Local Sourcing

Our Priorities

Every year, AIF needs nearly 30,000 metric tonnes (MT) of maize and 12,000MT of soybean. To ensure food safety, we only buy the highest quality maize and soybean. To improve farmers’ livelihoods and contribute to rural development, AIF’s target is to buy at least 50% of its maize and soy locally. Significant progress has been booked as AIF currently sources just over 50% of its maize locally. Furthermore, together with our partners we introduced “the cob sourcing model”. This model has replaced traditional post-harvest practices in Rwanda and involves buying maize cobs instead of maize grain. AIF currently buys fresh cobs from farmers and threshes and dries these at multiple centres across Rwanda using professional equipment. This model speeds up the post-harvest period from a few weeks to just several days and in doing prevents mold and aflatoxin contamination. The farmers are not charged for this service, meaning their post-harvest expenses are virtually eliminated. Overall AIF sources maize and soybean from over 130,000 farmers in Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, DRC and Kenya. In Rwanda alone, AIF sources directly from 45,000 farmers.