Musika is synonymous with smallholder farmer empowerment. Their work in agricultural market development has received recognition on both the local and international development stage. They implemented multiple successful interventions that have positively impacted on incomes and livelihoods of over 430 000 smallholder farmers across Zambia.

Musika is a Zambian non-profit company that has been in operation since late 2011 and has gained a strong reputation in the Zambian market for innovation, results and service delivery. In working to fulfil its mandate to stimulate and support private investment in the Zambian agricultural and rural markets, smallholder farmers nationwide have benefitted from improved market access for inputs, agricultural products, technologies, services and finance. These resources are sourced across a wide range of commodity and livestock sectors through interventions implemented with 76 corporate partners.

Over the past six years, Musika provided technical advisory services and early-stage, catalytic investment support to agribusinesses that are committed to engaging smallholder and emerging farmers. This is achieved through strong and mutually beneficial commercial relationships as their clients, suppliers and consumers.

The organisation’s approach to reduce poverty and creating wealth in rural Zambia involves stimulating business relationships between the corporate sector and the smallholder farming economy in which there is some form of ‘value addition’ to the transaction. This ‘value’ could be in the form of embedded extension, access to finance, technology transfer, forward pricing, assured off-take, supply contracts and other market services. This doesn’t only give the opportunity, but also the technical knowledge and confidence to smallholders to invest in, and improve their farming businesses.

To date, over US$32 million of private capital has been leveraged in investment in the smallholder market and millions of dollars of new business are generated between agribusiness and smallholders. This investment has resulted in more than US$45 million of increased income that has accrued to Zambia’s smallholder farmers as a result of improved agricultural market access.

From inception, Musika’s operations have been mainly funded by the Swedish Embassy in Zambia, which recently signed a new funding agreement to support the organisation’s programme under its new strategy for the period 2018 to 2021.

During the new phase, Musika seeks to consolidate and add greater value to a number of ‘core’ investments that have the capability to provide substantial benefit to the smallholder market. This will be achieved through the delivery of a range of market services, and make a number of new investments in higher risk, ‘fledgling’ markets that have the potential to deliver benefits to the rural poor, especially around climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Musika’s business model in the new funding period will remain largely constant, relying on the core principles that the organisation has been working towards for the last five years. These principles include a strong commercial approach to development, focusing on the role of the private sector in driving inclusive growth. An approach based on mitigating the risk of commercial investment in the lower end of the market and the principle of ‘honest brokerage’ within the market will be followed. Musika intends to build upon its reputation as a ‘thought leader’, driving innovation in the agricultural markets.

Under its new strategy, Musika, is focusing on four key investment areas that address specific needs within the agricultural and rural markets, based on changing dynamics within the agricultural sector. These investment areas include:

Business and finance, which aim to improve functionality of the agricultural supply chain and access to appropriate financial services by actors in the supply chain. In this strategy, there are plans to boost the area of business and finance by helping to provide farmers with flexible finance payment systems and to support the growth of the small rural agribusiness sector through three areas:

Agricultural Technology, which aims to improve access by the lower end of the agricultural market to new, productivity enhancing and efficiency increasing technologies. Musika is committed to continued promotion of innovative technologies from production and storage to processing, making these options more available and affordable, and seeking to increase overall yield through proper securement of harvests.

Agricultural Diversification, which aims to improve the range of production options available to farmers to enhance income, reduce multiple risks, including those presented by climate change, and improve gender equity in agriculture. This strategy will help in encouraging agribusinesses to take advantage of the opportunities to go beyond traditional crops such as maize to expand to tree planting, aquaculture, and different types of livestock.

Environmental Markets, which aim to improve access to new markets that present the opportunity for both inclusive economic growth and climate change mitigation. The use of renewable energy to power smallholder agriculture and the production and aggregation of bioenergy crops and products will be encouraged and promoted.

In all its operations, Musika makes it a priority to understand the role of women in agricultural markets and ensure women participate in and benefit from improved market conditions. It also continues to take into consideration the potential impact of its operations on the environment and aim to mitigate environmental risks on the natural environment and the health of the rural population. The organisation continues to play a role in promoting an enabling business environment for pro-poor rural economic growth by supporting the development of market structures that enable transparent and inclusive trade, and exploring market-based opportunities to address the issue of rural land tenure.

The impact of Musika’s work over the past six years has attracted additional funding from other international organisations to enable the implementation of interventions aimed at increasing access by smallholders to productivity enhancing technologies and improved markets, resulting in improved food security, nutrition and incomes at household level.

Musika is the answer to a smallholder’s success. Contact Gift Chanda at +26 (0)211-250-355 or e-mail gift@musika.org.zm for more information.