Areas of Expertise

All Categories

Food Security and Agriculture

IDG takes a comprehensive, multi-dimensional approach to the complex problem of food security, focusing at the levels of households, farms and other agricultural entities, local and national governments, and civil society organizations. Food security solutions must be market-based to be sustainable but also must ensure a broad reduction in risks for households along the entire vulnerable end of the income distribution. Strategies should aim at increasing productivity of subsistence farmers, raising the competitiveness of value chains, widening trade and distribution, strengthening agriculture finance, and giving households the skills they need to plan nutrition, manage their resources, and mitigate the risks they face.

IDG works on the following areas:

  • Introducing technologies to increase agricultural productivity at the farm and processing levels.
  • Decreasing post-harvest losses.
  • Strengthening market linkages, bringing more small farmers into the cash economy, and linking medium and larger farmers to national and international markets.
  • Helping households and communities improve risk management techniques to mitigate shocks.
  • Assisting the more efficient and broader provision of finance in rural areas.
  • Teaching nutrition, and helping families plan for producing or acquiring a wider diversity of foods.
  • Linking nutrition and food security programs into innovative health assistance networks.
  • Strengthening local institutions.
  • Utilizing existing social networks to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge and skills to vulnerable households.
  • Teaching better hygiene.
  • Introducing low-cost innovative technologies for food production, storage, and preparation.
  • Addressing gender issues among households and agricultural value chains, to facilitate greater focus on nutrition in household expenditure, investment and employment decisions.

Project Experience

FSSC II (Food Security Service Center)

FSSC II works to provide Feed the Future with world class experts to end hunger and malnutrition drawing on the expertise of those working in the fields of agricultural, trade, investment, development, program design, and policy analysis. These experts together with USAID staff have identified lessons learned and developed the tools and approaches in which Global Food Security Strategy is grounded.

Read moreabout FSSC II (Food Security Service Center)

Azerbaijan Competitiveness and Trade (ACT) Project

IDG’s ACT Project provided technical assistance to farmers, key businesses (processers, cold storage, transport, etc.) to help rural residents improve their income possibilities through value chain upgrading. The team supported improvements all along the value chain beginning with the farmer at the cultivation and harvest, up through the cold storage and transportation process, to the processor and then at the final market/consumer level.

Read moreabout Azerbaijan Competitiveness and Trade (ACT) Project

Evaluation of Maximizing Agricultural Revenue and Key Enterprises in Targeted Sites (MARKETS) Project

IDG performed an evaluation of USAID-funded $52 million Maximizing Agricultural Revenue and Key Enterprises in Targeted Sites (MARKETS) project, implemented by Chemonics International. MARKETS aimed to increase Nigeria’s agribusiness competitiveness and food security by providing services and leveraging resources to address value chain constraints and deliver products to the market more effectively.

Read moreabout Evaluation of Maximizing Agricultural Revenue and Key Enterprises in Targeted Sites (MARKETS) Project

Liberia Corridors Development Project

Based on the findings from the assessments and analyses, the team subsequently developed over a dozen specific investment proposals. Sample proposals include: Support for Cocoa and Palm Oil Farmers’ Associations; Establishing a Livestock Feed Mill; Establishing a Fruit Juice Processing Plant.

Read moreabout Liberia Corridors Development Project

LEAP II (Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis Project II)

IDG implemented a mixed methods evaluation to measure the impact of USAID/Liberia’s value-chain investments in the FED project on agricultural productivity and profitability, investment and earnings, and quality of life. IDG selected key variables from the 2012 FED baseline survey as well as key Feed the Future indicators to measure the impact of FED on agricultural productivity and profitability.

Read moreabout LEAP II (Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis Project II)

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