“The objective of the mid-term project review was to take stock of the project progress at midpoint of its implementation and evaluate progress achieved. The Project has taken upon itself a challenging task of addressing some the most important demand and supply side constraints, with some notable progress acheived to date. The Project has developed a comprehensive approach to determine, support and invest in value chains. Engagement of NIRAS that invest time and effort to think about the content, delivery approaches rooted in building local capacity, transferring knowledge and being close to beneficiaries is rather refreshing. This approach seems to have posetively impacted farmers and ACP´s ultimate objective of improving both the commercialisation and knowledge base of small-scale farmers who are in the greatest need for support. Four value chains have already been selected (apricot, milk, apple and lemon) and another two are currently under review, having already covered over 6 000 beneficiaries across three provinces and formalized skill development in the form of designing and delivering Farmer Field School (FFS) that has already provided nearly 30 000 hours of training and advisory services to beneficiaries through national and regional service providers.Overall, training delivery and monitoring is now being implemented at a very high-quality level and should be a point of pride for the Project. Staff of NIRAS (Team Leader and the technical assistance team) are now integral and de-facto part of the PMU (Project Management Unit), allowing for efficient day to day coordination of the activities and troubleshooting.”