F.3 Number of smallholder farmer aggregation systems supported by type of support

F.3 Number of smallholder farmer aggregation systems supported by type of support

VERSION

V6.0 - 2026.03 — Existing with revisions

INDICATOR CODE

F.3

TECHNICAL OWNER

PRG-R

INDICATOR TYPE

Country Level Output Indicator

INDICATOR CLASSIFICATION

Complementary

INDICATOR SCOPE

Programme specific

APPLICABILITY

This indicator applies to WFP value chain development work (aka Smallholder Agricultural Market Support – SAMS), combining procurement and programmatic activities along the value chain to promote improved access to stable and remunerative markets for targeted smallholder farmers. Interventions include but are not limited to: support to smallholder capacity to access productive input and equipment; support to post-harvest loss reduction and processing; capacity strengthening of smallholder aggregation systems; promotion of market access; capacity strengthening of value chain actors, including access to finance and digitalization.

The selection of this indicator is recommended against the following sub-activities in CSPs logframes. Selection of the below sub-activities will NOT trigger the mandatory selection of this indicator:

Smallholder agricultural market support (SMS)
Savings and loans associations (SLA)

UNIT OF MEASUREMENT & ANALYSIS

Number

DEFINITION

This indicator measures the number of smallholder farmer aggregation systems supported by the programme, and the type of support provided, in the form of training and/or access to agricultural inputs and/or post-harvest equipment and/or infrastructure.

Smallholder farmer aggregation systems or aggregators¹: any organization that aggregates, or has the potential to aggregate, smallholder farmers’ commodities in order to facilitate their sale to formal buyers at favourable conditions.

Aggregation systems encompass a variety of organizations to which smallholder farmers have access at local, district, and national levels. These organizations are either formal (i.e. legally registered) or informal, and membership should be voluntary. Providing market access to smallholder farmers at favourable conditions should be one of the main objectives of these organizations. In addition, they are likely to provide a range of services to their members, such as facilitating access to inputs, access to credit, improved post-harvest handling, etc.

Two key types of organizations are expected to play a complementary role in linking smallholder farmers to formal markets, and both are considered aggregation systems:

Direct outlets to which smallholders contribute their production, including small and medium-sized farmers’ organizations, small traders, agro dealers handling output aggregation, small-scale certified warehouses and Satellite Collection Points; and
Intermediary aggregators, including large farmers’ organizations (unions or federations), medium to large traders, large-scale processors, agro dealers handling output aggregation and private service providers and larger warehouse certified warehouses.

The indicator measures the following ten types of aggregation systems:

Type of aggregation systems	Definition
Farmers' organizations	Farmers’ organizations encompass a variety of farmer groups formed at local, district, and national levels, which are either formal (i.e. registered) or informal, are voluntary and self-governing, and have a purpose of economic cooperation for the benefit of all their affiliated individual members.
Cooperatives	An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a cooperative in which farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity. A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between agricultural service cooperatives, which provide various services to their
Unions/federations	Higher level umbrella organizations, typically set at a higher administrative division (e.g. district, region) or at national level, comprising lower level group of farmers. Typically having higher capacity, officially registered with the national authority, and comprising a greater membership.
Farmer groups	Any sort of group of farmers that may gather together for several purposes, from production to marketing. Typically less formal than other typologies, set at lower administrative division (e.g. county, village etc.), having lower capacity and comprising a smaller membership.
Farmer service centers	Farmer Service Centers (FCSs) act as key hubs in the farming community, run by rural entrepreneurs, aggregators, farmer groups or cooperatives. They are at the core of the Farm to Market Alliance model (FtMA) and they have several income streams: agricultural inputs sales & services, mechanization services, financial services, markets, and climate-smart tech products & services.
Saving associations	Savings groups or associations are self-managed groups of individual members from within a community who meet regularly to save their money in a safe space, access small loans and obtain emergency insurance.
Warehouse receipt systems	Warehouse Receipt System features a network of licensed, professionally-run warehouses where commodities can be deposited and withdrawn according to specific regulations. Warehouse operators ensure the safety and integrity of the stored goods, while delivering a range of services to depositors, including quality enhancement, brokering, and price discovery. The system involve the issuing of documents, Warehouse Receipts (WR), as evidence that specified commodities of stated quantity and quality have been deposited at a particular location by a named depositor(s). Depositors may be a producer, a farmer group, a trader, an exporter, a processor or indeed any individual or corporate body.
Satellite collection points	Small-scale warehouse facilities set up to enable the aggregation of commodities and collective sales to both WFP and other markets.
Traders	Individuals or small, medium or large enterprises who engage in the transfer of products in any market, either for themselves, or on behalf of someone else. Typically, traders tend to hold products for short periods of time. The same aggregator type is also available under indicator F.7. Number of other value chain actors supported, under code F.7.2. Traders should be reported under F.3 when they actively offer services to the farmers (e.g., fair marketing, inputs, financial services, post-harvest management services, etc.).
Agro-dealers	Established private sector retail and wholesale business traders of farm inputs and other agro-chemicals.

Supported by type of support: refers to smallholder farmer aggregation systems that have participated in a training activity and/or that have benefitted from access to physical items, such as agricultural inputs, equipment and/or infrastructure, to support production and/or post-harvest management practices.

The support can be received either directly through the WFP staff or indirectly through cooperating partners. The duration of this support will vary for each country based on the approaches used to support smallholder farmers.

Training: refers to activities that involve the transfer of knowledge, skills and practices with the aim of strengthening the smallholder farmer’s capacity to improve production, handing of produce, participation in markets, leadership and governance practices and access to finance. The training use resources or curricula designed or developed by recognized institutions or cooperating partners, government or WFP staff that have experience and expertise in agriculture transformation. The training’s duration is guided by the training resources.

The indicator captures the following three training topics:

Training topic	Definition
Training in post-harvest management principles and practices	Post-harvest management principles are universal fundamental theories or concepts that guide how commodities should be handled to manage quality and quantity along value chains, from harvesting up until the commodity is utilized. Post-harvest management practices are activities carried out at different post-harvest stages that take into consideration or apply the post-harvest principles to manage the quality and quantity of commodities, e.g., storage methods like using hermetic bags. Knowledge and adoption of appropriate post-harvest management principles and practices are essential to reduce post-harvest losses.
Training in marketing and business skills	Marketing and business skills: training sessions under this module can include but are not limited to: basic accounting, production and business planning, budgeting, establishment of sales targets, profit margins, prices and break-even costs, management of funds, identification and outreach of buyers, negotiation skills etc.
Training in governance and leadership	Governance and leadership: training sessions under this module can include but are not limited to: group formation and administration, obtainment of legal registration, definition of vision, rules and regulations, establishment of internal control mechanisms, communication processes, group dynamics, formation of leadership structures and appropriate representation and participation of women, fiscal responsibility and accountability, basic skills on numeracy and literacy as well as on record keeping and analysis

The indicator captures access to the following items:

Inputs, equipment, and infrastructure refer to inputs, machinery, devices and facilities promoted for the smallholder farmers to improve production and post-harvest management practices.

Agricultural inputs to be considered for this indicator can include but are not limited to: seeds² and production and harvesting equipment, such as ploughs, planters, knapsacks, irrigation sprinklers, water pumps, reapers, mini-combine harvesters, brush harvester, portable cutter, potato digger etc.

Post-harvest equipment to be captured under this indicator can include but are not limited to: moisture meters, metal and plastic silos, hermetic bags, tarpaulins, combine harvesters, grain threshers, grain sorters, shellers, extruders, collapsible dry cases, and sampling spears, carts, wheelbarrows etc.

Post-harvest infrastructure refers to immovable physical facilities and can include but are not limited to: granaries, drying hangars, warehouses, drying platforms, charcoal evaporative coolers, etc.

RATIONALE

Engaging aggregation systems is the most effective way for value chain actors to reach smallholder farmers. Aggregators help farmers mitigate their constraints, strengthen their bargaining power, achieve economies of scale, build household capacities and access inputs and services.

For this reason, supporting farmers to establish formal aggregation system or strengthening the capacity of existing ones are important components of value chain development and smallholder market support programmes.

Measuring the number of aggregation systems supported gives important indication of the programme’s scale and the ability of the programme to sustain, expand or decrease year by year the capacity strengthening efforts targeted at the aggregation systems. The breakdown by type of support illustrates which are the areas that WFP is promoting the most (and the least) through capacity strengthening activities at the smallholder farmer aggregation system level.

DATA SOURCE

Data on this indicator can be extracted from aggregation systems records, training records and inputs/equipment/infrastructure records of the aggregation systems supported, maintained by cooperating partners or by WFP country office, depending on the country context.

Module 0: Aggregator info of the Aggregator Records database can be used to collect and analyse the data for this indicator.

INDICATOR CALCULATION FOR REPORTING

Depending on applicability, the indicator values can be reported for ten different types of aggregation system and for four different types of support (see “Data entry and disaggregation field for more information”). The values (planned and actuals) are displayed for each reported type in the annual country report.

DATA ENTRY AND DISAGGREGATION IN CORPORATE SYSTEMS

Each reporting year, data is entered into COMET Other output plan (Planned) and Completion Reports (Actuals).

Planned and Actual values are reported by:

Sub-activity
Location

The indicator has a list of ten different types of aggregation systems and four different types of support. It is mandatory to report a value for at least one type of aggregation system and at least one type of support per aggregation system selected, if the indicator was selected in the Logframe. For each row, if a value is reported against “type of support”, a value against “type of aggregation system” must be reported as well and the other way around. COs should select any of those ten types of aggregation systems and any of those four types of support that are most relevant to their context. Each aggregation system supported should be recorded only once, under one single type of aggregation system, to avoid double counting .

Type of aggregation system		Type of support
Type of aggregation system	Total number of aggregation systems	Training in post-harvest management principles and practices	Training in marketing and business skills	Training in governance and leadership	Access agricultural inputs and/or post-harvest equipment and/or infrastructure
Farmers' organizations
Cooperatives
Unions/federations
Farmer groups
Farmer service centers
Saving associations
Warehouse receipt systems
Satellite collection points
Traders
Agro-dealers
Total

The value inserted in each “type of support” column cannot be higher than the value inserted in each row under the “total number of aggregation system” column.

To report on total values, the system will aggregate only values in columns. Values in rows cannot be aggregated, or it may result in double counting aggregation systems receiving multiple types of support.

The aggregation system types were devised based on the most common typologies of aggregation systems that WFP and cooperating partners work with and are by no means exhaustive or mutually exclusive.

PLANNED FIGURES

The planned figures should be based on realistic estimations of the number of smallholder farmer aggregation systems reached with programmatic support.

Planned figures are estimated in the first quarter of the first year of CSP/ICSP implementation for the duration of the CSP and inserted in the COMET Other Output Plan (OOP).

For each subsequent years, the planned figures can be revisited in the first quarter of the current reporting year.

FREQUENCY OF DATA COLLECTION

Based on each country’s programme approach, data for this indicator can be collected monthly, quarterly, biannually or annually in COMET completion reports.

Each CO can decide on how to collect data for these indicators; this may be directly or with the support of a cooperating partner (CP). If through a cooperating partner, the CO will agree with the CP on frequency of data collection and submission to WFP.

INTERPRETATION

The indicator shows how many smallholder aggregation systems benefit from programmatic support and are potentially able to improve service provision to their members. The indicator also shows the capacity strengthening areas that WFP and partners are promoting.

REPORTING EXAMPLE(S)

“In 2026 a total of 35 smallholder farmers aggregation systems was supported in the northern and southern regions of the country. Among these systems, 20 farmers’ organizations were supported with training in post-harvest management and principles and access to post-harvest management equipment (hermetic bags); 12 farmer groups received training in marketing and business skills and 3 cooperatives were supported to access agricultural inputs, as part of a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture”.

Type of aggregation system	Total number of aggregation systems	Type of support
Type of aggregation system	Total number of aggregation systems	Training in post-harvest management principles and practices	Training in marketing and business skills	Training in governance and leadership	Access agricultural inputs and/or post-harvest equipment and/or infrastructure
Farmers' organizations	20	20			20
Cooperatives	3				3
Farmer groups	12		12
Total	35	20	12		23

N.B: When reporting data, it is recommended to present only total values displayed in columns. It is recommended not to aggregate values in rows, or it may result in double counting aggregation systems receiving multiple types of support.

INDICATORS COLLECTED & ANALYSED AT THE SAME TIME

The following output indicators must be reported along with this indicator:

T.1 Number of people (Tier 1) receiving direct food/cash-based/commodity vouchers/individual capacity strengthening transfers (disaggregated by sex, age group, residence status, modality and activity) (SMS sub-activity)
T.2 Number of people indirectly benefiting (Tier 2) from an asset, knowledge and capacity, commodities or services delivered through WFP programmes (SMS sub-activity).

In addition, as applicable, the following output indicators may be reported along with this indicator:

To assess the medium and long-term effect of the output results, as applicable, it is recommended to report on the following outcome indicators:

VISUALIZATION

N/A

LIMITATIONS

The indicator reports the number of aggregation systems supported by type of support, but does not measure the increased or decreased capacity of the aggregation system, as a result of the support. Also, the indicator does not show if the aggregation systems are effectively practicing the new skills acquired or using appropriately the inputs, equipment or infrastructure provided.

This information can be evidenced by the Outcome indicators (mentioned above) and Activity Implementation Monitoring³.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Implement Aggregator Records for SAMS activities

GN on implementing aggregator records for SAMS activities

Aggregator Records database

SAMS Programme Guidance Manual (PGM)

SAMS Activity Implementation Monitoring tool: Full survey, Survey preview and Process Monitoring Data Collection Tools and Resources of the VAM Resource Centre.

For any further information, please contact HQ.SAMS@wfp.org.

¹The terms aggregation systems and aggregators are used interchangeably in this indicator methodological note.
²N.B: WFP’s Strategic Plan (2026-2029) explicitly deemphasizes activities related to production (including through the provision of input such seeds, livestock or agrochemicals), identifying these as outside WFP’s comparative advantage. In this context, WFP Country Offices should not engage in input selection and distribution. Rather, when critical to the sustainability and success of WFP’s interventions, WFP should act as a connector, working with qualified partners to ensure the smallholders have access to appropriate and quality inputs (especially seeds).
³For activity implementation monitoring related to SMS sub-activity (SAMS programmes) please refer to these links: Full survey, Survey preview and Process Monitoring Data Collection Tools and Resources of the VAM Resource Centre.

Documentation Index

F.3 Number of smallholder farmer aggregation systems supported by type of support