Market Linkages for Smallholder Sesame Farming in Ethiopia

Project context

A large international NGO recently embarked on a long-term agriculture scale-up program to achieve greater progress in poverty reduction in Ethiopia through supporting one million smallholder farmers. The different sub-programmes aim at exploring opportunities for strengthening livelihoods through protection and promotion of smallholder farmers' linkages with markets, empowering communities, enabling agricultural policies, building partnerships and transforming gender relations. As part of this effort, the NGO started a Sesame Value Chain Promotion in the Benishangul Gumuz, Amhara and Oromiya regions.

Project objective

The NGO has asked the Emergia Institute to conduct a study of the sesame supply chain in the context of a potential large scale investment by an investor from the Middle East. Emergia consultants Jenny Scharrer and Genia Kostka assessed the role the NGO can play in order to assure that farmers, in particular smallholder farmers, will benefit from the planned investment. The scope of the assignment required field visits and meetings with the farmer union in the Amhara region and consultation with communities and private sector actors working along the sesame value chain.

Project output

The outcome of this project is a concise report highlighting gaps in the sesame supply chain. Recommendations were given for the NGO’s engagement in the private sector linkage.