How market systems, catalytic finance and private investment can build financially healthy agribusinesses and farmers and turn agricultural potential into economic opportunity.
By Robert Asugre
Africa’s food demand is projected to rise sharply over the coming decades. By 2050, and with a population of 2.4 billion, the continent will have doubled its food demand. Meeting this demand will require increased production, but more importantly, it will need efficient markets and greater investment across agricultural value chains.
For Ghana, this is an opportunity to expand domestic food production, strengthen agro-processing, create jobs and attract investment. Market systems, in this regard, become critical because increased production can only be sustainable if farmers can access reliable buyers, businesses can secure financing and investment flows towards viable opportunities across the value chain.
This is the ambition behind IDH’s Food Systems Transformation work across Africa. Working through partnerships with businesses, farmers, governments and financial institutions, we address market failures and investment barriers that prevent agricultural value chains from reaching their potential. Its approach connects productivity with commercial demand, enterprise development with finance, and economic growth with more inclusive participation.
In Ghana, our partner programs such as Women in Sourcing and Enterprise (WISE) and Making- Agrifood Markets Accessible (MAMA) demonstrate how this approach translates into expanded employment opportunities for young women and strengthened commercial relationships between soybean farmers and buyers.
Opening doors in Ghana
WISE, implemented with the Mastercard Foundation in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, builds on experience from initiatives such as Grains for Growth, which took a market-led approach to link 12 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with high-value off-takers. These SMEs, including AgroCenta and WamiAgro, now source from 20,000 smallholder grain farmers. WISE follows a similar route, working with SMEs to strengthen their operations and improve smallholder farmers’ inclusion in formal value chains.
In Ghana, we now work with 16 businesses across grains and horticulture. By June 2026, our partnerships have enabled 95,160 young people to access work, 81% of them young women, and reached 31,020 farmers. During the second quarter of 2026, supported value chains recorded 9,854 tonnes of grain sourced, commodity sales worth GHS51.2 million (approx. €3.9 million) and GHS6 million (approx. €458, 000) in loans accessed. Such results point to stronger business operations and better buyer relationships, helping enterprises expand sourcing to create more reliable opportunities for producers.
Complementing this work, MAMA tackles weak coordination between agricultural production and commercial demand. Funded by the Norwegian government, the €3 million program brings together IDH, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Yara and AGRA to strengthen Ghana’s soybean value chain across 16 districts in the five northern regions. It connects smallholder farmers, input suppliers, local enterprises and major buyers, combining improved access to agricultural inputs and extension services with stronger commercial relationships.
MAMA is projected to support approximately 20,000 on-farm jobs and 750 off-farm jobs. Achieving these gains will depend on mobilising investment to expand businesses, strengthen value chains, and ensure domestic production keeps pace with growing demand.
Higher incomes and more jobs for smallholders
The potential impact of these connections extends beyond improved market access. Our research indicates that combining good agricultural practices with secure market linkages could increase smallholder farmers’ net incomes by 2.3 times over five years.
Higher incomes, combined with suitable financial products, can also strengthen farmers’ financial health. They can manage everyday finances, build savings, reinvest in their farms and withstand shocks such as drought or flooding.
A business case for Rujo Agritrade, a rice-milling enterprise supported through Grains for Growth, estimated that income for around 200 women seed farmers could rise from $345 to $1,083 each.
The Rujo Agritrade case also shows how targeted grant funding can mobilise investment at business level. We carried out business diagnostics and an Inclusive Business Analysis, and connected the company with local banks. A $326,346 IDH grant was then combined with $605,285 in enterprise co-financing and $287,000 in loans from two local banks, around $1.22 million in total, 3.7 times the grant.
IDH’s €100 million Farmfit Fund illustrates how blended finance can help mobilise investment at scale by enabling businesses serving smallholder farmers to attract commercial capital. By the end of 2025, the Fund had deployed €55.7 million across 18 investments, mobilising €3 of private capital for €1 invested and helping more than 1.48 million smallholders access finance, inputs and markets, 60% of them women. The aim is to make viable agricultural businesses more investable, so that commercial capital reaches enterprises, including women-led businesses and young entrepreneurs.
Growth and inclusion reinforcing each other
These experiences each reinforce the importance of connecting stronger markets with viable businesses and inclusive investment. However, the ultimate test remains to build food systems where commercial growth and inclusive economic development reinforce one another, and this is the opportunity that we are keen to pursue.
