Smallholder farmers are the backbone of rural economies yet remain among the most disconnected from the agricultural service markets they need to grow and thrive. Addressing this gap often involves services, such as business development services (BDS) and a range of financial and nonfinancial support that helps farmers and enterprises succeed. For decades, government extension services have provided these functions, but with a 1-to-2,500 staff-to-farmer ratio, they struggle to reach last-mile producers, and private companies concerned with profit margins face high costs and risks in serving remote, small-scale markets.
As donor funding priorities shift, new business models are taking shape. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) such as input dealers, transporters, aggregators and warehouse operators are exploring options of doing business differently, such as hiring BDS providers to help them access financial products. Lutheran World Relief, a Corus International organization, is advancing this shift through a proven approach that reimagines how services are delivered, who provides them and how value is shared across agricultural systems.
A Next-Generation Approach to BDS
The Producer Enterprise Agent (PEA) model is one of Lutheran World Relief’s responses to the challenge of connecting smallholder farmers to the products, services and opportunities they need. Embedded in remote, farming communities or cooperatives, PEAs are trusted members, selected by their peers and trained by Lutheran World Relief to serve in the role of local service providers. They deliver essential support including technical assistance, market and product pricing information, weather data, and guidance on adopting improved inputs and aggregation practices. They also facilitate financial linkages, connect farmers to buyers and coordinate with government extension agents and private sector partners to ensure services reach producers efficiently and equitably.
The model supports farmers and enterprises throughout the agricultural cycle:
- Pre-season: PEAs support farmers with farmer profiling, soil testing, crop insurance, access to savings and credit, rainfall data, and opportunities to tap into mobile money and quality assurance schemes.
- In-season: PEAs coordinate input supply and correct application, support crop management and inspection for diseases, facilitate financial services, especially mobile money or savings and loans associations, and introduce digital traceability systems for product quality to meet buyers’ requirements.
- Post-season: PEAs assist farmers and farmer cooperatives with collective bulking and traceable commodity sales (cocoa, coffee, sesame, high value horticulture) and help cooperatives meet new buyers and negotiate favorable buyer contracts.
By embedding these services at the cooperative level, the PEA model turns traditional government extension services, which previously were agricultural production focused, into something broader and encompassing public, private and community actors.
Lutheran World Relief's Producer Enterprise Agent (PEA) Model
Decades of Impact in the Field
With more than a decade of experience implementing the PEA model across Africa, Latin America and Asia, Lutheran World Relief has reached more than 225,000 producers through its projects. The model has proven adaptable and effective across value chains and geographies.
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food for Progress Sesame Marketing and Export (SesaME) Project in Burkina Faso trained 450 PEAs to deliver technical support, collect production data, and train farmers on improved practices. Despite insecurity and displacement, the approach enabled sesame exports to reach markets as far as Japan.
- The 12/12 Alliance Project in Niger used digital tools for farmer registration, rainfall tracking and real-time market data, reaching 16,000 producers and strengthening decision-making.
- Through the USDA Food for Progress Maximizing Opportunities in Coffee and Cacao in the Americas (MOCCA) Project in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Peru, Lutheran World Relief applied the PEA model to strengthen local extension capacity and connect coffee and cocoa farmers to finance and markets.
- The USDA Food for Progress Promotion of Horticultural Sectors in Togo (PROFIT) Project trains 30,000 producers in horticulture, improves food safety and increases access to finance through microcredit institutions, with PEAs serving as the critical link between farmers and buyers.
- In Uganda and Nigeria, adoption of PEA-led services has increased productivity by an average of 25 percent and significantly improved access to formal markets.
Maria Luisa Tiul Ico, a cacao farmer and part of the leadership of the ADIOESMAC cooperative in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala which has been supported by Lutheran World Relief’s MOCCA programming.
Building a Path to Sustainability
To date, projects have supported initial PEA training, the use of digital tools and the establishment of agricultural demonstration plots. Many agents have earned recognition from their communities and local SMEs, becoming independent service providers for farmers and cooperatives. They generate income through commission-based agro-input sales, quality control services for buyers and by offering aggregation and storage for both farmers and purchasers. PEAs also help establish cooperative-buyer contracts and facilitate buyer linkages. As demand grows, PEA services are expanding beyond project participants to reach more last-mile farmers within local economies.
As one agent in Burkina Faso described, “I have seen in different regions the increase in demand for PEA services, not only among project participants, but also among non-project sesame producers.”
This organic growth signals the potential for market-driven sustainability as farmers and cooperatives increasingly recognize the value of embedded market services and BDS.
Empowering Women and Youth as Market Leaders
One of the most transformative impacts of the PEA model is how women and youth are not left behind with the approach. Lutheran World Relief intentionally works with agricultural communities to identify and recruit young people and women into these roles, recognizing the peer-to-peer benefits of youth working with other youth to accelerate technology adoption and foster innovation. For many women, serving as a PEA is their first leadership opportunity, one they take seriously as they become respected advisors in their communities.
Youth PEAs bring valuable digital skills and entrepreneurial energy. They use mobile platforms for field mapping, data collection, and market linkages, helping to modernize agricultural systems. These roles provide income and develop career pathways that help reduce migration and unlock the next generation of agricultural leaders.
PEA Blaise Tianhoun uses the TaroWorks app on his mobile phone to train sesame farmer Kanko Jeanne Coulibali in Mouhoun Province, Burkina Faso, as part of Lutheran World Relief’s SesaME project. (Jake Lyell for LWR)
A Future-Ready Model for Market Systems
The PEA model is more than a way to deliver agricultural services. By integrating digital tools, empowering new leaders and embedding services within cooperative structures, Lutheran World Relief is demonstrating that when support is trusted, accessible and community-owned, it not only helps farmers grow more crops, it transforms rural economies.
As conversations evolve around the future of service markets and BDS, from cost recovery to quality standards, Lutheran World Relief’s PEA model offers a real-world example of how last-mile service delivery in fragile contexts can evolve to meet the changing needs of smallholder farmers and the markets and strengthen agricultural markets.