MCC built grain agribusiness centers (ABCs) with processing facilities to help smallholder farmers from beneficiary farmer business organizations (FBOs). However, these facilities are not being utilized by the farmers we intended to help because the farmers cannot recover the transportation and processing costs in the sale of their goods. The ABCs that are profitable are not providing services to the intended beneficiaries. Essentially, MCC built a series of processing centers and turned them over to the private sector. The evaluator provided no clear argument why MCC should give transfers of this kind to the private sector, nor does MCC’s documentation of this investment decision clarify what market failures justified this public subsidy.
Lesson Learned