Quick Facts About TRADE 

TRADE stands for Transforming Agriculture Through Diversification and Entrepreneurship. It is a 6 year Government of Malawi Programme funded by International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and Opec Fund for International Development (OFID).

• Strengthening value chains and enhance the enabling environment to make it more conducive to rural commercial development
• Facilitating and managing the programme in an efficient and effective manner
• Improving linkages of farmers to value chains by establishing more efficient  

• Sustainable producer-private partnerships: The objective of this component is to supports mallholder farmers organized in producer groups to establish producer-private partnership with small and medium Enterprises (SMES) to increase their productivity and market linkages.
• Enabling environment for smallholder commercialization and component: The outcome of component 2 is that the enabling environment will be improved for commercialization of smallholder agriculture.
• Institutional Support and Programme Management: The objective of this component is to improve institutional performance and knowledge management. This will be achieved through interventions in capacity building and strengthen VC governance, and Programme management.  

• Facilitating market linkages and commercial partnership with market actors, including 4p 
• Training and supporting smallholder producers on GAPS/CSA 
• Building management capacity of FBOs and producers especially women and youth to engage in farming as business and agriculture 
• Establishing partnerships with financial serviceproviders link VC actors to financial markets (through FARMSE 
• Supporting commodity platforms on policy dialogue and advocacy 
• Providingh legal and regulatory reform support for business partnerships for MOUs and contracts 
• Constructing/ rehabilitating climate resilient and environmental friendly VC infrastructure 
• Providing Institutional capacity for VC development at district level for public and non-state actors 
• Supporting knowledge management to strengthen programme implementation and sharing of good practices 

Unlike other programmes, TRADE will focus on the following interventions Areas; 

Improving  horizontal linkages 

Improving Production & Productivity 

Functionally upgrading smallholder farmers and the rural poor 

 Improving vertical linkages between stakeholders

Facilitating provsion of relevant Value chain infrastracture

TRADE will in the first 2 years be implemented in 11 districts of  Lilongwe, Dedza,Mchinji, Blantyre, Thyolo, Ntchisi, Kasungu, Nkhatabay, Chitipa, Karonga & Rumphi

TRADE is targeting: 

Groundnuts 

Soybeans 

Sunflower 

Irish Potato 

Dairy 

Beef 

Honey

 YES, through mainly the ACIF Matching Grants, Business Coaching and 4Ps

TRADE will utilise existing district implementation structure, for example SAPP and PRIDE. One formally created by RLEEP called District Planning Implementation Support Team (DPIST) . At community level TRADE will use already existing structures such as the ADC, VDC or sub-committee deemed relevant at a particular time.

By Engaging NGOs in the value chain for specific commodity and providing grants and providing grants so that the smallholder farmers can be trained by them

 To the Governmnet of Malawi and IFAD through the Ministry of Local Government, specifically through the Directorrate of Rural Developoment 

TRADE will target at least 55% Women and 50% Youths between the age of 18 and 35 years.

TRADE will address the issues of resilience to climate change and environmental degradation by: 

Promoting adoption of climate resilience agricultural practices by smallholder farmers and 

Supporting agribusiness partners to incorporate climate change and environmental considerations into their investments, including those to be funded through Agricultural Commercialization and Innovation Fund (ACIF)

TRADE will assist in reducing infrastructure bottlenecks of identified commodities through the development of:  

road infrastructure (rehabilitationincluding drainage, construction of structures and set up of Road ManagementClubs)

buildings to support commodities(warehouses, Milk Bulking Centres – MBCs –, Livestock/cattle markets and honeystorage centres)

livestock water points(homestead/community and livestock drinking points).

TRADE’S total budget is $124.5 millions Financed by International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and OPEC Fundfor International Development (OFID). Other contributors are the Government of Malawi, Private Sector and the Beneficiaries 

 Yes, it will expand to 4 more districts after 2 years 

Yes, 3-4 more commodities will be added depending on criteria for commodity selection