As the world’s largest humanitarian agency, World Food Programme  (WFP) is a major buyer of staple food. In 2011, WFP bought US$1.23 billion worth of food – more than 70 percent of this in developing countries. With the Purchase the Progress (P4P) initiative, WFP is taking this one step further. P4P uses WFP’s purchasing power and its expertise in logistics and food quality to offer smallholder farmers opportunities to access agricultural markets, to become competitive players in those markets and thus to improve their lives.

The five-year pilot initiative links WFP’s demand for staple food in 21 countries with the expertise of a host of partners who support farmers to produce food surpluses and sell them at a fair price.