An ageless Sahelian proverb says, “If you disagree with the phases of the moon, then you should build a long ladder and fix it yourself.” In a drought-prone region, this adage is a reminder that people cannot control nature or influence the schedule of the rainy season. But it also teaches an important lesson: wise people keep their eyes focused on the world around them and seek to change what can be changed for the better. 

Throughout much of rural Niger, chronic cash shortfalls force many farming families to sell their production during the harvest season in August and September, when prices reach their lowest point in the annual market cycle. These families are then forced to buy supplemental grain stocks during the “hungry season” months of June and July when local food scarcity drives up the cost of basic provisions.

In Niger, ADF is working with the Group for the Support of Cooperative Enterprises (GAPEC)[1], to provide low-cost, sustainable solutions to chronic food security problems that perpetuate cycles of debt and food-aid dependence in rural communities around the city of Zinder. ADF funding will expand GAPEC’s capacity to support the creation of cereal banks that will:

• Purchase grain from small-scale farmers at rates that provide farmers with much needed cash while generating profits for the cereal bank;
   
• Sell a portion of the banks' grain as prices rise to produce operating revenue for the cereal bank and return profits to the banks' local members; and
   
• Sell grain back to cereal bank members at affordable prices during periods when food scarcity drives prices up.

ADF is helping GAPEC establish five cereal banks that will be managed by community-based organizations (CBOs) and operate as micro enterprises. It is expected that these five banks will generate enough profit to create three new banks over five years. The grain banks will receive start-up capital to purchase significant cereal reserves, and each new bin will have a total capacity of 60 metric tons.

To ensure the long-term sustainability of this initiative, each CBO will provide GAPEC with an annual loan repayment generated from the sale of low-cost grain reserves on the open market and to local families.

It is expected that GAPEC’s annual gross income will expand more than three times over the project’s five-year span and that the cooperative’s total profits will grow substantially once GAPEC has achieved the economy of scale required to purchase its grain stores at the most favorable market rates.

ADF's Niger partner organization, Actions for Sustainable Integrated Grassroots Development (ADIDB),[2] will work with GAPEC to train its staff in financial and management skills and conduct participatory evaluations with GAPEC staff over the course of the project.

[1] GAPEC’s name in French is Groupe d’Appui à l’Auto Promotion des Enterprises à Caractère Coopératif.
[2] ADIDB's name in French is Actions pour un Développement Intégré et Durable à la Base.