Sh120m from soy beans Fund up for grabs

A farmer holds on display soy beans at a farm in Sachangwaan. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • FoodTrade East and Southern Africa launched the Soybean Challenge Fund targeting private sector organisations in East and Southern African countries.
  • Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate evidence of support to women and youth
  • Wide number of projects such as farmer mobilisation, processing and value addition, bulking and aggregation storage mechanisms, marketing as well as investments aimed at increasing the production of soybean at the farmer level are eligible for the funding.

A regional company has rolled out grants to promote soybean farming and marketing across nine countries in east and southern Africa.

FoodTrade East and Southern Africa launched the Soybean Challenge Fund targeting private sector organisations in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.

Successful applicants are entitled to grants ranging between £250,000 (Sh37.5 million) and £800,000 (Sh120 million) per proposal, the company said.

The grants aim at stimulating increased production and value addition of soybeans in east and southern Africa, which will lead into increased availability of livestock farming inputs, secured livelihoods for small-scale soybean farmers, improved supply of soybean crops and processed products.

The call for proposals is already live on the FoodTrade ESA website and applications will be accepted until May 6. This will be followed by verification, due diligence and inception stages, with disbursement of funds expected to commence from the fourth quarter.

“Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate evidence of support to women and youth, as well as collaboration with farmer organisations, input suppliers, agriculture extension service providers, credit providers and other providers working to increase soybean production,” said Marc Van Uytvanck, the team leader of the FoodTrade ESA programme.

The Soybean Challenge Fund is expected to last for 18 months.

The private sector companies, along with their partners, will be expected to provide smallholders farmers with an off-taker market for soybean produce at a fair price, adequate input supply, as well as agriculture extension and support services.

A wide number of projects such as farmer mobilisation, processing and value addition, bulking and aggregation storage mechanisms, marketing as well as investments aimed at increasing the production of soybean at the farmer level are eligible for the funding.

Van Uytvanck said by working with the private sector, they aim to promote the participation of small-scale farmers in the production and marketing of produce.