Kirk Ramer

Kirk Ramer has over 25 years of experience managing projects to promote agricultural and small-and medium-sized enterprise development in southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. He is currently the chief of party of the Agribusiness Development Activity (ADA) in Uzbekistan. Kirk has worked to promote trade and investment and improve business education, microfinance, and…

4 Best Practices to Make Agriculture Insurance More Available and Affordable

This post originally appeared on Agrilinks. Farming is a risky livelihood throughout the world. But for smallholder farmers in particular, productivity and food security are defined by risk. “Good years” are defined by adequate rains, and “bad years” by drought. In Uganda, where 70 percent of the population is employed in the agricultural sector, the…

Can a Competition Create Space for Learning? Three Design Factors to Consider

This post originally appeared on Marketlinks. Development practitioners are often innovating, piloting, and problem-solving — but sometimes these initiatives have a hard time getting disseminated past the project annual report. At Chemonics, the Economic Growth and Trade Practice and the Education and Youth Practice joined forces to kick off 2018 with the launch of our…

Final Report: Maximizing Agricultural Revenue and Key Enterprises in Targeted Sites II

MARKETS II supported the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative, the government of Nigeria’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), and its succeeding Agriculture Promotion Policy 2016 – 2020 (also known as the Green Alternative). Through a market-demand value chain orientation, the project focused on the large population of smallholders with between 1 to 5 hectares of…

News: Looking to the Future of Digital Development

Which digital tools show the greatest promise to maximize development impact around the world? How can organizations and governments make sure that these tools are part of an inclusive approach to development? These are the kinds of questions that participants will discuss at the Digital Development Forum: The Next 10 Years event, hosted by USAID…

Thinking and Working Politically to Strengthen Agricultural Market Systems

Down-and-dirty politics and political roadblocks have thwarted the success of agricultural development projects for decades. To achieve greater success, we need to consider how we can better understand and break down such blocks. Whether we like it or not, international development efforts are inherently political. Within the agriculture sector, the relationships and power dynamics among…

Marcos Moreno

Marcos Moreno is the chief of party for the Feed the Future Bangladesh Horticulture, Fruits and Non-Food Crops Activity. He is an agriculture and youth development expert with more than 30 years of experience, including 20 years at senior management levels, creating sustainable economic opportunities for the next generation via agribusiness development projects in East…

Establishing a Land Market in Tajikistan

During the last 10 years, Tajikistan has made great strides in reforming land legislation and increasing knowledge of land-use rights within rural communities. The Feed the Future Tajikistan Land Market Development Activity supported the next wave of reforms by establishing a functional agricultural land market that ensures the orderly transfer of land-use rights in the…

Cultivating Moldova’s Historical Wine Sector

Wine is of significant importance to the Moldovan economy because it is one of the only products exported with its full value chain completed in-country and high employability in rural areas. The Moldovan wine sector has opened new markets and reoriented exports to the EU, China, and the U.S. by organizing promotion activities. The ‘Wine…

Katy Tchumburidze

Katy Tchumburidze has 22 years of experience technical and high managerial expertise in value chain and private sector competitiveness interventions, entrepreneurship promotion and micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) development, business development services, and MSME financing. Katy is currently the chief of party for the USAID Zrda Activity in Georgia that promotes inclusive and sustainable…