ADRA International

Best Practice Award for Access to Markets
Under its USAID-funded project, Food Security: A Market-Oriented Approach, Supported by Integrated Development for Bolivia, ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) International targeted smallholder farmer households with a demand-driven approach to enhance the use of market information for farm-level strategic decision-making and thereby increase incomes. Expanded knowledge of markets, value chains and business opportunities enabled farmers to select highly demanded crops, enhance farming practices, and improve product quality in response to market specifications. By emphasizing the market and facilitating market linkages, sales value experienced a 50-fold increase from 2002 to 2008, despite the occurrence of El Niño. This suggests that smallholder farmers respond positively to economic incentives and that facilitating market linkages helps spur interest, increases farmers’ participation and can improve technology adoption.

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Jozimo Santos Rocha, Economic Agricultural Advisor

Heifer International

Best Practice Award for Livestock Production and Gender Integration
Heifer International’s Women Farmers Building Community Resilience through Harnessing Crops and Livestock project built economic resilience and self-reliance in a Zambian community by increasing crop yields and improving family nutrition through gifts of livestock and training in their care. It encouraged environmentally friendly farming, including the use of natural fertilizers and prevention of overgrazing. A central objective of the project was to overcome gender-based discrimination and gender stereotyping in terms of access to resources and ownership of livestock. As a result of project activities (such as providing women with women-friendly technology and training in areas including community leadership, livestock management, village funds management, and income generation) women became more self-reliant and empowered, and saw their status in the community improve.

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Martha Hirpa

Helen Keller International

Best Practice Award for Livestock Production
In Bangladesh, Helen Keller International’s Improved Poultry Program promotes local poultry-rearing with improved management and feeding practices, including creep feeding (to increase egg production), appropriate housing and proper vaccination. While improved poultry-rearing practices have been developed and implemented by other organizations, HKI’s program is the first to integrate nutrition education and asset protection training as essential components of poultry-rearing and to target the landless ultra-poor as community-based vaccinators. Results from program areas show increased egg production, household income and egg consumption among children under five years of age and women of reproductive age.

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Diane Lindsey, Country Director

Mercy Corps

Best Practice Award for Access to Markets and Value-chain Development
In Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Central African Republic, Somalia and Zimbabwe, Mercy Corps’ Breaking New Ground via Partnerships between Smallholder Farmers, Agribusinesses and Financial Institutions uses a combined approach of improving high impact agricultural value chains and expanding access to agricultural financial services to increase farmer productivity and incomes of over 80,000 beneficiaries in deep rural areas and transitional country contexts.The approach successfully integrates extensive market research, farmer and agribusiness development, and commercial development of financial services, such as village savings and loan associations, revolving funds, multilateral financial institutions or banks. Cumulative results show an increase in sales of 30 percent and an increase in profit margin of 35 percent for smallholder farmers.

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Keith Polo

World Vision

Australia Best Practice Award for Natural Resources Management and Agro-Forestry
In various countries across Africa, World Vision is promoting the practice of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), in which farmers manage the regrowth from still-living stumps and root systems of trees that have been cut down to reverse desertification and biodiversity loss, increase incomes, improve food security and reduce poverty. This approach engages communities in reforestation that is not dependent on repeated outside intervention and is simple enough to spread quickly from farmer to farmer. It involves training, information sharing, consensus building, iterative troubleshooting and liaison with local agencies. FMNR is a best practice in that it is pro-poor, community-centered and produces sustainable environmental and economic results from the very first year.

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Tony Rinaudo, Natural Resource Management Advisor

World Vision Honduras

Best Practice Award for Nutrition and Productivity
The goal of World Vision’s Food Security and Risk Reduction Program for Western Honduras (2004-2009), funded by USAID, was to reduce household food insecurity by improving health and nutrition and increasing food access. Approximately 157,000 Hondurans throughout 128 communities were served. This was achieved through two integrated components: (1) Road to Health (CASA), focused on improving the nutritional status of women and children, as well as increasing access to health services access and water and sanitation; and (2) More Food and Agro-ecological Businesses (MANA), focused on agricultural production, markets access and natural resources management, as well as civil society municipal strengthening and citizenry participation.

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Jose Figueroa, Country Program Manager

About the Best Practices and Innovations Initiative

The BPI Initiative was launched in September 2009 with the support of IFAD to promote information sharing on effective program approaches and improve practice standards. All submissions were reviewed by a selection committee of experts and evaluated according to six criteria: evidence of effectiveness/success, efficiency/cost-effectiveness, equitable outcomes for women and men, sustainability and replicability/adaptability.