The Smallholder Agriculture Cluster Project has launched the Food and Agriculture Resilience Mission Pillar 3 (FARM P3) project. FARM P3 will compliment SACP on sorghum, one of the value chains promoted under the project, with an additional USD 320,000 in direct funding. The intervention is running from June 2025 to June 2026, benefitting 6000 farmers.
The FARM P3 project will be implemented in high potential sorghum-producing districts of Binga, Muzarabani, Sanyati, Hwange and Zvimba.
FARM P3 will address challenges of labour-intensive threshing requiring up to 15 workers per hectare, high post-harvest losses ranging between 20-30%, widespread rural out-migration, The project will also de-risk investments by developing a service provider pipeline with off-takers & financial institutions. The third objective of the project will be to reduce sorghum losses and improve grain quality, enabling smallholder access to formal markets
The main activities that will be implemented through FARM P3 will include
– Pilot sorghum mechanization options such as mobile threshers, no-till and small-scale transport
– Assess 16 equipment cases for ROI and adoption potential
– Identify and validate 50 service providers with off-takers & financial institutions
– Deliver tailored support on service operations, market linkage, and costing
Speaking at the launch, IFAD Country Director for Zimbabwe, Mr Francesco Rispoli said, “Through FARM P3 we not only test equipment that raises smallholder incomes in Zimbabwe but also work with off-takers, financial institutions, youth entrepreneurs and farmers to build business models that create jobs and make mechanisation affordable, profitable and sustainable”
SACP Value Chain and Agribusiness Advisor, said, “Sorghum is central to Zimbabwe’s climate resilience, yet farmers struggle to scale up and markets remain untapped. By engaging private- sector partners from the start, the FARM P3 pilot opens pathway to overcome these challenges and spread benefits across supply chain.”
