HortIMPACT project closes – providing key lessons for market development

On 20 November 2019, the Kenya Market-led Horticulture Project (HortIMPACT) and the Smart Water for Agriculture Project (SWA) held their joint closeout day.

The event, held in Nairobi, brought together more than 180 Kenyan and international representatives of the projects’ private sector partners and the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands in Kenya, the projects’ main donor. Throughout the day, project staff and attendees shared the results achieved and lessons learnt in the Kenyan horticulture and irrigation technology sectors.

During the closing event, HortIMPACT presented its final report: “HortIMPACT: The Story”. The publication summarises the project’s impact and expands on key lessons learnt for future interventions on all three of its focus areas. On food safety and SME farmer inclusion, for example, the project facilitated the certification of 1,290 farmers in Global Agricultural Practices (GAP), the internationally recognised standard for farm production. This certification facilitated access to national and international markets for farmers’ produce.

The booklet also shows examples of how market-led development and cooperation with the private sector can used to shift value chains to sustainability. Some of these interventions are starting systems change, for example through the replication of innovations and better practices by other firms, or horizontal scaling and buy in from other actors. The project, for example, placed food safety on the national agenda by promoting the Kenya Food Safety Standard 1758 for fruits and vegetables.

Overall, the HortIMPACT project developed 11 key lessons for future interventions aiming to develop markets. Examples are the need for a market actor mapping and the introduction of market-linkages to stimulate the uptake of new technologies.

All 11 key lessons, more information about the HortIMPACT project interventions and their impact is available now in the end of project booklet.