Agriculture remains the backbone of Mali’s economy, with 62% of the population employed in the sector. However, smallholder farmers face numerous challenges, including limited access to agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, and improved seeds. These challenges are compounded by high transportation costs and weak input markets, particularly in rural areas.

Village Input Fairs (VIFs) were designed to address these issues by bringing input markets closer to farmers, providing them with opportunities to purchase agricultural inputs through forward contracts and market arrangements, often coupled with microcredit offers.

IPA Mali hosted a networking event to bring together key stakeholders involved in the scaling of VIF in Mali. The event discussed lessons learned from the VIF model, its impact on farmers' agricultural investments, and strategies to enhance input market development. It also served as a platform to explore synergies for future collaborations to scale up the VIF model in other countries such as in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Ghana.