Groundnut Value Chain Pilot Reaches New Revenue Milestone
Participating member farmers reported higher earnings through structured buyer contracts and quality assurance systems introduced under the value chain programme.
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The NASFAM groundnut value chain pilot, now in its second year, has reached a cumulative revenue milestone for participating farmer clusters, with aggregate sales exceeding programme projections by over 22% in the most recent trading season. The results provide strong validation for the structured buyer-contract model that the programme introduced as its core market-linkage mechanism.
Unlike informal spot-market sales, the structured contracts provide farmers with pre-agreed floor prices, defined quality specifications, and guaranteed off-take commitments from verified commercial buyers. Farmers receive written terms before planting, allowing them to plan inputs and labour around a known minimum return — a significant change from the uncertainty that characterises most informal market relationships.
Quality assurance has been central to the programme's success. Farmer clusters established grading stations at association warehouses, with trained quality officers inspecting and sorting groundnut lots before aggregation. Buyers report consistently better quality than pre-programme supplies, and several have increased their contracted volumes for the coming season as a result.
Female-headed households represented 54% of programme participants in the last season, a figure NASFAM attributes to deliberate inclusion design — including meeting times and locations that accommodate women's multiple household responsibilities, and group savings components that allow women to invest in inputs without depending on male household decision-makers.
Programme managers are now developing a replication package to allow district associations outside the pilot areas to adopt the model. An information session for interested associations will be held at the NASFAM headquarters in June.