Cassava

Summary of 2021 Outcomes:

-NGN 604.65 million/USD 1.47 million in funds leveraged from the public and private sectors by PIND into the cassava value chain

-24,325 cassava farmers reached with information about best agricultural and business practices, quality input, and new technology

-NGN 4.73 billion/USD 1.15 billion in increased income earned by 19,916 cassava farmers

-1,545 new cassava value chain jobs facilitated

PIND's interventions in the cassava value chain in the Niger Delta are designed to improve farmers' productivity and increase income for all sector investors. We partner with agro-input companies, agro-dealers, and suppliers of farm inputs (seeds, fertilizers, insecticides, machinery, etc.) to provide farmers with information, training, and demonstrations that will help increase the yield and quality of their products and their profits. These collaborations also result in increased income for them.

In 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, our farm service providers (FSPs) had to come up with new ways other than physical meetings to reach the farmers. As a result, we explored new platforms such as text/SMS (short message service), social media, and virtual meeting websites. Through these new platforms, farmers continued to receive information on good agricultural practices (GAP) and the support needed to sustain their business.

After the pandemic restrictions were lifted in 2021, we maintained these new platforms and other limited, safety-compliant physical interactions to implement cassava-related activities. By the end of the reporting year, we had reached 24,325 cassava farmers with direct information, and 10,441 additional cassava farmers copied (modeled) the actions of those reached. Furthermore, 1,545 new jobs were created in the cassava value chain. We leveraged NGN 604.65 million/USD 1.47 million of funds into the cassava value chain in the reporting year.

Another way we help cassava farmers to increase their productivity is by enabling their access to high-yielding, disease-resistant, and disease-free improved cassava seeds. In 2020, we signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) on the Building an Economically Sustainable, Integrated Cassava Seed System II (BASICS II) project. The Cassava Seed Entrepreneurship (CSE) project, formerly the Village Seed Entrepreneurship (VSE), was one of the programs that resulted from this partnership. CSEs were trained and onboarded across Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, and Delta States.

Our Cassava Seed Entrepreneurship (CSE) project aims to train farmers as cassava-seed entrepreneurs, who then go on to train other farmers in their communities. In 2020, the 75 entrepreneurs [certified and onboarded into the National Network of Seed Entrepreneurs (NNSE)] were supplied with improved varieties of foundation stems to create multiplication plots. The high-yielding stems came from the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI).

In 2021, the entrepreneurs passed on their knowledge to other farmers, while we onboarded 69 new CSEs. Our strategy to establish a viable commercial cassava seed system in the Niger Delta region also included hosting the Second National Cassava Summit. Our summit partners were BASICS II and the Federal Government of Nigeria's Ministry of Agriculture. The summit was attended by 137 participants representing various national and international organizations that invested in the cassava value chain (from both the private and public sectors).

Furthermore, we attracted more investments, addressed issues around access to land, finance, and markets, and formed partnerships that established outgrower schemes where small-scale farmers are linked directly to bulk buyers. For example, one of our partners, SAEL Global (SG) Nigeria Ltd., leased 2,000- hectare/2.471-acre of farmland in Orhionmwon LGA, in Edo State - to be made available to 400 farmers under its proposed out-grower scheme. In Imo State, Sombreiro Kapital [(SK), a PIND-backed special purpose finance vehicle, and Dufil Prima Foods PLC partnered with us to establish an out-grower scheme on 33 hectares/81.448 acres of land with cassava farmer loan financing from Sterling Bank Plc.

Anybody That Passes Has to Comment

Orji Benjamin, cassava farmer (Imo State, Nigeria)

I was teaching, but now I am retired. Financially challenged, I am now into the full farm business. I am married with children and as I speak to you now, I am inside my farm with my wife and two workers. It all started when we were gathered by one Eneremadu [PIND co-facilitator] from Eziudo Town, Ezinihitte, Imo State. She taught us a lot--even how to clear the farm, weeding, how to plant, and all the rest. Since then, I copied it and copied it vividly. And it has been helping me a lot. The way I am harvesting through the years after the training has automatically changed. People that have been copying from me can actually testify to that. Ever since the training, my system of planting and the number of cassava stems I was planting in a particular range is no longer the same. Then, the way of applying fertilizer has changed…we were even pouring the whole thing on a particular range, thinking that it's the quantity of fertilizer you apply that you will harvest… so I have learned of all those things. When people are passing my cassava farm, they stop to have a view of it. I am telling you, anybody that passes across my farm must comment. Some will even try to take a little bit of my cassava stem.

We Can Find the Improved Cassava Seeds within Our Community…

Ugo Michael Okam, PIND-trained farm service provider (FSP)

PIND sent us for training on seed multiplication at Umudike [the National Root Crops Research Institute's (NRCRI)]. As I came back, I put the training into practice. Now, I am doing better as a cassava farmer. The training has equally spurred me to be a good farm service provider to other farmers. Now, I am a seed multiplication farmer that sells cassava seedlings. Before now, when people were not aware of the improved cassava seed variety, the demand for it was low. But now, the demand is on the increase, and a lot of people are buying good seeds. They have abandoned their old practices of using the local seeds and are now into the practices of using the improved variety, even youth. With this, our major challenge was how to get this improved variety of seedlings. But now, this seed multiplication idea we teach farmers has curtailed our challenge of going far to get this improved variety. We can find it within our community!