ERIE Feed the Future (FtF) Commodity Production and Market (CPM) Uganda Performance Evaluation

<p dir="ltr">USAID’s Feed the Future (FtF) Commodity Production and Marketing (CPM) Activity implemented in Uganda between 2013 and 2018 intended to enhance agricultural value chains by incentivizing good agricultural practices during cultivation and market sales. This program improved the value chain by facilitating interactions between key actors, exporters, traders and village agents (VAs), and farmers. The intended impact of the CPM Activity is to promote best farming practices and provide resources to buttress the production and sale of beans, coffee, and maize. This study retrospectively evaluates the spillover and sustained impact of the CPM Activity after the closeout in 2018. </p><p dir="ltr">The evaluation team, under the Expanding the Reach of Impact Evaluation (ERIE) activity, aimed to answer two key questions: (1) How did market system changes facilitated by the CPM Activity spill over to affect non-recipient businesses? (2) Have the relationships the CPM Activity facilitated between various market actors been sustained?</p><p dir="ltr">The ERIE team applied a mixed-methods evaluation approach to answer the key research questions. Specifically, the team designed a quantitative assessment of a clustered survey, and qualitative assessments of interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders. In terms of quantitative data collection, three types of surveys were conducted, with each survey focusing on one of the target groups: traders, VAs, and farmers. In terms of qualitative data collection, all four actors of the value chain: exporters, traders, VAs, and farmers. The key information interviews (KIIs) included former CPM participants, as well as some exporters and traders who had not participated in the CPM Activity. Focus groups were conducted with VAs and farmers who participated in the CPM Activity. Interviews were structured, while the focus group discussions (FGD) were semi-structured. The application of mixed- methods metrics was done to maximize the quality of information gathered.</p><p dir="ltr">The evaluation focused on two CPM Activity implementation zones: The West region and the North region. These regions were selected for their outlier characteristics: the number of VAs and farmers in the Western region is the highest among the four regions and the number of VAs and farmers in the Northern region is the lowest. Within each region, the evaluation team selected all the districts for the VA and the farmer surveys. The sample size for each group included: 38 traders, 213 VAs, and 232 farmers.</p><p dir="ltr"><br></p>