Input Trade Fairs (ITFs) are a mechanism for providing poor and vulnerable farm families access to farm inputs, especially certified seed, in the wake of a disaster such as drought or floods that has destroyed their ability to restart agricultural production in the next season. In Mozambique ITFs are considered a response to emergencies rather than a vehicle for ameliorating chronic vulnerability, nevertheless they provide a model that could apply equally to either objective. The basic format is to provide beneficiaries with a voucher of a given cash value that can be used to buy farm inputs at an input fair to which traders have been invited at a specific date and place. The fair typically lasts just one day, but provides a market place that can be attended by any number of buyers and sellers of inputs, farm produce and consumer goods in addition to those traders registered to receive vouchers from beneficiaries.

ITFs in Mozambique are organised by the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG) and Provincial and District Directorates of Agriculture in partnership with FAO. Pilot ITFs were tried out in 2001, in the wake of the severe floods of the 2000-01 agricultural season, and they have subsequently been organised every year since 2003. Between 2003 and 2007, a total of 323 fairs were organized covering 266,030 beneficiaries mainly in the seven provinces of Maputo, Gaza, Inhambane, Tete, Manica, Sofala and Cabo Delgado. The total budgetary cost of ITFs in Mozambique in this period has been of the order of US$3.3 million. The value of the voucher transferred to beneficiaries was 180 Mtn (US$7) in 2003-05, rising to 190 Mtn (US$8) then 300 Mtn (US$12), in 2006, and 400 Mtn (US$15) in 2007. In order to provoke a sense of personal ‘ownership’ of vouchers, beneficiaries are expected to pay a nominal amount for them (20 Mtn)