On December 6, 2016, Dr. Emmanuel Dormon, Chief of Party of the ACDI/VOCA-implemented Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement (ADVANCE II) project, and Mrs. Freda Y. Duplan, Managing Director of Nestlé Ghana Ltd., signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU). ADVANCE II, a USAID Feed the Future initiative, increases the competitiveness of the maize, rice, and soybean value chains in Ghana by increasing productivity in targeted commodities, increasing market access and trade, and strengthening local capacity.
ADVANCE II is committed to developing mutually beneficial business relationships between commodity buyers and farmers to create opportunities for farmers to profitably sell to high-end industrial markets. This is very much in line with Nestlé’s commitment to rural development. Nestlé creates shared value among market actors by engaging smallholder farmers to produce and supply safe and nutritious maize.
Of the MOU and upcoming collaborations, ADVANCE II Chief of Party Dr. Dormon comments that, “We see this collaboration with Nestlé as an opportunity for smallholder farmers to further improve their agronomic and post-harvest management practices to meet the quality requirements of industrial users. ADVANCE II works to spread and scale up the adoption of improved practices with the ultimate aim of increasing incomes and adequate access to good quality and safe food. Currently, the project has reached over 100,000 smallholder farmers, and we intend to extend the lessons on improving quality and food safety in the supply chain from this collaboration with Nestlé to all these farmers.”
