Agricultural aggregation

The agricultural aggregation is an model for organizing farmers around private actors or professional organizations with federating and managerial capacities. It makes it possible to overcome constraints related to the fragmentation of landholdings, while ensuring that aggregated farms can benefit from modern production techniques, access financing, and reach both domestic and international markets.

The agricultural aggregation is a win–win partnership between the upstream production sector and the downstream commercial and industrial sector, based on contracts that clearly define the commitments of both parties within the framework of well-identified agricultural aggregation projects.

The agricultural aggregation is governed by a set of legislative and regulatory texts aimed at organizing relations between aggregators and aggregate farmers within the framework of clearly defined agricultural projects. This system seeks to secure transactions between stakeholders, particularly at the commercial level.

To obtain aggregator status, the aggregator must submit an application for approval of its aggregation project, together with a project file, to the Regional Directorate of Agriculture (DRA) where the project is domiciled, for approval by a technical committee. Once the project file has been approved, the aggregator submits, to the same DRA, an additional project file, which will be validated by the said DRA and transmitted to the Agency for Agricultural Development (ADA) for the issuance of aggregation certificates for the benefit of the aggregator and its aggregated farmers.

An aggregated farmer may join an aggregation project by signing an aggregation contract with the aggregator. This contract must include the mandatory clauses defined by Law No. 04-12, in particular:

• The nature of the assistance and technical support provided by the aggregator to its aggregated farmers;
• The price of the production, or the methods for determining the price of the production agreed according to quality;
• The terms and deadlines for payment for the production delivered by the aggregated farmer;
• Recourse to conventional mediation;
• The duration of the contract, which may not be less than five years.

To benefit from this subsidy, aggregated farmers must attach copies of valid aggregation certificates to their subsidy application files. After delivering the production to the aggregator, and in order to benefit from the additional subsidy amount, the aggregated farmers must submit a discharge certificate issued by the aggregator, certifying that the production has been delivered to the aggregator.

In parallel with agricultural aggregation, the Agency for Agricultural Development promotes other organizational models that can contribute to achieving the set objectives, particularly in terms of grouping small producers to improve their access to markets. In this regard, the ADA has launched a call for Productive Alliance projects under the Program to Support the Transformation of Food Systems, financed by the World Bank.

The “Productive Alliance” approach encourages the creation of a partnership between a producer group and a buyer, supported by the State. Once organized, producer groups conclude a commercial agreement with the buyer, based on the business plans developed within the framework of the project. The State plays the role of a partner in the implementation of the project, with the active contribution of the beneficiary groups.

Applicants may consult the call for projects via the following link: