African smallholder farmers’ agricultural operations are characterised by low productivity and financial returns, small budgets, low-quality standards, and vulnerability to environmental concerns such as pollution, climate change, and climate variability, environmental and soil degradation, and limited capacity to adapt (Hilmi, 2019). However, despite these limitations, smallholder farmers still supply urban dwellers with up to 80% of their food demands (Mulvany and Murphy, 2015). The smallholder farming system has potential for greener and more productive food value chains.

With UNDP and AGRA having undertaken positive efforts towards the development of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with clear strategies at the country and regional levels, there is still room for them to support the continent in overcoming various challenges that hamper this progressive transformation. The challenges include lack of capital, poor operation coordination due to inefficient information flows, poor access to inputs, social and economic inequalities, limited agricultural and agribusiness skills, and weak market linkages.

This training manual is designed for development practitioners in Africa and aims to advance a holistic approach to agricultural productivity and agribusiness development in smallholder farming systems as well as the health of the ecosystem. The guide also aims to impart capacities and analytical skills to help value chain actors, especially smallholder producers and farmer support service providers such as extensionists and marketers, to embrace value chain greening.

This publication can serve both as a training of trainers’ guide and as a tool for direct and interactive value chain actors’ training. For ease of use, content is progressively  broken down into the following modules:

1. Multi- Stakeholder platform formulation
2. Food value chain identification for greening
3. Value chain prioritization
4. Food value chain mapping
5. Food value chain analysis and reporting
6. Value chain greening strategy formulation
7. Promoting business models
8. Green food value chain financing
9. Planning – action planning