beyond the life of the programme.

Agricultural mechanisation & processing service

The intervention successfully catalysed a structural shift from manual farm operations to a fee-for-service rural market for agricultural mechanisation. The establishment of profitable local enterprise service providers fundamentally transformed community-level labour and supply chain dynamics. Smallholder households transitioned into active, paying customers, adopting the commercial behaviour of hiring machinery to significantly reduce household labour constraints and optimise post-harvest timelines.

Crucially, this systemic adoption of mechanical processing delivered a dual dividend: while service enterprises unlocked sustained local income streams, the broader community benefited from a drastic reduction in labour drudgery and a permanent upgrade in commodity quality enabling them to deliver clean, grit-free grain that meets the stringent quality requirements of commercial off-takers.

Traditional grain and legume seed markets

• The intervention successfully established collaborative norms between public sector breeders and private seed enterprises across both countries. By aligning national research institutions directly with commercial seed companies for early generation seed production, the programme institutionalised a streamlined, market-responsive seed multiplication pathway that accelerates the flow of climate-resilient varieties from breeding institutions to seed companies.
• Establishing the National Seed Working Group in Zimbabwe, chaired and convened directly by the Ministry of Agriculture, means the state has transitioned from a regulator to a primary market facilitator. Convening stakeholder meetings and managing the agenda has become an institutional responsibility of the ministry, rather than an ad-hoc activity dependent on external funding.
• The seed services institutes in Zambia and Zimbabwe are taking lead in pushing for legislative frameworks that recognise and register FMSS. This will enhance their production and commercial trading and increase farmer resilience to climate change.

Agricultural finance services

The programme successfully incentivised financial institutions to adapt their lending frameworks for companies working with smallholder farmers as seed and commodity outgrowers. This shift is proven by multiple MASAP implementing partners actively entering the commercial banking pipeline and applying for the loans to meet operating expenses and capital investment requirements. This evolving relationship establishes a new operational norm where market actors utilise formal commercial credit rather than temporary donor subsidies to grow their businesses.

Agricultural insurance services

MASAP has catalysed a structural shift in how climate risk is managed within traditional grain and legume value chains. Rather than treating climate shocks as unmanageable disruptions, market actors are institutionalising commercial risk-mitigation practices, as evidenced by MASAP implementing partners across Zimbabwe and Zambia actively embedding commercial micro-insurance into their operational models. Agribusinesses are realising a new commercial norm where they can independently recover input investments in the event of drought, floods or pest and disease outbreaks. Crucially, this intervention is proving the commercial viability of providing insurance cover to implementing partners that work with smallholder farmers as outgrowers.

Impacts for target beneficiaries

Despite three consecutive years of poor harvests as a result of droughts and excessive rainfall, MASAP made a significant impact during phase one.

• A cumulative total of over 34,000 (60% female) farmers in phase 1 were linked to a total of 30 private sector players in the production of seed and commodities of traditional grains and legumes through contract farming.
• 65 COBs have been formed and strengthened and 80% of these groups are predominantly comprised of women, underscoring the significant female involvement and leadership within these community-based initiatives.
• Based on data collected and analysed to date, 8,629 farmers (70% female) earned USD $2.3m from selling seeds and grains, averaging USD $286 per farmer. Data is still being collected and verified from outstanding intervention partners that have not yet reported.

[updated June 2026]