Middlemen take all the profit, while the poor  farmers are left with all the losses". This is a familiar complaint heard again and again at   all forums, where farmers have any repre     sentation. Unfortunately, Middlemen are a necessary part of the value chain and cannot be eliminated totally. Agribusiness Support Fund (a Matching Grant Fund) and LASOONA (a NGO working in Swat & Dir) have been working to increase the incomes of rural farmers through different market led initiatives. In other words, we asked them, what they wanted to do and how they wanted to do it and provided them with the financial & managerial resources to accomplish their objective. Our philosophy was, to minimize the role of middlemen as much as possible and allow the market forces to work for the poor. The results have been spectacular. The Farmers Enterprise Group: Onion and Strawberry Farmers' Enterprise Group Dureshkhela is composed of 18 rural farmers, who grow Onion and Strawberry Runners on a commercial scale. Collectively they produce 4,069 bags (80 Kgs each) of Onions and 8,600,000 runners of Strawberry. Before ASF & LASOONA support, the farmers used to market their produce individually to different buyers in local as well as distant markets like Rawalpindi and Lahore. The results were highly discouraging for the farmers. Individually these farmers had limited produce, so the Commission Agents in the distant markets purchased the produce (onions) at low rates. They also lacked information about potential buyers of Strawberry Runners in the distant markets (the area is climatically ideal for it and they are further transported to Punjab and Sindh for fruit production). Therefore, the farmers were forced to sell their Runners to local Commission Agents at very low prices (they didn't have any bargaining power). The Catalyst Role: LASOONA with financial support of ASF formed the Group and they Group, then applied for a Grant from ASF for an Exposure Visit, Market Linkages Development and Assistance in transportation of the Onions to new markets, where linkages had already been developed. The Grant was approved. Marketing for Rural Enterprises on a Self Help Basis: The Group Members visited Lahore for developing market linkages for Onions. The Group Members met a few Commission Agents and presented themselves as representing a Group of Farmers, who can supply Onions in bulk quantities. The results were astonishing and are as follows: a. VIP Treatment by the Commission Agents for the Group Members including a Chauffer Driven Car for visit to ASF Office. b. Free accommodation for the whole period of their stay in Lahore. c. Promise of better prices. d. Readiness to give the Group Members Credit, if needed in future. The Group inked an agreement with one Commission Agent and transported their Onions to Lahore with assistance from ASF. The Sale Price received this time Per Bag was Rs. 1,000/ and the Price Per Kg was Rs 12.50/-. Previously, the Group Members received a Price Per Bag of Rs 550/- or Rs 7 Per Kg. In addition, the Commission Rate charged by the Commission Agent was also reduced. The Group Members also visited other markets. However, in Lahore, they met two Buyers (Chaudhry Rahat Ali from Lahore and Haji Noor from Sakhar) to develop linkages for sale of Strawberry Runners. The results here were also promising: a. Chahdhry Rahat Ali promised to buy runners on better prices. Haji Noor was very interested in entering in to a contract with them for bulk purchase of strawberry runners in the next season. b. The Group Members came back to the village and shared their experiences with other farmers. This had an unintended consequence. The local Commission Agents found out about the buyers of Strawberry runners and made the following offer to the Group Members. They would buy each Strawberry Runner for 25 paisa per runner. Previously, they had paid a maximum price of 10 paisa / runner to the common farmers of the area. Thus, they were forced to increase purchase prices for the whole area. The Future: The Group, though they sold their Runners locally this time, they plan to sell their Runners at National Level next time around to the final users instead of using the middlemen. The Group also plans to keep on marketing their produce collectively and follow up on the contacts made in both Sindh as well as Punjab. In this regard, they have made a collective Business Card. The unexpected economic return on their investment has allowed the Group to carry out further activities without any further support from ASF or LASOONA. Future plans include collective purchase of different inputs for their horticulture activities and thus reduce their production costs. A Few Thoughts: From a Marketing perspective, this was marketing at its best for rural enterprises. They did the most basic of market research by going to different markets and asking about prices, quantities & packaging from different buyers and promoted themselves as potential suppliers. They then developed the product accordingly and made it available at a price and place favourable to both parties in the transaction. For ASF and LASOONA, the amazing thing was that their investment in this intervention was so low. The total amount provided by ASF in forming the Group and as a Matching Grant to the Group was under 200,000 Rs. However, the 200,000 Rs support led to an increase of 3,121,050 Rs in Revenues of the Group from existing production. In other words, the 200,000 Rs investment returned 15 Times the amount or 173,392 Rs for every member of the Group. Finally, ASF provides matching grants to enterprises and Farmers Groups. So the resources dwarfed our investment pooled by the Group itself for this initiative. All it needed was a small amount of money to purchase a lot of knowledge, somebody to act as a catalyst and a willingness to work together for the mutual benefit of all.