Expanding agricultural economic opportunities through increased productivity and better marketing

The Agricultural Productivity Enhancement Program (APEP) is a five-year agricultural productivity enhancement program, working closely with stakeholders in the agricultural sector to ensure the project reflects Ugandan realities and needs. APEP seeks to expand agricultural economic opportunities through increased productivity and better marketing of key food and cash crops. Farmers, producer organizations, and agribusinesses within key sectors are all targeted by the project, which intends to substantially increase food security over the life of the project Five principles will guide the Chemonics Consortium’s approach. First, the team will focus on looking at each key subsector as a “national private sector-driven business” with a market vision based on subsector characteristics. Second, the team will maximize competitive advantage, by establishing a criteria-based system to identify interventions that will achieve broad productivity increases and sector impacts. Third, the team will build on IDEA’s successful integrated commodity systems approach that strengthens the entire market chain. Fourth, the key to project activity sustainability is the fostering of project ownership by the private sector, government, donors, and NGOs. Finally, collaboration, communications, and coordination are critical for APEP to achieve significant results—maximization inclusion of stakeholders and transparency of communications will be emphasized throughout the design and implementation phases.