Under the Resilient Food System (RFS) Programme, UNDP and AGRA co-designed three catalytic grant projects to pilot innovative approaches and model projects to showcase and develop practical methodologies of promoting Green Value Chain Development in East, Southern and West Africa.

In Burkina Faso, the catalytic grant project “Fostering Climate-Resilient Agriculture for Resilient Maize Production Systems for Small-Scale Producers in Burkina Faso (FARMS – BF)” aimed to support the development of a resilient maize value chain. INERA (Burkina Faso’s National Agriculture Research Organization), the catalytic grant awardee, developed and released 30 high-yielding, climate-smart (drought, pest, diseases tolerant) and high nutritional (high protein, provitamin A) maize varieties that are suited to the local social and agroecological conditions. The project connected small-scale producers to the input supply chain systems. To reach the optimum yield of the varieties, the project promoted the adoption of good agronomic practices such as integrated soil fertility management, compost application and postharvest management.

This case study documents the process of the implementation of the catalytic grant project. It puts together key lessons, success and/or failure factors, and outlines the project results as part of the process of documenting and disseminating information that can be used by multiple stakeholders including policy and decision-makers, project developers, funding agencies, and the private sector for widescale application of greening principles in food systems particularly in response to the challenges and impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.