The Consumer Price Index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveals that since April 2020, headline food inflation in Nigeria has hovered above 15%, getting as high as 22.95% around March 2021. In the month of April 2022, food inflation rose to 18.37%, an increase compared to 17.2% recorded in the month of March. According to the NBS, this rise was attributable to increases in the prices of food products like bread, tubers like potatoes and yam, and others such as wine, fish, meat, and oils. Compared to last year’s prices, the price of beans has increased by over 50%, Garri by over 20%, and tomatoes by over 45%. A survey carried out by the NBS showed that at least 8 out of every 10 Nigerian households were worried about these rising food prices.

The challenge now is that based on various indices, the worst isn’t over and food prices are still set to increase in the year 2022 particularly in the wake of additional global economic disruptions such as the Russia-Ukraine crisis and global oil price challenges. Here’s a rundown of what you need to know about the overall causes of food price hikes this year.

Transportation cost is one of the major causes of food inflation in Nigeria and this has recently been exacerbated by the price increases in diesel which, being unsubsidized, moves in the direction of the global energy market. In the early months of this year, diesel witnessed over 100% increase from what it sold at around January-March 2021. Rising energy costs and limited access to power also directly affects the high cost of warehousing. From electricity tariffs being increased following the removal of electricity subsidy to a potential removal of fuel subsidy, we expect these rising input costs to directly cause the overall price of food to go up.

Russia and Ukraine happen to be large players in the global commodities market with both countries accounting for around a quarter of global wheat exports. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Russia ships a total of 32.9mn tonnes of wheat and meslin (in product weight), or the equivalent of 18% of global shipments. In 2021, Ukraine was the fifth largest wheat exporter, exporting 20mn tonnes of wheat and meslin, with a 10% global market share. Since the invasion of the Russian military in Ukraine, the price of wheat has surged globally. In Nigeria, where wheat is the 3rd most consumed grain, the potential impact on the price of staple foods isn’t favourable. According to the Flour Milling Association of Nigeria (FMAN), “45 per cent of the food variants served in Nigerian homes are wheat derivatives, and account for 75 million of the daily food portions in Nigerian households.”

Prices of various grains have since reached high levels in the past few months. While international grain producers are ramping up efforts to close supply gaps and governments are trying to increase local production, their efforts will not be able to swiftly mitigate the already high costs of these commodities. This comes at a period where there is already rising demand for grains in China and India. The flour milling industry plays a significant role in providing Nigeria’s ever-growing population access to relatively cheaper staple foods; in a country that is already suffering food shortages, these disruptions could worsen poverty and hunger levels.

The average price of a 50kg bag of NPK fertilizer which is primarily used by smallholder farmers in Nigeria has surged by 112.5 percent to N17,000 from N8,000 in 2021, according to BusinessDay reports. Additionally, the price of a 50kg bag of urea fertilizer has also increased by a whopping 183 percent from an average of N6,000 last year to N17,000. This came first as a result of the value chain disruptions faced by some of the largest fertilizer producers during and following the COVID-19 pandemic.

These challenges have further been worsened by the Russia-Ukraine crisis which limited shipments from the Black Sea region. Russia currently stands as the world’s largest fertilizer producer. In wake of the crisis, its industry and trade ministry suspended the exportation of fertilizers. The importation of Potash — a key raw material input for fertilizer production was significantly affected.

Before Ukraine’s invasion, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) had placed an order for about 90,000 tons of potash from Russia. Four inbound vessels containing over 70,000 metric tons got trapped. Given the following, it is no surprise that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations predicts that these higher input prices will reduce outputs in the 2022/23 crop season; price increases are also imminent.

Insecurity in Nigeria is also one of the key issues that affect food prices. Terrorist groups lower the ability of farming communities to produce optimally. Banditry and kidnapping have curbed and sometimes, completely stopped farming activities in some core agricultural producing areas, all of which have increased food shortages.

Farmers are finding it difficult to carry out farming activities in insecure environments, farming communities are displaced and access to regional markets are blocked due to incessant attacks. These challenges are set to affect food supply in Africa including within Nigeria, leading to an overall increase in prices with a disproportionate impact on poorer households.

Other challenges include the avian flu outbreaks in the poultry sector as well as import restrictions which are raising local prices.

Another core challenge that has contributed to the increasing prices of food is exchange rate uncertainty. With various input materials for agro-based products being imported, the current challenge of limited foreign exchange (FX) supply in the country and the reducing value of the Naira have and will continue to affect the final prices of food. This is because when exchange rate fluctuates, agribusinesses need to pay more for the same input quantity, and with no provision for supply, they are left with no choice than to source for FX themselves thereby piling up pressure on agricultural products and ultimately leading to a transfer on the final prices of food products.

Way Out?

To mitigate these, there is an ardent need for increased value chain investments, better methods for transportation, increased use of technology, amongst others. Local market structures need to be strengthened and a basket of activities that give farmers better access to the market could also reduce losses and bridge supply gaps.

With population expanding and an increase in demand for food particularly in urban areas where subsistence farming is seldom practised, global disruptions are expected to still impact food supply and rising prices may continue over the medium term. With the upcoming Nigerian elections also set to pile up liquidity pressures, the outlook for inflation is bleak. However, it is pertinent to note that periods of the greatest challenges often birth some of the greatest opportunities. On one hand, there are now more opportunities in the food commodities trading space given these price hikes and on the other, the overall outlook for Africa’s Agribusiness is still positive. Consumers simply need to move from mere consumption to being a part of its opportunity-filled value chain to hedge against these pressures.

Five Reasons Why The Price Of Food Is On The Rise was originally published in Hectare on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you were to produce a reel of how Agriculture contributes to the economy of Nigeria, the famous story of the groundnut pyramids would definitely take up a major part of that reel.

While Sesamum seeds, Maize grains, cocoa beans, or cashew nuts account for the Agriculture export revenue in Nigeria at the moment, groundnut accounted for 70 percent of Nigeria export revenue between the 1950s and 1960s.

For a long period, groundnut sustained the economy through revenue from exports to both foreign and local markets during the agricultural boom. The groundnut pyramids were the pillar of the Nigerian economy and they were also a spectacle as they towered high to a point higher than most buildings in Kano City.

In the 1980s, groundnut production in Nigeria nosedived and what was left of the famous Groundnut pyramids in Kano were only stories.

The big question is can groundnut production get to the level it used to be at? Will the pyramids be back?

Groundnut pyramids: The pillar of Nigeria’s economy.

Were they just for aesthetic purposes or was there an economic reason for them?

To fully answer the question you have to first understand what the pyramids represented. The groundnut pyramids, a symbol of wealth and a tourist attraction, were erected in Kano, Nigeria by piling sacks of groundnuts on top of the other into pyramid-shaped structures.

In the 1960s and 1970s, groundnut production in Nigeria was at its peak. According to a study on the Regional Assessment of groundnut in Northern Nigeria, an estimated output of 500,000 metric tonnes yearly until its peak capacity of 1.6 million metric tonnes in 1973 prior to the oil boom which accounted for almost 41% of the total production in West Africa at the time Nigeria’s dominance in the production of groundnut dates back to the early 1900s. At the time, Agriculture was the major powerhouse driving Nigeria’s economy, so the government encouraged the cultivation of groundnut and other cash crops.

Alhassan Dantata was one of the major players in the Agriculture space in Nigeria who contributed to Nigeria’s dominance in groundnut production. He was also one of the drivers of the idea of the groundnut pyramids.

Dantata is someone you’ll refer to as an aggregator in the Agriculture value chain in modern times. (An aggregator is someone who accumulates produce in large volumes from farmers and then sells to make profit)

He had access to the markets outside Nigeria and he also had links to local farmers in Kano state and other states in Northern Nigeria where farmers predominantly produced groundnut. The bags of groundnuts accumulated from farmers were then piled to make a pyramid in Kano city. The pyramids made the aggregation and shipping process of groundnut easy from Kano to Lagos before they were then exported. Also, the method of stacking groundnut bags in a pyramid is a storage method to prevent the infestation of insects.

So the pyramids were made not just because they were beautiful, but because they also served as aggregation points and a single line of transportation for the movement of groundnuts.

Nigeria still stands as the largest producer of groundnut in Africa and the third largest in the world, coming after China and India. Nigeria currently produces about 2million MT accounting for 5% of the world’s production. However, the country does not export nearly that much.

Why did the Groundnut pyramids crash?

Many experts believe the shift from agriculture to oil as the major revenue generator between the 1960s and 1970s as the major export in Nigeria is the sole reason for the disappearance of the groundnut pyramids. While this is true, several environmental factors also contributed to the crash of the groundnut industry in Nigeria.

The groundnut pyramids thrived because of two major factors:

The one channel marketing structure of groundnut in Nigeria

Ready market for groundnut sales

After the exploration of oil became popular in Nigeria, the economy diversified and the focus shifted from Agriculture to crude oil. Crude oil became the new pillar that Nigeria’s economy relied on but instead of pyramids, you had barrels, oil wells and rigs. This caused a domino effect that resulted in the collapse of the structures that supported the groundnut industry. The final straw that broke the camel’s back was an outbreak of Aphids (pests) which was facilitated by the drought spells across farms in Nigeria. Aphids are carriers of the groundnut rosette virus and the outbreak of the pests made the virus spread like wildfire.

According to an article by Face 2 Face Africa, the Rosette virus epidemic in 1975 and subsequent viruses in 1983, 1985 and 1988 accounted for the loss of over 700 thousand hectares of groundnut in the region. The epidemic devastated the pyramids erected in Malam Madori, Jigawa State. These factors led to the gradual and eventual disappearance of Nigeria’s famous groundnut pyramids.

One other factor that contributed to the decline of the groundnut industry was rural urban migration. With the oil boom came diversification and creation of more jobs in Urban areas. Add that to the dwindling popularity of Agriculture as a viable means of earning income and what you get is an idea that Agriculture was not cool and ultimately migration from rural areas to urban areas. This was the final nail.

Read our article on how to make Agriculture cool for Africa’s young people

A lot of young people still have this bias and it is one we are always trying to change.

If not Groundnut, what then?

After the Rosette virus epidemic and losing thousands of hectares in yield, several farmers lost confidence in groundnut production and channelled their resources towards other agricultural crops like cocoa, cowpea, millet and sorghum. The present day agriculture industry in Nigeria still thrives but most people say it is a shadow of its former self. Although Nigeria still dominates the production and exportation of certain crops in Africa like ginger, maize and rice.

Groundnut pyramids: to be or ‘nut’ to be

After understanding why the pyramids existed in the first place one can conclude that there is no need for the pyramids in modern times. The players in the groundnut industry built the pyramids for 2 major purposes.

1. A means of storage
2. An easy means of transportation and aggregation

There are better storage methods now in modern times which cut down post-harvest losses. This makes the need to build groundnut pyramids for storage not entirely necessary. Also, there’s an increased demand for and diversified use of groundnut in production (like for oils and cake) and multiple channels of sales.

Will the pyramids ever return? Probably ‘nut’.

A prosperous Africa begins with you, let’s do more for our Farmers. Visit thriveagric.com to get started. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see our work improving the lives of local farmers in Nigeria and how we are building to ensure food security in Africa, one farmer at a time.

Groundnut production in Nigeria: Will the Groundnut pyramids of Kano be back? was originally published in Hectare on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The following sections cover Thrive Agric’s progress and updates since the last subscriber meeting held on 9 & 10 October 2020. The November subscriber meetings held on Friday and Saturday, 6 & 7 November 2020, on a live Zoom call led by Adia Sowho, CEO and Ayo Arikawe, co-founder of Thrive Agric.

Why has Thrive Agric been unable to pay subscribers

Thrive Agric is behind on subscriber payouts because of the significant negative effects COVID-19 had on agricultural businesses in Nigeria. The subsequent movement restrictions coincided with the start of our dry season operations and halted vital aspects of business operations.

The combination of expensive and limited access to inputs, restricted distribution, and constrained markets caused reduced harvest quality and quantity, losses in crops and livestock consequent of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions created a ripple effect through our operations, affecting critical revenue-generating events.

Thrive Agric continues through its turnaround and maintains a firm commitment to paying out all subscribers.

When will subscribers get paid?

The payout timelines are available at payout.thriveagric.com.

It is important to note that subscriber payouts due in April, May, June, July and August have been made. This is massive progress and a sign of good faith to all our subscribers that pending subscriptions will be fully paid: Capital and Returns.

As of today, 9th of November 2020, Thrive Agric pending payouts are due from September 2020, and we have begun making these payouts in steps. To clarify, some subscribers in September have received payments, and we are continuing to make these payments in batches. We firmly believe we’ll correct the effects of the pandemic and emerge a stronger company moving forward.

I’m due in September, October, November, but haven’t received my payout.

We are doing everything to make payouts happen as fast as possible, this is an urgent priority for us. To make this possible, we are aggregating all debts, inflows, and outflows to prioritize all subscribers payouts. We have also raised bridge funds via institutional investors who recognize our track record to hasten these repayments.

We are now making payouts in batches based on farm subscription due-months. A subscriber due in September will be paid alongside other September subscribers regardless of the exact due date. After September subscribers are paid or refinanced, October payouts will commence and so on.

We have created and shared a payout queue portal for pending subscribers to view their payout month commencement and also their queue number within the month. You can find this payout queue at payout.thriveagric.com. To use this dashboard, you need your associated Thrive Agric email address and the order number for your specific subscription. If you have trouble using the dashboard, please watch this short demo video.

Subscribers have heard that Thrive Agric is showing preferential treatment to some subscribers by calling them directly. Is this true?

In addition to the monthly zoom calls, Thrive Agric has made two sets of calls to subscribers.

One set of calls were to the 50 largest subscribers with extensive subscription portfolios. We have had refinancing and rescheduling conversations with these subscribers so that we are able to pay more individual subscribers. It is important to note that the majority of these 50 subscribers are institutional investors.

The second set of calls we made were to 14 subscribers who reached out to us with evidence of urgent health emergencies. Although we were making payouts with the payout schedule in order of maturity months, we thought it human to make a concession to these subscribers. We will however, not make any more of these emergency payouts because we have seen the disruption it causes to other pending subscribers who consider it preferential treatment. We will strictly stick to the payout queue.

What is Thrive Agric doing to guarantee future investment regardless of economic changes?

Within the business, we are restructuring revenue and risk management processes. We have brought in experienced management personnel to tighten business operations to prevent a future occurrence of this ongoing challenge with late payouts. Further, crowdfunding is on an indefinite pause as has been since mid-April 2020

Why is payment on a first investor first serve basis rather than restricting losses only to farms directly affected by COVID-19?

Because of the pandemic’s damaging effects, Thrive Agric had to aggregate all debts, inflows and outflows to remain in business, correct the damages, and payout all subscribers.

We had to restructure internally to create this payment queue that ensures that Thrive Agric fulfills commitments to all pending subscribers and continues its mission to feed the nation. Without aligning subscriptions the way we have, Thrive Agric would be unable to maintain commitment to all pending subscribers and the business is able, with a slight delay, able to meet its obligations to all subscribers rather than a few.

Will there be a compensation for the additional time Thrive Agric holds subscribers’ money?

We are restoring our business to full recovery as each harvest comes in, hence we can only commit to paying subscribers their capital plus returns as at when initially due.

However, we understand that under normal circumstances, subscribers’ funds would have earned more returns, and we commit to a 10% per annum pro-rated interest to any subscriber whose pending payouts becomes overdue by 120 days from their original farm subscription due dates.

This is our best foot forward, and we hope to beat the time estimates we have shared with you even as we continue to make these payouts as fast as possible.

A humble request from Thrive Agric

We know it has been difficult going through this with us, and we deeply understand the frustrations subscribers with pending payments feel. For us, it has been difficult to place what we are now experiencing side by side with our past performance: serving all subscribers with dignity, reliability, trust.

None of us could have predicted the toll COVID-19 would have on our business, and by the time we put in corrective measures, we were already late on payouts, and more factors moved quickly out of our control. Scrambling to piece the business together left us making mistakes with communicating proactively and coherently. We were striving to solve the problems before involving you, the subscribers.

Thrive Agric is not unnecessarily holding on to subscribers’ funds. This business was seriously impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic which led to widespread farm revenue losses. Now, we are making progress restoring the business to full functioning: we have restructured the team, built improved and extensive risk management structures, activated pre-selling of December harvests, and opened up more revenue opportunities for the business. This is to support our main priority of paying out all pending subscribers. This is what we are working relentlessly to achieve.

We sincerely thank all who attend our monthly meetings and support us through these times. We are humbled by your continued belief in us and our mission to create an economically resilient and food secure Africa, one farmer at a time.

As we continue to make these payouts to everyone and rebuild our reputation, we hope our answers show our commitment to maintaining transparency and honoring commitments to all subscribers.

If you are a Thrive Agric subscriber who has questions not answered, please email hello@thriveagric.com. Our next meeting will be in December. We will send Zoom meeting registration links via email.

Thank you.

A prosperous Africa begins with you, let’s do more for our Farmers. Visit thriveagric.com to get started. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram,Facebook,LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see our work improving the lives of local farmers in Nigeria and how we are building to ensure food security in Africa, one farmer at a time.

November Updates: A Summary Of Thrive Agric Progress. was originally published in Hectare on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Agriculture is the largest sector of the Nigerian economy employing two-thirds of the entire labour force. One would expect that this sector would generate a lot of revenue for Nigeria but production hurdles along the value chain are significantly limiting the performance of the sector. This has resulted in food security challenges across the country. These questions and challenges are ones that we have been strategically placed to address seeing as we have over the last few years innovated along farmer challenges to help farmers drive increased profitability for their agricultural activities, better livelihoods for themselves and supporting families to better sustenance.

Our big question every time is one of “How do we innovate around more farmer challenges to improve their lives and drive increased value across the agricultural value chain”. This has been the heart of Thrive Agric. But what does scale mean for us? How do we ensure that we are consistently doing more for partners? It is by leveraging relationships with partners who share our vision to create an economically resilient Africa through Agriculture.

Check out our partnership with Africa’s Largest Phosphate Fertilizer Brand “OCP Africa” to Empower Local Farmers

The Central Bank of Nigeria has been very intentional in its resolve to support local farmers. These efforts is in Nigeria’s bid to encouraging investment in agriculture to help diversify the economy away from oil, which accounts for more than 90% of export revenues. The central bank targets increasing output of major food and cash crops including cotton, rice, tomato, cassava, cocoa and maize.

The goal of this is to create a linkage between companies like Thrive Agric involved in supporting smallholder farmers to produce required key agricultural commodities, Maize in this case owing to a recent shortage in the production numbers to reach self sufficiency and reduce the country’s reliance on imports. The programme thrust is the provision of farm inputs to small holder farmers to boost production of Maize, stabilize inputs supply to agro processors and address the country’s negative balance of payments on food. This financially empowers smallholder farmers and engages them productively to boost agricultural production and non-oil exports in the face of unpredictable crude oil prices and its resultant effect on the revenue profile of Nigeria.

The broad objective of this partnership is to create economic opportunity for smallholder farmers by leveraging the deepened structures that Thrive Agric has in it’s operations to capture better value for the farmers with a view to increasing agricultural output and significantly improving capacity utilization of processors.

Other objectives for this partnership includes: Increase banks’ financing to the agricultural sector, reduce agricultural commodity importation and conserve external reserves, Increase capacity utilization of agricultural firms, Create new generation of farmers/entrepreneurs and employment, Deepen financial inclusion of local Nigerian Farmers through our increased networks to provide financial services to farmers and the farmer communities we operate in, Reduce the level of poverty among smallholder farmers, Assist rural smallholder farmers to grow from subsistence to commercial production levels.

Read our detailed process on How we make agriculture profitable and empower local Nigerian farmers.

To put the challenges Nigeria is facing in perspective, in the past 20 years, value-added per capita in agriculture has risen by less than 1 percent annually. This simply means that in the past 20 years, the contribution of Agriculture to the livelihoods of an average Nigerian is next to nothing.

FAO estimates that Nigeria has lost $10 billion in annual export opportunity cocoa, palm oil, maize, groundnut, and cotton alone because of a continuous decline in the production of those commodities. While the food production in the country is declining, the population growth is not slowing down, to sustain itself over the years, Nigeria has had to rely on food importation.

To make matters worse, the effects of the pandemic caused disruption in food security and it raised a lot of questions about food insecurity not only in Africa but the world. More than ever, initiatives like these are needed in the country right now seeing how the pandemic is affecting the Agriculture value chain and food systems in Nigeria.

We are excited about this partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria. Partnerships are at the centre of everything we do at #ThriveAgric, and leveraging them to improve the lives of our farmers is why we do what we do, especially partnerships that are all about creating more value and building better livelihoods for local #farmers across Nigeria.

The goal of this initiative is to support over 25,000 farmers and cultivate over 25000 hectares of maize farmland across Nigeria and the end goal is to produce over 20 million metric tonnes of maize grains to boost maize production in Nigeria.

Nothing gives us so much joy to know that this will not only create better livelihoods for local farmers across Nigeria but it will also bridge the demand gap for maize and maize products in consumer markets across Nigeria.

So, how will we make this happen? For a few years now, we’ve been working on a software called the Thrive AOS, that allows us to reach more farmers across Nigeria. Our plan is to reach over 1million farmers over the next few years and we need technology to scale to that level. The technology allows us to keep a close eye on the farmers and ensure that they are on track with the projected yield, and typically be able to use technology to automate processes in a way to make our operations and that of the farmers transparent to stakeholders across the value chain.

We know that this partnership will go a long way in creating better livelihoods for farmers and also move Nigeria a step closer to food security. We are always on the look for partnerships like these that are tailored to ensuring food security and improving the livelihood of farmers.

A prosperous Africa begins with you, let’s do more for our Farmers. Visit thriveagric.com to get started. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see our work improving the lives of local farmers in Nigeria and how we are building to ensure food security in Africa, one farmer at a time.

Our Partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria to support over 25000 Local Nigerian farmers. was originally published in Hectare on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The effects of the current COVID19 pandemic ravaging the globe is threatening to upset the balance of Food security in Africa. Even though the number of cases in Africa are growing at a slow rate, the secondary effects of the pandemic are depleting the continent’s food resources.

With the current sharp climb in food prices, labour shortages, and a huge drop in food supply to consumer markets, one has to ask, how will food security look like after the pandemic?

To fully understand and project what food security will look like in Africa after the pandemic, you have to first understand the challenges affecting food markets and the Agriculture chain at the moment.

The first question to ask and answer is, how food secure was Africa before the pandemic?

What did food security look like before the pandemic hit?

Food security in Africa is not only about the quantity of food produced and supplied to the consumer markets but also the quality of food available to people.

A report by FAO in 2018 says over 200million people in Sub-saharan Africa do not have access to the right quantity of food but are also malnourished.

These numbers didn’t climb up overnight, but factors such as an unstable economy, sporadic change in Climate, and an ever increasing population contributed to it.

To make matters even dire, countless waves of locust swarms are ravaging some parts of East Africa, with Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia and some parts in South Sudan taking the worst hits.

This created not only an enormous hole in the food production and caused a vast set back to food security. This devastation could amount to $8.5 billion in losses at the end of 2020 if the governments and major industry players in the Agriculture industry across African countries don't put measures in place to mitigate the effect.

In Nigeria where over 15% of the population are farmers, one would expect that food security would not be a problem but that is not the case. A hunger index built by the Lagos food bank initiative shows that over 91 million people in Nigeria have no food security. That is about 65% of the population which shows that a large percentage of the people in the country go to bed hungry every night.

The silver lining is that countries in Africa understand how bad things are and are taking steps to grow more food and reduce dependency on imports. Last year, the Nigerian government closed its borders to encourage food production in the country. At first, that made food prices skyrocket but gradually, prices stabilized until pandemic rocked the country's economy a few months ago.

Another sign that Nigerians recognize the urgency of food security is the rise in the number of digital platforms that fund Agriculture by providing farmers with quality inputs to increase yield.

Food security is not new to us at Thrive Agric. We built our foundations on the urgency to create an Africa that is food secure. It is the engine that drives and motivates all our decisions; to create an Africa that can feed the world and itself by empowering and capturing more value for smallholder farmers all across Nigeria and Africa.

In 2019, we worked with over 35000 farmers which saw us produce over 125000MT of grains and raise over 2 million birds across Nigeria. Earlier this year, we quickly moved to onboard 150000 farmers across Nigeria with the ThriveAOS technology. As always, the underlying thought on our minds was Food Security in Nigeria.

Moving forward to a few months ago when the pandemic hit the world, and the effects wrecked havoc across world economies, crashing markets around the country and bringing the entire world to an abrupt stop.

For a lot of businesses across different industries, it became an urgent matter of adapt or die. Many businesses adapted, transformed their business models, put structures in place to weather the storm and stay afloat.

At the moment, governments are easing up on the stringent restrictions that were in place to limit the spread of the virus and trying all they can to revive the economy.

What does the Agriculture industry look like now? How is the Food security at stake?

The pandemic affected the different parts of the Agriculture value chain in different ways and varying magnitudes, some more than others. The production, distribution and delivery chain took the most hit because of the restriction in interstate movement and the high dependence on human labour. So, all processes from farms that produce raw materials to processing facilities significantly slowed down.

The shortage of labour also caused a block in the food supply chain, an increase in demand in the consumer markets and a hike in the price of commodities across markets in Nigeria. Also, processing facilities that rely on the supply coming from the farms now have a shortage of raw materials and therefore the supply of products to consumer markets and supermarkets also reduced. On the farms, the biggest challenge farmers face is that inputs can’t get to them because of the restrictions in movement and that creates a compounding effect on food production.

Unfortunately, a lot of farmers don’t produce enough from the previous farming cycle to cater for the next. So you can imagine their dilemma when the lockdown took effect and there were no clear channels to distribute inputs to them. To compound the problem, inputs like fertilizers and pesticides are scarce because Nigeria imports a large percentage from neighboring countries in Africa and outside Africa but ports are inaccessible as a result of the pandemic. Although the restrictions slowed down some of our operations, we've started input distribution in all our farming zones across Nigeria to prepare for our wet season project.

With things easing up in the country the big question is what will food security look like after the crisis? But to understand that, you first have to understand what food security looks like during this period.

What does food security look like now?

The effect of the pandemic is evident in local food markets which rely on farms and processing facilities for processed and raw food supply. All you need to do is take a walk to any food market and ask for the price list of food commodities and it'll surprise you how food prices climbed these past few months.

Before the pandemic hit, a 100kg of maize grain sold for about NGN7000-NGN9500 across different commodity markets in Nigeria but now, prices are almost doubled with some markets selling as high as NGN15000. The same goes for a bag of paddy which sold for NGN10000 to NGN12000 but now a bag sells for as much as NGN16000. This price difference passes on to the wholesalers who increase the prices of commodities in the consumer market to put some profit in their pockets.

The big question is how do we ensure Food security and what can we collectively do during this period to avoid the looming food crisis?

A major part of these rests on the shoulder of the government and key industry players. The major challenge to ensure food security during this period is the restriction in movement, distribution channels and import channels. Distributors of inputs like fertilizers, seeds and pesticides should be recognized as essential workers and be given the freedom to move across interstate lines. Also, there should be clear channels to transport food from the farms to processing facilities and markets.

The government can also distribute inputs to farmers to encourage more production and increase food supply to the market.

What are we doing to increase food production and avoid food shortages in Nigeria?

During this period, Thrive Agric intends to solve the problem of access to input financing, tech-enabled extension services, and access to distribution and premium markets.

1. Technology for farmer onboarding and financing

We are currently leveraging our digital product; an Agriculture Operating System (AOS) to be used by our field Agents, the farmers and the banks to provide finance to the farmers, extension service and sales for their harvest, while digitizing how cash moves all through the cycle. This AOS has been able to digitally collate credit-worthy farmers on the field and match them with their field size and GPS locations.

2. Empower More Farmers with Access to Inputs and Premium Markets for Produce.

We are currently working with over 35,000 farmers in our network and have recently onboarded 150,000 more for crop operations. . We plan to invest in our agent network in 5 core Zones (Kaduna, Kebbi, and Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi) in Nigeria. Our target is to work with and drive agricultural productivity and profitability for over 250,000 over the next 12 months on our platform.

Our farmers who currently produce have seen an increase in their yield of up to 3X, and now have closer market linkages to processors who offer better prices and capture more value for them.

3. Good Agronomy Practice

Our platform has enabled us to reach and educate farmers faster on good agronomy practice without physical structures. Various Agric-based educational contents are broadcasted to the farmers using various platforms and our extension service workers are available to demonstrate the practices.

Rice: Kebbi, Kaduna, and Kano states are the highest producers of rice in Nigeria but they currently produce 1.9 metric tons (MT). However, a Thrive Farmer produces over 4 MT per hectare.

Maize: Kaduna state is the largest producer of maize in Nigeria, but the farmers currently produce an average of 1.69 MT but the thrive farmers produce over 3.4MT.

Soybeans: Kebbi state is one of the largest producers of soybean in Nigeria but they produce 1 MT per hectare, but a Thrive Farmer produces up to 2 MT per hectare.

With 250,000 smallholder farmers whom we would be working with on an average of 0.7 hectare to a farmer, we would be producing an average of 2,000,000 MT of rice, maize, and soybean.

4. Access to Finance:

We currently are expanding the number of farmers with access to finance through partnerships with commercial banks and other institutional investors to provide input financing in addition to ours while riding on our existing technology platform and growing farmers network. With an increase in our financing pool, we can provide the farmers with quality inputs directly from the input providers alongside agronomy support and insurance for their farms.

5. Improved Distribution Channels

With an efficient aggregation frameworks that puts the farmers in clusters, we have been able to effectively link major input providers to the last mile (Farmers in this case) and also link the farmers to large offtakers which include Flour Mills of Nigeria, Stallion Rice e.t.c alongside the informal markets.

This full package of services will increase farmers’ yields and incomes and reduce the pre and post-harvest loss for the farmers which in turn will improve profitability across the entire value chain for Thrive Agric with attendant impact on the employment rate in host communities.

Although food security is in Africa at the moment, stability is not impossible. It would take more effort to give farmers access to all they need to increase food production, optimize processes that can reduce post-harvest losses, and create clear paths to distribute raw and processed food to consumer markets across the continent.

A prosperous Africa begins with you, let’s do more for our Farmers. Visit thriveagric.com to get started. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see our work improving the lives of local farmers in Nigeria and how we are building to ensure food security in Africa, one farmer at a time.

What will food security look like in Africa after the pandemic? was originally published in Hectare on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Corn, botanical name Zea mays is one of the crops with the highest demand in the world. Many people classify it as the number one grain in the world because its extensive use as the primary source of calories in feed formulation for animals.

According to FAO, the demand for it almost hit 3 Billion Metric Tonnes in 2019. This is because its wide variety of uses industrially, serves as major staple food for families and because of its importance in producing livestock feed.

The global production of maize in the world was about 1,112.01 million MT leaving about a deficit of 1,9 million MT.

In that same year, Africa had a total production volume of about 90MMT and Nigeria averaged production volume of about 11million MT making it the 2nd largest producer in the continent, after South Africa with 16 000 000 MT and Ethiopia the 3rd with 8,400,000MT

Major export destinations include Canada, Ireland, India, China, Netherlands, Switzerland.

The local demand in Nigeria is as high as 12MMT excluding exports leaving a deficit of over 2 million Metric tons and this is one of the many reasons why we are keen on farmers having all the quality inputs and agrochemicals they need to increase production.

The global market is volatile because of the current pandemic and as a result corn prices are unstable. However unstable, prices have shot up with some markets in Nigeria recording over 30% increase.

As at 2019, Global Average Price was NGN186 but now prices have shot up to about NGN221. In Nigeria some markets sell as high as NGN150 per kg but with the new planting season, prices might drop because of an increase in supply.

The national average yield per hectare is 2.5 metric tonnes per hectare. During our Farm operations at Thrive Agric in 2019, we averaged about 4.5 MT/ha in corn production, which is about an 80% increase compared to the National Average, with one of our farmers harvesting as much as 7.8 MT per hectare of farmland.

Of course, we are not resting on our oars and we are pushing ourselves this coming farm cycle. The goal stays the same, to create an Africa that can feed itself and the world.

Corn is consumed in different forms in Nigeria. It is ground, fermented and locally processed into pap, popularly known as Ogi in the South West, Akamu in the East and Koko in the north(sometimes made from millet.). This is a regular breakfast for lots of Nigerians especially when paired with the Legendary Akara.

It is also industrially processed into Custard powder but las las pap na pap. It is highly demanded in Nigeria as a staple food, as a raw material in the brewery industries and Livestock feed manufacturing Industry.

In the confectionery and food industry, it is used to produce corn syrup, corn oil, cornflour and corn flakes.

The cob is boiled or roasted and eaten as a staple food and it is safe to say, if you’ve not stopped by the roadside to buy roasted or boiled corn, then your “Nigerianess” should be questioned.(emoji or gif) Do you like your corn Roasted or boiled?

The Top producing states in Nigeria include Kaduna, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi, Gombe, Anambra, Benue, Kano, Kogi, Plateau, Kwara, Nassarawa, Zamfara, Sokoto, Plateau, Yobe, Ogun, Osun and Oyo.

We are always looking for ways to make Agriculture more profitable for farmers by capturing more value for them. That is why we cut off the long line of middlemen and link them directly to premium markets where they get the best prices for their commodities.

There’s still a large potential to increase production in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. This is why we are on this journey to create an Africa that feeds itself and the world by supporting local farmer communities all across Nigeria.

A prosperous Africa begins with you, let’s do more for our Farmers. Visit thriveagric.com to get started. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see our work improving the lives of local farmers in Nigeria and how we are building to ensure food security in Africa, one farmer at a time.

Here’s what corn production looks like in Africa and Nigeria. was originally published in Hectare on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

There is no doubt that the effect of the pandemic is hitting hard on the food markets and food supply chain in Africa and the world.

But the incidence of locust is another major concern that could make things worse for food security in Africa and the world.

At the moment, food prices have doubled and in some cases tripled. The market men and women will tell you stories of how the supply chain has thinned so they have to increase prices to break even and there are two things causing this.

East Africa is facing one of the most devastating cases of Locust infestation ever and here’s what you should know about it.

Locusts are a species of grasshoppers that are solitary and pose little threat as a single insect, but when certain conditions cause them to form a swarm they can become highly devastating and dangerous to farmers and their crops.

A swarm could contain as much as over 100 million locusts, cover a distance of over 100km in a single day, destroy hundreds of hectares of crops and eat the same amount of food meant for about 90000 people in a single day.

It all started last year when small swarms started gathering in Ethiopia and Somalia to form larger swarms. It then became a full-blown infestation that ravaged through some East African countries with Kenya and Ethiopia taking the biggest blow.

Farmers in Kenya are reporting that in some places, the swarms form a cloud so thick that they could hardly see through the sky.

Although preventive measures are being put in place but the affected countries, they still need a lot of help. The FAO says it needs over $80 million in donations to help the affected countries fight the infestation.

Latest report by the FAO says that the swarms have spread to other east african countries and also some other Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The problem of Food security in Africa is not limited to just individual countries, it is a continental problem. That’s why it is important for the infestation to be controlled as soon as possible.

At the moment, Food security in Africa is not only being affected by the effects of the pandemic, but the locust infestation is also hitting hard on the food supply.

The silver lining is that farmers and other bodies like the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology are coming up with ways to drive the numbers down, control the infestation and mitigate the risks of food shortages in Africa.

A prosperous Africa begins with you, let’s do more for our Farmers. Visit thriveagric.com to get started. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see our work improving the lives of local farmers in Nigeria and how we are building to ensure food security in Africa, one farmer at a time.

Fighting a crisis in a crisis: The locust devastation across East Africa. was originally published in Hectare on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ginger is well known as a food spice across the world and . It is the underground rhizome of a perennial tropical crop called Ginger plant (Zingiberofficinale). Originally, the plant is a native of South Eastern Asia but over centuries has been introduced to various parts of the world like the Caribbean, the Americas and Africa. Presently, the top growers of the crop includes Jamaica, Indonesia, Fiji etc.

A mature ginger rhizome is fibrous and has a striated texture. The outer skin of the rhizome is brownish in colour while the inner flesh depending on the variety may be red, yellow or white.

The commodity is so popular owing to its numbers uses. Some of them are herbal medicines, spices of bread in bakeries, and its uses in breweries to produce drinks among others. Going by official statistics, Nigeria is currently the third largest exporter of Ginger in the world after China and India.

Experts say the Nigerian ginger is highly regarded in the international market for its quality and highly medicinal value. Specifically, its aroma, purgency and high oil and Aleoresin content are other distinct features of ginger products from Nigeria.

In the Nigerian market, ginger is not only popular, it is a very high demand crop commodity. At a time when the government is implementing various measures to boost the agricultural sector, experts say this has provided entrepreneurs with a platform to key into the economic diversification policy of the government.

Ginger production is massive in Nigeria and we want to give you an insight into what the industry currently looks like.

Globally, Nigeria has the 2nd largest production share of about 16% after India with a production share of 33.9%.

Every year, Nigeria averages a production volume of over 400,000 Metric tonnes of Ginger across the 36 states. In 2017, we had a production volume of about 349,895 and it was higher in 2016 with 522,096 metric tonnes.

Generally, ginger is usually exported in the fresh form, the dried form and the processed form which is the powdered ginger. The dried rhizome commands the highest export price and can sell for about 900 Naira per kilo in the global market.

Nigerian farmers can tap into the $3billion global ginger market to earn foreign exchange as the country explores opportunities to grow its non-oil exports opportunities.

Nigeria’s ginger production is put at 31 million metric tons while demand is put at 65 million MT, leaving a supply-demand gap of 34 million MT, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture.

The country exports majority of its ginger which makes Nigeria the third highest exporter of the crop globally.

Despite the potential in the production of the crop, the country is yet to fully harness the economic benefits from growing ginger, on account of low quality seeds and low use of technology, say farmers.

Ginger is used for a wide range of things across Nigeria. The active ingredient, Gingerol is known to help fight infections, lower blood sugar and reduce heart risks. It is also used in the brewery/beverage industry, cosmetic industry and the cooking Industry.

The top 5 ginger producing states in Nigeria are Kaduna state, Bauchi state, Benue State, Gombe State and Nasarawa.

In Nigeria, the average yield on a hectare of Farmland is about 13–27 metric tonnes in comparison to the global average of about 35–40 metric tonnes.

A prosperous Africa begins with you, let’s do more for our Farmers. Visit thriveagric.com to get started. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see our work improving the lives of local farmers in Nigeria and how we are building to ensure food security in Africa, one farmer at a time.

Ginger Production in Nigeria. was originally published in Hectare on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In spite of the oil, agriculture remains the base of Nigeria’s economy, providing the main source of livelihood for most Nigerians. The sector faces many challenges, notably an outdated land tenure system that constrains access to land (1.8 ha/farming household), a very low level of irrigation development (less than 1 percent of cropped land under irrigation), limited adoption of research findings and technologies, high cost of farm inputs, poor access to credit, inefficient fertilizer procurement and distribution, inadequate storage facilities and poor access to markets have all combined to keep agricultural productivity low (average of 1.2 metric tons of cereals/ha) with high post harvest losses and waste.

Even though agriculture still remains the largest sector of the Nigerian economy and employs two-thirds of the entire labour force, the production hurdles have significantly stifled the performance of the sector. Over the past 20 years, value-added per capita in agriculture has risen by less than 1 percent annually. It is estimated that Nigeria has lost at least USD 10 billion in annual export opportunity from groundnut, palm oil, cocoa and cotton alone due to continuous decline in the production of those commodities. Food (crop) production increases have not kept pace with population growth, resulting in rising food imports and declining levels of national food self-sufficiency. The main factors undermining production include reliance on rainfed agriculture, smallholder land holding, and low productivity due to poor planting material, low fertilizer application, and a weak agricultural extension system amongst others.

The big questions stares us in the face; Nigeria is the continent’s leading consumer of rice, one of the largest producers of rice in Africa and simultaneously one of the largest rice importers in the world. As well as an important food security crop, it is an essential cash crop for it is mainly small-scale producers who commonly sell 80 percent of total production and consume only 20 per cent. Rice generates more income for Nigerian farmers than any other cash crop in the country.

Rice is such a staple in Nigeria, we’ve come to make finance and savings quotes like; There is rice at home, and even winning the jollof wars. All this is indicative of the fact that Nigeria consumes almost 7 million tonnes of it a year.

Rice — the number one food staple in Nigeria.

PWC in a recent report on how to boost rice production in Nigeria through mechanisation shared these about rice production and consumption in Nigeria.

Rice is one of the most consumed staples in Nigeria, with a consumption per capita of 32kg. In the past decade, consumption has increased 4.7%, almost four times the global consumption growth, and reached 6.4 million tonnes in 2017 — accounting for c.20% of Africa’s consumption. As at 2011, rice accounted for 10% of household food spending, and 6.6% of total household spending*. Given the importance of rice as a staple food in Nigeria, boosting its production has been accorded high priority by the government in the past 7 years. Significant progress has been recorded; rice production in Nigeria reached a peak of 3.7 million tonnes in 2017.

Despite this improvement, comparatively, Nigeria’s rice statistics suggest there is an enormous potential to raise productivity and increase production. Yields have remained at 2 tonne per hectare, which is about half of the average achieved in Asia. In addition, as population increases, along with rural to urban migration, ensuring food security in key staples becomes critical. However, food security cannot be achieved by a system that depends almost entirely on human muscle power and other manual methods.

Globally, rice production has grown at an annual average of 1.0% over the past decade, reaching 486.7 million tonnes in 2017. Most of this growth has come from Asia, accounting for 89% of global output. China and India are the largest producers, each with a share of 29.6% and 22.6% of global production respectively. In the rest of the world (ex-Asia),rice production has risen steadily over the past decades, accounting for 15% of total production by 2017, a marginal increase from 12% in the last two decades.

Global rice consumption remains strong, driven by both population and economic growth in Asia and Africa. Over the past two decades, rice demand increased at an annual average of 1.2% to reach 481.6 4 million tonnes in 2017.

Nigerian rice farmers fall short after borders close | Reuters Video

That’s a lot of rice, and in order to keep up with demand, the country has imported huge amounts of the grain. But it’s not alone — according to the African Development Bank, about $35bn is spent on food imports annually across the continent. This is despite the fact that Africa is home to two-thirds of the world’s most arable uncultivated land. To boost food security, Nigeria has curbed imports and is now trying to encourage more rice production at home. But there’s still a lot more work that needs to be done.

Read: A growing problem: Nigerian rice farmers fall short after borders close.

With the border closure, reduction in the importation and increase in the market price of Rice, you can’t help but ask, how does this affect rice production in Nigeria?

Here’s what you should know about the current state of rice production in Nigeria. Nigeria is the largest producer of Rice(paddy) in Africa with an average production volume of 8 million metric tonnes. As of 2019, Nigeria ranked as the 14th largest producer of rice in the world with China being the top producing country.

As of 2019, Africa had a total production volume of 14.6M, Nigeria produced about 55% and Egypt produced about 30% of the production volume.

Nigeria exports Rice(paddy) to different countries in Africa like Ghana and Botswana. Also, export destinations in Europe include Russia, France, Ireland, Hungary.

As of December 2019, a kg of rice(paddy) sold for about NGN120 in the local market whereas, in the global market, it sold for as high as NGN281.

Rice is used for different purposes but mainly eaten as a staple food in Nigeria and other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. The back of the rice called rice husk which is removed during the processing of rice can be used in the livestock industry to produce feed.

What do we think are the next steps in scaling rice production in Nigeria and Africa at large? Well, we thought to give this a root cause problem solving approach and give some insights into the constraints.

Production constraints

In the irrigated rice schemes, production constraints include low nitrogen-use efficiency and iron toxicity, disease and pest pressure (especially birds), and low mechanization. Socioeconomic constraints include a lack of involvement of farmers in the planning and implementation of irrigation schemes, lack of access to inputs (including credit), and a loss of labor and an aging farming population because of migration to cities. Rice yield in these schemes is 3.0–3.5 t/ha compared with the potential of 7–9 t/ha.

In the rainfed lowland environment, rice cultivation is characterized by a low yield range of 1.5–3.0 t/ha vis-à-vis a potential of 3.0–6.0 t/ha, caused by suboptimal water management, inadequate weed management, low adoption of modern varieties, low mechanization, pest and disease pressure, and uncertain land tenure.

In the upland environment, rice cultivation is challenged by drought, low adoption of improved varieties, soil acidity and general soil infertility, poor weed control, limited capital investments and labor shortages, and low mechanization. Yields range from 1.0 to 1.7 t/ha compared with a potential of 2.0–4.0 t/ha.

Farmers and rice value chain actors have difficulty in accessing agro-inputs, particularly quality seed, fertilizer, and credit. Infrastructure development is lagging behind with respect to irrigation facilities, feeder/rural roads, and rice storage and processing capacity. In the past, changes in government policies in the areas of concessions and tariffs have discouraged investors. In general, the rice value chain is characterized by yields that are far below what would be possible with improved management, improved market information and structure, and sufficient and updated rice-processing capacity.

Production opportunities

Imported rice volumes dominate rice trading in Nigeria because of the poor quality of locally produced rice. A huge potential market for locally produced rice exists in urban centers if quality, standards, and grading are addressed. The government plans to put more land under irrigation for rice production and rehabilitate dilapidated irrigation schemes under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda. For upland rice systems, NERICA varieties will be promoted in the north-central and southwest regions of the country. Yield gaps can be reduced substantially across environments through the adoption of good agricultural practices and principles (integrated rice management), and the use of robust and high-yielding varieties.

Policies and conditions that offer opportunities for developing the rice sector in the country include zero tariffs on agricultural machinery and equipment, a large domestic market for rice products and by-products, government subsidies on fertilizer, seed, and tractors and implements, and guaranteed minimum price support for farmers. The credit system has also received a boost from the government’s establishment of rice-processing credit schemes at 4% interest rate and a 15 years’ payback period to increase national rice-processing capacity.

Sources: FAO’s FAOSTAT database online and AQUASTAT database online, as of September 2012.

Support for farmers

Our work with tens of thousands of rice farmers cut across the problems of access; to finance, data driven advisory and premium markets for produce. How have we made this possible and cut through these barriers for increased production? By providing improved seeds, meticulously supporting the farmers with modern agro practices that increases yield and also connecting them with markets that guarantee increased yield for their operations.

The mechanisation gap

PWC says that Nigeria’s mechanisation has remained low at 0.3 hp/ha, relative to 2.6hp/ha in India and 8 hp/ha in China. The number of agricultural tractors is estimated around 22,000, relative to 1 million and 2.5 million in China and India respectively. Low income, limited access to affordable financing and the lack of technical skills have limited the adoption of mechanisation across the rice value chain.

We estimate that increasing the mechanisation rate in Nigeria from 0.3hp/ha to 0.8hp/ha in the next 5 years, can double rice production to 7.2 million tonnes. To achieve this, we estimate that Nigeria will need to at least triple its current stock of machinery over the same period. In addition to raising production, adequately increasing mechanisation has the capacity to raise yields, increase labour productivity, reduce post-harvest losses, increase income generated by farmers and deepen import substitution.

The opportunity

Nigeria’s mechanisation gap provides numerous opportunities for investment across the agricultural value chain. To attract the required investment, the government needs to create an enabling environment that ensures mechanisation is profitable. In terms of priorities, the government should concentrate on: addressing challenges around land tenure and ownership, providing rural infrastructure and extension services, and ensuring incentives are transparent and accessible to all investors.

A prosperous Africa begins with you, let’s do more for our Farmers. Visit thriveagric.com to get started. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see our work improving the lives of local farmers in Nigeria and how we are building to ensure food security in Africa, one farmer at a time.

Rice Production in Nigeria. was originally published in Hectare on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” — Helen Keller.

Partnerships have always been at the heart of what we do at Thrive Agric. Partnerships for increased growth and value to our farmers is how we are steering our work to drive the next level of what winning in Agriculture in Africa would mean.

One of those partnerships is with OCP Africa, a leading global provider of Phosphate Fertilizers, who are helping smallholder farmers access fertilizer to improve crop yield and facilitating other value additions in extension services and access to finance.

Our partnership with OCP Africa has helped us capture increased yield for our farmers and greatly contributed to sustainable food production. Through this partnership, we have been able to connect our over 35,000 Smallholder Farmers with the tailored Agric booster initiative.

We have also leveraged the partnership to increase access to input financing, training and increased distribution which exponentially increases the scale of our work as well as the economic value to our farmers.

This has also been substantial in building an ecosystem of services that is intentional about innovating around the challenges of farmers in our improved bid to make agriculture even more profitable for our farmers while tackling the ever-looming question of food security in Nigeria.

The initiative provided tablets for field mapping, bikes, and stipends for extension officers. It has also been instrumental to our growth in terms of farmers output, number of tonnes per hectare, the average yield from the total number of farmers, highest yield and loan recovery rates.

During our last project, 20,917 Hectares of land was cultivated for white maize, 8285 Hectares for rice and 3442 Hectares for soybeans.

We know that with partnerships like this, we can empower more farmers across Nigeria and ultimately Africa. The possibilities are endless in the Agriculture industry, the projection is that Agriculture in Africa will be a $1 Trillion industry in 2050.

The current reality is that the industry is built on the backs of smallholder farmers and they are the key to unlocking Africas Agriculture potential.

The fact that Agriculture should not be seen as a lifestyle but a business that can generate massive wealth cannot be overemphasized. This means we must look for ways to make Agriculture more profitable for farmers and put some profit in their pockets and that is what we are about.

The only way to do that is to provide them with finance, inputs, data-guided advisory and a great market structure like we've been doing for the past 3 years. This way, we are making Agriculture profitable for them and also taking steps towards our vision to make Africa the food basket of the world.

PUTTING THE FARMER FIRST — HOW OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH OCP IS WORKING

This farmer-centric approach as we have always done has had tremendous effects with strategic partnerships of this scale.

This resulted in a 3.4MT average yield across all affected farms. 60% of our farmers recorded a higher yield, accounting for an overwhelming 18% increase from our production volumes 2018.

Our highest recording farm had a yield of 7.8MT. We had a loan recovery rate of 97% as well. Creating better lives for farmers and telling the stories of how we are transforming their lives, one-Farmer-at-a-time is what makes this journey adventurous for us.

One of our farmers Rabiu Aliyu, a Maize farmer who recorded a 3.1 MT in his last harvest doubled that with a whopping 6.5 MT, over 100% increment. Another Maize farmer, Deji Sani was able to improve her output from 2.5 MT to 3.2 MT, a 30% growth over the previous year.

Partnerships with well-meaning brands like OCP Africa, that is committed to the growth of sustainable agriculture on the continent is how we are choosing to approach the scale and urgency that food production demands.

RAISING THE BAR — OPENING MORE VENTS FOR SUSTAINABLE PARTNERSHIPS

As a company, we are strongly focused on value delivery Thrive Agric prides itself as an ecosystem creator within the Nigerian Agric sector. Having done this for a number of years, we know the value great partnerships bring to the table and are glad to be working with OCP Africa to help meet the challenges smallholder farmers face in the Nigeria environment — from access to fertilizer and farm inputs at the right cost, to access to finance to purchase the right kind of input to raise crop yield to access to the market for their produce. Solving this challenge is at the heart of Nigeria’s Agric revolution.

Food security and the growth of non-oil export continue to be critical issues in Nigeria. The major policy thrust of the Economic Reform Programme of the Nigerian government is the diversification of the economy away from Crude Oil.

Since the Agriculture sector offers the best prospect for meeting government’s target, the clear advantage of the partnership with OCP Africa is that it helps us scale up so we can serve as a critical agent in the fulfilment of the aspirations of the Nigerian government.

Beyond raising crop yield through the supply of affordable fertilizers and other farm inputs, OCP Africa continues to support us with extension services which points the ideal direction in terms of fertilizer use based on topography and nature of the soil existent across our partner farms.

OCP Africa is also helping in the area of access to finance, through partnerships with credit providers at an affordable cost to smallholder farmers.

These contributions by OCP Africa has seen us at Thrive Agric focus on creating value within our ecosystem of smallholder farmers while OCP Africa provides the facilitation platform which enables us to do our work. The partnership is therefore one which we hope we can grow, consolidate, and sustain through the years.

A prosperous Africa begins with you, let’s do more for our Farmers. Visit thriveagric.com to get started. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see our work improving the lives of local farmers in Nigeria and how we are building to ensure food security in Africa, one farmer at a time.

Creating Possibilities In Nigeria’s Agric Environment — How Partnership With OCP Africa Helped Us. was originally published in Hectare on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.