This article was originally written by Sylvia Kuria, an organic farmer who founded Sylvia’s Basket. She is also an IFOAM – Organics International ambassador.
How a Farmer-Led Initiative is Bridging the Gap Between Soil and Sale
For decades, the narrative around African agriculture has been singular: produce, produce, produce. As the lead for the Access to Markets Curriculum, I’ve seen firsthand how this narrow focus has created a cycle of dependency and disillusionment for the very people who feed us, our smallholder farmers.
We’ve been told that to feed our growing population, we must grow more. I remember the push for the Green Revolution in the early 2000s, where vast swathes of land were dedicated to maize, a crop now considered a staple though not indigenous to our soils. Farmers were supplied with inputs, seeds, and fertilizers in a well-intentioned but flawed mission.
We now see the results: soils left acidic from synthetic overuse, and a maize crop decimated by the fall armyworm, now often unsafe due to the high pesticides used in desperation. The promise of a green revolution wilted, leaving behind a harsh lesson: when we focus only on yield, we ignore the health of our land and the sovereignty of our farmers.
In this system, the farmer became a puppet, with no say in what to grow or how to reach the consumer.
Organic products at the retail shop Kalimoni Greens. ©Sylvia Kuria.
The Real Crisis: The Market Void
If we come down to the ground, the problem becomes even starker. The gap between the farm and the fork is a chasm, often filled by middlemen. With African governments largely absent from actively managing market systems, these intermediaries have taken control. They decide what crops farmers will grow, how they will be sold, and, most critically, at what price.
Once again, the farmer is left with the short end of the stick. They wait for instructions on what is “marketable,” pour their sweat into the soil, and then have the value of their hard work dictated to them. This endemic cycle ensures one brutal outcome: farmers do not make money from their farming enterprises.
The consequence of this is a generational disconnect. We now see a negative trend in our universities where students shun agricultural courses. Why? Because our youth have grown up watching their parents struggle and fail miserably to make farming profitable. The few who pursue agriculture often seek the comfort of air-conditioned offices in NGOs or government, far from the soil and the hot sun.
This is our wake-up call. We must ask ourselves: how do we revive our food systems to not only include farmers, youth, and women at the decision-making table but also ensure farming is a venture of dignity and profit?
A Seed of Hope: The Access to Markets Curriculum
From 2022 to 2023, I was part of the Food Systems Leadership Course run by Wageningen University and Wasafiri. Our final challenge was to develop a systems initiative to drive change. As an organic farmer and entrepreneur myself, the answer was clear: we needed to equip farmers with the skills to access and navigate markets.
I reached out to a dedicated team of fellow Kenyans Martin Kimani, Pauline Mundia, and professor Patricia Wambugu from Egerton University. Together, we approached the Global Academy of IFOAM – Organics International with a proposal: partner with us to develop a practical, farmer-centric Access to Markets Curriculum.
With seed funding support from OXFAM, we developed a comprehensive curriculum and a corresponding workbook. We conducted two pilot programs, training 43 farmers who were already in the marketplace. These farmers were invaluable partners, helping us refine the content and structure based on real-world experience.
The workbook was a unique aspect of this training. It gave farmers a tangible resource to use during and long after the training, ensuring the concepts of market analysis, negotiation, and business planning stuck with them.
Farmers in the pilot program helped refine the content and structure of the curriculum based on real-world experience. ©Sylvia Kuria.
The Harvest of Change
The feedback from the pilots filled us with hope. We are finally addressing the ever-widening gap between farmers and markets. We are beginning to restore the promise that farming can be a profitable, attractive venture for youth and women groups who are central to our food systems yet remain persistently marginalized.
I am excited and humbled to be a forerunner in this initiative on the African continent. I have made a promise to myself to document and share the stories of African farmers, stories of resilience and success.
Would you like to learn more about the Access to Markets Curriculum made for farmers, by farmers?
Do you believe, as we do, that it’s time to invest not just in how our food is grown, but in the people who grow it?
Feel free to reach out to the Global Academy at IFOAM – Organics International to explore partnership, scaling opportunities, or funding this vital work. Let’s cultivate not just crops, but capable, confident, and prosperous farmers.
Second cohort of the pilot program concluded with resounding success. ©Sylvia Kuria
Read more:
Empowering Kenya’s Organic Smallholders: IFOAM’s Pilot Market Access Training
Building Market Access for Smallholder Organic Farmers in Kenya
How Sylvia’s Basket Started: Crazy for Organic!
