The Agriculture Fast Track Fund (AFT), a multi-donor fund contributed by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), has announced an Ongoing Call for Concept Notes for Project Grants.

The period for the Call is from March 1 till March 15, 2016.

The Call for Concept Notes is open to 10 African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania.

“Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the agriculture sector, government agencies preparing agriculture infrastructure projects, non-governmental and civil society organizations such as farmer organizations and agriculture fund managers with clients seeking last mile financing or advisory services to formulate bankable agricultural development proposals are welcome to apply,” said the AFT.

The AFT said it avails about 30% of its funding to the public sector and about 70% to the private sector.

The AFT is a an Agriculture Project Preparation Facility aimed at reducing the cost of project preparation, which project sponsors may otherwise not be willing to offset.

The AFT facilitates preparation of agricultural projects in Africa, especially those aimed at agriculture infrastructure development by providing grants to enhance generation of data and information that improve the quality of project preparation and make them bankable and attractive for funding by Development Finance Institutions, including agricultural finance organizations.

Through this, a pipeline of investment-ready agricultural projects can be developed, also attractive to private sector sponsors.

The AFT will provide grant funding for the initial project development costs of a broad range of agriculture infrastructure projects spanning the entire value chain – from production to market.

The types of projects envisioned range from rural feeder roads to agro-processing and marketing facilities to out-grower schemes.

The emphasis will be on projects that contribute to food security and support to smallholders.

The AFT, which was launched on May 8, 2013 with initial funding amounting to $23.8m, is housed at the Agriculture and Agro-Industry department (OSAN) of the African Development Bank.

The grant application is free and can be submitted via the AFT website (http://www.aftfund.org).