Our People .
Agricultural Value Chain Improvement and Marketing Expert Robert Anyang
Robert Anyang is an agricultural value chain improvement and marketing expert with more than 20 years of experience applying the facilitative approach to market systems and value chain development. He served as agriculture and food security advisor for Chemonics’ Eastern and Southern Africa regional business unit. Previously, Robert was chief of party for USAID’s Feed the Future Uganda Commodity Production and Marketing Activity, which developed a national supply chain model that delivers production and marketing services to 460,000 farmers. He has extensive experience advancing public-private partnerships in Africa, incubating youth-owned businesses, and expanding smallholder farmers’ access to markets, finance, production, and post-harvest technologies across the continent. Robert has previously led activities to deploy digital technologies to enhance extension, market information, and financial services. He holds advanced degrees in agronomy, rural development, crop production, and horticulture from Kenyatta University, the Federal University of Technology, and Lagos State Polytechnic.
by Robert Anyang
Development Works Here with Robert Anyang
We’d like you to meet Robert Anyang! Robert is an agricultural value chain improvement and marketing expert. With extensive experience advancing public-private partnerships, incubating youth-owned businesses, and expanding farmers’ access to markets, Robert shares how he was destined for his current career. Robert is one reason #DevelopmentWorksHere. 1. Can you tell us about your journey…
Fostering Youth-Led Farmer Services Enterprises in Uganda
Uganda has the world’s second-youngest population with 8 million youth aged 15 to 30 and a growing job gap: Each year 400,000 youth enter the labor market and compete for 80,000 formal jobs. With a high population growth rate, job seekers are expected to reach 48 million by 2040. Reliant on agriculture, Uganda sits at…
Services On Wheels: Transforming Uganda’s Maize Market
In Uganda’s agricultural market system, the maize sub-sector is vital to national, community, and household food security. Uganda is the third-largest exporter of maize in Africa and second in maize flour, with exports dominating formal and informal export markets in East Africa, especially Kenya and South Sudan. A major issue for value chain actors, from…
Re-imagining the Small-Scale Trader in Ugandan Value Chains
Middleman — the very term itself is associated with extra hoops to jump through, farmers being cheated, and limited value being offered to farmers and value chains generally. The idea of cutting out the middleman is frequently thought of as a selling point, casting these intermediaries as the “bad guys” of the value chain, worth…
3 Questions with Robert Anyang: Feeding the Next Generation in Uganda
Youth engagement in agriculture is an important component of many agricultural development programs. Why is it so important to reach youth? Firstly, the current population that’s engaged in agriculture in Uganda has an average age of around 65 years old. As that population stops farming in the next five to 10 years, who will feed…
Chasing the $42-Per-Farmer Dream: How Youth Are Making Money With ICT in Agriculture
Uganda has the world’s youngest population with over 78 percent of its population below the age of 30. Though the country also has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, many of Uganda’s young adults have limited interest in pursuing careers in agriculture because they see it as a subsistence livelihood, or…