Partnerships

Recognizing the important role that cassava and smallholder farmers can play in African agriculture, the Netherlands’ Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS), the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) and the Dutch Agricultural Development & Trading Company (DADTCO) launched the cassava public-private partnership (PPP) in 2010. The three-year PPP is financed by a Schokland Fund grant from DGIS and is supplemented by additional IFDC cost-sharing and DADTCO investments.

DADTCO has partnered with SABMiller one of the world's largest brewers to produce the first ever commercial-scale cassava-based beer. The beer, ‘Impala” is brewed in Mozambique by SABMiller's local subsidiary, Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM). By creating a sustainable, vibrant market for the cassava, this project has a significant impact on the lives of the farmers and the local economy. Approximately 40,000 tonnes of raw cassava will be used annually in the production of Impala, creating new employment for over 1,500 smallholder farmers and their families.

The African Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) who aims at a positive contribution to pro-poor growth in selected African countries by making agribusiness, finance, information and renewable energy markets work better for the poor in rural areas has provided DADTCO with a loan for Nigeria to build the required platforms in order to decentralize the production process. Because of this loan DADTCO was able to process cassava as close to the farmers as possible.