Background on Climate Change and African Agriculture

Agriculture in Africa is highly sensitive to climate variations due to its dependency on rainfall and limited irrigation infrastructure. Studies show that temperature increases have a more significant negative effect on crop productivity than changes in precipitation. For example, by 2050, some countries like Burkina Faso and Niger could see agricultural production losses reaching 20–30%, while others like Ethiopia and South Africa are less affected with losses under 5%. Water availability remains a critical factor, influencing both crop and livestock productivity, with dryland farming being especially vulnerable to warming and drought conditions.

Case Studies and Examples

Several projects across Africa illustrate both the challenge and local adaptive responses. In the Sahel region, farmer-managed natural regeneration integrates trees with crops and livestock to build drought-resistant and more productive farming systems, improving food security and household incomes. In Nigeria, the Vegetation Conservation and Nutrition (VCN) project supports over 30,000 households with climate-resilient agriculture solutions that enhance yields and economic opportunities, particularly benefitting women and youth.

In northern Nigeria, organizations like Surge Africa promote nature-based solutions including agroforestry, organic fertilization, and use of climate-resilient seeds, which restore soil health and increase productivity despite changing climate conditions. This grassroots approach has turned around the fortunes of farmers by enhancing resilience and reducing dependency on costly external inputs.

Solutions and Opportunities

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) and agroecological practices represent key strategies for adaptation. CSA aims to improve productivity while enhancing resilience and lowering emissions. For example, integrated water management, improved seed distribution, and irrigation expansion have led to better crop yields in countries like Rwanda. Agroecology includes sustainable land management practices that restore soil fertility and biodiversity, crucial under erratic climate regimes.

Scaling such approaches through enabling policies, institutional capacity building, and inter-agency cooperation is vital. Investing in irrigation infrastructure, promoting renewable energy for rural farming communities, and expanding farmer education on climate-resilient techniques can accelerate adaptation. Additionally, nature-based solutions like tree planting help conserve ecosystems while supporting livelihoods.

Conclusion:

By combining scientific innovation with traditional knowledge and strong policy support, Africa can transform the agriculture sector into a resilient, productive engine against climate shocks, ensuring food security and economic well-being for millions.

This focused approach highlights the urgent need for targeted climate interventions in African agriculture through sustainable practices and community-based solutions.

Climate Change on Agriculture in Africa. was originally published in Agtech Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This is a first in a series to introduce the Binkabi platform to our new users. For complete tutorials of the platform please go to https://www.binkabi.io/helpcentre

The process of registering on the Binkabi platform is quite easy but if done wrongly, might prove a bit difficult for those who are new to blockchain (as most of our users are , at first). That is essentially why we have put together this piece to help you have a seamless registration on the production environment.

Step 1: Sign up with your credentials (Email & desired Password)

Step 2: Login with your credentials: At first, an email will be sent to you, you have to click on the link in the email to verify your email address, thereafter you must go back to the platform to login with the same credentials you signed up with (email and password)

Step 3: Complete your profile: Upon login, you would be able to see the market place dashboard and just at the top right corner of the dashboard, you can click on your email. It will show a drop-down box (trade, wallet, profile and message centre). You need to click on profile so you can complete your profile (else you wouldn’t be able to conduct any trade on the platform)

Step 4: Complete your bio-data: When you click profile, it will take you to the dashboard below. The next thing to do is to click on profile and select either (individual member or business member), then you fill the boxes with your data.

Step 4 Cont’d: This is the remaining part of the Profile page below, you need to ensure to upload the required documents and click save. Then you have completed the first part of your profile.

Step 5: Create a Metamask Wallet:

Step 5 Cont’d: You can open that website (https://metamask.io) on a Chrome or Firefox browser. When you see this homepage. Go ahead to click on “Get Firefox Addon”.

It takes you to a new page, then click on “Add to firefox”. Once you do that. It takes you to another page.

It will ask you to add to metamask, you must click on add.

When you see the page below, you need to click on “Get Started” to initiate the Wallet creation Process.

You need to click on “Create Wallet” to move to the next stage of creating your metamask wallet (where your commodity and fiat backed tokens will be stored).

Click on “I AGREE” to move to the next stage in creating your wallet.

At this point, you need to put in your desired password and click on create to get your wallet created.

When you see the dashboard below, you need to click on the black column with a padlock, it will show you a seed phrase (12 words). If you misplace this seed phrase, you might not have access to your wallet forever so note it down or keep it in a safe place so you can recover it when necessary.

This particular wallet is just a sample wallet that’s why I am showing you this backup phrase, it is supposed to be secret and should not be shown to anyone. If anyone gets this seed phrase, they could potentially transfer your tokens out of the wallet.

Once you are registered, this is what you would have.

You need to click on the top right corner of your browser where you can find “Main Ethereum Network”, it will drop down as you can see below. Then you click on “Kovan Test Network”. If you don’t do that, you might not be able to link your wallet to our platform.

Step 6: Link Wallet address to Binkabi Platform: The next thing to do is to copy your wallet address. The way to do that is to click on the wallet address above ETH balance, it will copy to clipboard directly. Then you can go back to Binkabi platform and paste it in the wallet address box as you can see below and click on “Link”. You might need to use some test eth in the process of linking, we are available to provide this to you as soon as you’re at this stage. During this process you need to make sure that your Metamask wallet is open/logged in. You also need to copy a secret code/one-time-password in the dialog box provided so our platform can authenticate you being the true owner of the wallet.

Step 7: Link Bank account to Binkabi Platform: At the moment, we have our platform integrated with a number of banks, so you need to have account with one of them (especially if you’re a buyer on the platform). When you get your bank account, fill the details in the bank account column, then click on link to link your bank account. Please make sure the details match your bank account details: name and bank account number. Also to authenticate your true ownership of the bank account, you need to paste your current account balance in the ‘Authentication’ box provided. You can use any of the online/mobile banking service provided by your bank to get the current account balance.

If you don’t have account with any of our partner banks, you can open one by follow the link ‘Click here’. This will ensure you have an account to trade immediately.

Step 8: Register with Warehouse Provider: The last step on the profile is the “Warehouse Account” and this is your registration with the Warehouse providers. I am currently registered with AFEX and this is easy to do. Just make sure to input the right data and click on “Register”. Note that you only need to open a warehouse account if you are a seller and need to deposit commodities at one of our partner warehouses/commodity exchanges. If you simply buy commodity backed token with a view to resell (trading/market making) you need not open a warehouse account until the point where you need to redeem the commodity-backed token/warehouse receipts for physical commodity (more on that later).

Then you’re successfully done with the registration process. We can now look at the trading process in next post.

Binkabi — Platform for issuing, trading and financing commodities on the Blockchain

Chat with us at t.me/binkabi_io or visit our website

How to Onboard a New User to the Binkabi Platform was originally published in Agtech Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As soon as you complete your registration, linking of wallet and bank accounts, as well as registration with the warehouse provider, you are now ready to trade.

Step 1: Post a buy/sell order: This is the detailed summary of the commodity you have to auction or the one you are sourcing to purchase. It very important to fill in all the required details to provide confidence to potential bidders or sellers.

Step 2: Enter Negotiation room (for bids and offers): As soon as you hit the submit button for your buy/sell order, it immediately moves to the market place where potential buyers/sellers can see your listing immediately they open the website. For a sell order, a serious buyer clicks on your order and proceeds to the negotiation room to bid for your commodity, same goes for a buy order, a serious seller goes into the negotiation room to tender his offer.

The bidder is also allowed to counter bid (i.e request for discounted pricing for his demanded commodity) and this process can only be done 3 times. This is done to help people make up their mind and get unto trading as soon as possible.

Step 3: Contract document creation: As soon as the bids have been agreed upon by both parties (buyer/seller), a contract is created (this is made up of proforma invoices, transaction fees, trade details of buyer and seller).

Step 4: Signing of Contract Document: Both buyer and seller needs to click on the “Agree and Proceed” button under the contract document to initiate trade and prepare for execution (in this case swap of commodities for money).

The trade has moved from the sell order column, to the contract column and currently waiting to be executed by both the seller and the buyer (meaning the buyer need to have money in his bank account and the seller needs to have commodity token in his wallets to execute trade). When the execution process completes successfully, the trade will move to “Complete” by then, commodity token would have moved to the buyer for redemption at the warehouse and naira token would have moved to the seller (withdraw-able) in his/her linked Bank account.

The next article in the series will focus on trade execution, commodity token or money withdrawal on the platform. Feel free to check out our tutorial videos on https://binkabi.io/helpcentre

Preliminary process of Trading on Binkabi (trade orders & contracting) was originally published in Agtech Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Overview

Globally, there are about 4.8 million tonnes of sesame seed produced. While Myanmar is the largest producer, India and China are the largest exporters. The largest importers of this seed are Japan and China. In Africa, Nigeria comes about the seventh largest producer after Ethiopia and Sudan. Considering its health benefits and the growing preference for organic foods, the demand is likely to continue to grow, which is positive for Nigeria.

Sesame area and production

As at the end of 2017, Nigeria’s yearly production of sesame seeds stood at 450,000 metric tonnes and the production is expected to rise in 2018 with the largest producing states being Jigawa, Nassarawa, Benue and Taraba.

About a total of 26 States grow sesame presently and the production is expected to increase given the good prices obtained by farmers and increased demand worldwide.

In Nigeria, about 37.33% of the land area is arable. This offers a solid foundation for the cultivation of the crop. The fact that sesame seeds are also drought-resistant and require little or no fertilizer makes them cheaper to cultivate and it thrives well in the Northern part of Nigeria and some parts of the West. It can also be grown in some part of the South East and South South.

It has been successfully grown in Ebonyi and Northern part of Cross River States. While it also grew in Delta, its hybrid did not yield much seed although the leaves were bigger.

The plant is usually 60 to 120 cm tall and 1000 seeds weighs some 4–8g, most of the time, seeds have a high oil content of 44–60%, and it is well suited to smallholder farming with a relatively short harvest cycle of 90 –140 days allowing other crops to be grown in the field. It is often intercropped with other grains.

Economics

The global demand for Sesame seeds and while the Global Production of Sesame Seeds was pegged at 4.6 million metric ton in 2017, global sesame seed market is expected to grow at a 4.2% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2018–2024.

Production of the tiny seeds, has grown up to 40% in Nigeria in the 2017–18 season. China and Japan are the leading destinations for sesame seeds grown in Nigeria. N8 billion worth of sesame seeds were exported to China, N6.56 billion to Japan and N6.1 billion to Turkey in the first quarter of 2018.

The escalating global demand for sesame seed for hummus, toppings on sushi, confectionery, and health foods, is likely to enhance future production in countries such as Nigeria.

The top sesame seed importing countries in Q1 2018 include Vietnam, with N2.2 billion worth of the seed’s import, and the Netherlands with N800 million.

Asia-Pacific is the largest producer and consumer of sesame seeds. Greece is the largest importer of sesame seeds in Europe followed by Germany, the Netherlands and Poland.

Nigeria’s Sesame seeds holds value for exports and is currently in hot demand throughout the world because oil extracted from the seeds is better than any other oil in the whole world. The total value of sesame exports in Q1 2018 was N26.6 billion, according to Foreign Trade Statistics Report for Q1 2018 released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This shows an increase of 83.1% from N14.53 billion generated in Q4 2017 and a year on year growth of 104.1% from N13.03 billion the seeds generated in Q1 2017.

Consumption and other uses

Sesame is grown for its seeds, and the primary use of the sesame seed is as a source of oil for cooking. It has numerous health and industrial benefits and is widely used for baking, medicine, cosmetics and animal feeds. It also has a high oil content (44–60%).

The young leaves may also be eaten in stews, and the dried stems may be burnt as fuel with the ash used for local soap making.

Sesame is commercialized in a number of forms. Most sesame is processed directly into oil by the grower or within the producing region, but can also be sold in various stages of processing, for various uses, such as meal, paste, confections, and bakery products.

The oil is also useful in the industrial preparation of perfumery, cosmetics (skin conditioning agents and moisturizers, hair preparations, bath oils, hand products and make-up), pharmaceuticals (vehicle for drug delivery), insecticides and paints and varnishes.

Commodity Spotlight: Sesame Seeds was originally published in Agtech Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Last year, Binkabi honored invites to high-level conferences in different cities around the world.

This year, we are excited to announce Binkabi’s upcoming speaking engagements in some of the highest profile Agricultural and Global Commodity Trade conferences around the world where we will lead path breaking conversations and showcase our innovative products that is facilitating a fairer and more profitable commodity network globally.

42nd session of the IFAD Governing Council — 14–15 February, Rome

Binkabi CEO, Quan Le will join Pope Francis, heads-of-state, government ministers, policy and development leaders during the 42nd annual Governing Council meeting of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), 14–15 February 2019 in Rome to speak about the applicability of blockchain as an innovative technology in Agriculture using Binkabi as a case study. The theme of this year’s Governing Council — “Rural Innovation and Entrepreneurship” — will explore how investing in technology, innovation and small enterprise development can address the challenges of poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries.

The 11th Vinacas Golden Cashew Rendezvous — 1–2 March, Vietnam

Vietnam has been exporting cashews for almost 30 years and has become the world’s largest cashew processor with 345 enterprises and 260 processing factories and buying up to $2 billion worth of raw cashew from African countries including Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Mozambique, etc.

To this end, on an annual basis, key stakeholders in the Cashew Commodity network of Africa and Asia are hosted by Vietnam Cashew Association, bearing in mind that Vietnam is the world’s largest Cashew processing hub.

In this 11th edition, Quan will present Binkabi solutions to all Cashew Commodity delegation leaders and members and during the conference, we will also have the partnership signing ceremony with Vietnam Cashew Association.

GTR Africa 2019–14–15 March, Cape Town

Just last year, Quan was a Keynote speaker at GTR Africa Trade & Infrastructure Conference in London and this year, as GTR Africa returns to Cape Town, Quan will again be speaking during the African fintech showcase panel.

He would be joined by Nasreen Patel, Head of Product, Aerobotics; Rob Withagen, Co-Founder & CEO, Asoko Insight; Aba Schubert, Founding Partner, Aethel Partners; Lanre Oloniniyi, Co-Founder, Orbitt; Maureen Mba, Associate Director, Compliance, Afreximbank in an event of this magnitude that essentially provides a crucial networking forum for corporates and financiers alike.

We look forward to meeting you in one or more of these events.

Binkabi is set to lead disruptive conversations in Rome, Vietnam and Cape Town this Quarter was originally published in Agtech Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We are approaching harvest season in. Harvest spotlight is a weekly post designed to provide background information about common produced and consumed commodities like Rice, Maize, Wheat and Sorghum in West Africa.

Overview

Maize is a valuable commodity that is geographically dispersed across Nigeria and suitable for most Nigerians. It is perhaps the most common staple food in developing countries, providing food for 900 million people earning less than US $2 per day.

Economics

The world-wide consumption of maize is more than 116 million tons, a testament to the fact that there is a high consumption of maize globally. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 50% of the population consumes maize while the entire African continent accounts for 30% of global Maize consumption.

One would imagine that a continent that has a heavy maize consumption rate will be a major maize producer but on the contrary, Africa accounts for only 6.5% of the Global Maize production with Nigeria being the largest African Maize producer, her production is slightly over 10 million tons of Maize, followed by South Africa. However it is considerably small when compared to the USA’s corn production (384 million metric tons).

If Africa produces very little and consumes so much, then it confirms to us that there is a heavy reliance on importation to bridge the production deficit which is why Africa’s total consumption of maize accounts for 28% of the global maize imports.

It is projected that by 2050, the demand for maize in the developing world is expected to double. This in itself is a good sign for anyone in the Maize value chain especially the local and cross-border trader, as it presents an opportunity to increase their earning exponentially.

Farming & Production

Maize is the most productive grain crops in the middle and northern belts of Nigeria where sunshine is adequate and rainfall is moderate. In these areas, storage of grains can be accomplished without much damage from the insect pest.

Maize grows in a wider range of soil type than rice, almost every part of Nigeria can grow maize on their soil. Some farmers use Hybrid Maize seeds and mechanized system of farming which gives them better yield of up to 10.2 tonnes per hectare, while crude farming methods which most African farmers are used to gives low yield of up to 2.1 tonnes per hectare.

As most of Maize in Nigeria is rain-fed, early maize is sown in the North by May/June and March/April in the South for Early maturing Seed variety while Late Maturing Maize variety is sown by July/August. Due to erratic rainfall caused by climate change, farmers are usually encouraged to plant at the onset of rain.

Maize matures very fast, within 3–4 months of planting, the crop is ready for harvest, depending on which stage you want to harvest your crop but then harvesting of early maize is done by May and late Maize is harvested by October.

In Nigeria, Maize farming does not require a handful of training and capital. Once a suitable land, irrigation channel, maize seed and storage barn are available, maize production can begin. If you are like me, you would be concerned about why there is still a production deficit of 5 million metric tonnes of Maize. I discovered that armyworm invasion on most Maize farms is a major reason for the drop in local production and to bridge the deficit, the government relies heavily on importation of the grain.

Consumption

As one of Africa’s dominant food crop, Maize can be consumed in varied forms such as maize flour for confectionaries, semo (for swallow with soup), as corn beef, feed mill (for animals feeding), as roasted corn, boiled or prepared as porridge. In all parts of Africa, green (fresh) maize is boiled or roasted on its cob and served as a snack.

Like many other regions, it is consumed as a vegetable although it is a grain crop rich in vitamins A, C and E, carbohydrates, essential minerals, and contain 9% protein. They are also rich in dietary D and calories which are a good source of energy.

Also, more than 60% of Nigeria’s maize production is consumed by the industrial sector for the production of beer, malt drinks, maize flakes, starch, syrup, dextrose and animal feeds because there is so much value in the industrial processing of maize, especially into animal feed.

Farmers are currently unable to access the industrial market due to high levels of intermediation hence they depend on strong trader cartels to access markets, however, building the capacity of farmers to link directly to top of Supply Chain players would enable them to bypass intermediaries and realize a better price. platform empowers farmers, aggregators and SMEs to sell in a more direct way and to obtain finance based on warehouse receipts and contracts.

A Case Study on Maize Farming in Nigeria was originally published in Agtech Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Commodity trading is often affected by price risk and these risks affects both producers and users of a commodity. If crop prices are low one year, a farmer may plant less of that crop. If prices subsequently rise next year, the farmer will miss out on a potentially profitable crop.

Going by the above, It is safe to conclude that commodity price risks stems from unexpected changes in commodity prices that can reduce a producer’s profit margin and make budgeting difficult.

How then can Agricultural commodity producer insulate themselves from fluctuations in commodity prices? Perhaps the best method to explore is to implement financial strategies that will guarantee a commodity’s price (to minimize uncertainty) or lock in a worst-case-scenario price (to minimize potential losses). This is referred to as Commodity Hedging and it is a process commonly explored to hedge against commodity price risk.

Like Chuck Kowalski, “A hedger is basically a person or company that is involved in a business related to a particular commodity. They are usually a producer of a commodity or a company that needs to purchase a commodity in the future. Either party is trying to limit their risk by hedging in the commodity markets.

The easiest example to associate to a hedger is a farmer. A farmer grows crops, soybeans for example, and has the risk that the price of soybeans will decline by the time he harvests his crops in the fall. Therefore, he would want to hedge his risk by selling soybean futures, which locks in a price for his crops early in the growing season.

Let us assume the price of soybeans is currently trading at $13 a bushel. If the farmer knows he can turn a profit at $10, it might be wise to lock in the $13 price by selling (shorting) the futures contracts. The risk is that the price of soybeans could fall below $10 by the time he harvests and is able to sell his crops at the local market.Trading futures on exchanges is an efficient process. It, however, requires large volumes as the fixed cost of setting up and operating an exchange is high.

Binkabi, a blockchain based commodity trading network has moved to deal with this gap by initiating a blockchain-based forwards contracts which can be done peer-to-peer, i.e., without an exchange, whilst overcoming the difficulties of traditional forwards contracts.

A typical use-case as described in Binkabi’s White Paper goes like this, “A rice producer wants to hedge price risk, he/she can enter into a forwards contract to sell rice at $500/ton in 3 months’ time. A smart contract regulates the agreement between the parties. Each party also locks up an amount of collateral into a multisignature smart contract. This is equivalent to the initial margin in a futures contract. Each day, the amount of collateral is recalculated and any shortfall is covered by a margin call (equivalent to variation margin). The daily spot price of the commodity is fed to the margin smart contract by an oracle. At the end of the 3 month’s period, the spot price of a ton of rice is, say, $450 the producer will be paid: $500 — $450 = $50 per ton under the forwards contract. He/she sells the rice on a spot market and gets $450 per ton. So the price he/she gets is $450 + $50 = $500/ton.”.

Please note that Hedging does not necessarily help you in earning money but it helps you in lessening the potential loss and that is the reason why it is used by entrepreneurs and investors who are not just about earning profit from hedging but looking to earn a constant return by reducing risk.

Commodity Hedging Made Easy! was originally published in Agtech Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I have interacted with more farmers in the last month than I have ever done years before now. From my interaction with these farmers, they have all acknowledged that they have a common enemy and they think they have been cheated and overly dependent on him and for this, I sincerely empathise with them but then again, who is this enemy?

This example might just help you to understand who the enemy is, if not, there are more examples to explore before we round off this piece. My pops friend who produces poundo yam in a local area in Ondo State, Nigeria works hard to cultivate several hectares of yam in his village, he didn’t stop at that, he began to process and package the yam to poundo yam to sell to the United Kingdom (UK). He was introduced to a Nigerian in the UK who could help out, this guy buys about 100 bags of Poundo yam from this local farmer at about 1 pound and sells in the Uk at more than 30 pounds.

Who is this guy? He is the middle guy between the farmer and the guys in the UK who buys the poundo yam. He buys poundo yam from the farmer at a ridiculous price and sells to the UK at a very attractive price, rakes in most of the profit and continues to let this man bear most of the risks of production with little returns in the end. The poundo yam farmer’s business risks doesn’t equal his rewards. This is unfair and at the same time unfortunate because the old man needs to sell to survive and this guy seems to be an opportunist who is exploiting his hard work.

Take a look at this too, a young friend of mine who has a 1 hectare of land in Abeokuta with a 600,000 naira he could spare. Rather than squander this money or leave the land to fallow, he thought of exploiting its benefits. He went on to set up a cassava farm that would secure his investment for a year and yield returns considering the projections he got when he was out and about on his feasibility studies. Unfortunately for him, on harvesting the cassava, he made just 25,000 naira because he couldn’t get a market and only a middleman could help him break the market jinx but only if he bought the entire produce at the ridiculous price of 25,000 naira. He was also distraught and terribly sad. Should this continue to happen?

Is it more obvious to you now that this middle guy is someone the farmer peeps would like to gun down if they had the chance because they constantly feel cheated engaging with him. We need to resolve this enmity before it blows up soon, and if it blows up, we will all bear the brunt. We will continue to have low food supply and hunger might just be the consistent narrative.

Binkabi is not just the umpire settling this crisis but an innovator proffering an alternative to this menace through her Barter Block™, which uses smart bartering mechanism, to match relevant trades on the blockchain. The protocol removes foreign exchange costs and middlemen, thereby affording farmers more profit. Read more here.

Who will resolve the enmity between Farmers and Middlemen? was originally published in Agtech Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Overview

Sorghum originated in northern Africa and has spread to many tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It is uniquely adapted to Africa’s climate, being both drought resistant and able to withstand periods of water-logging and it is often regarded as the grain of 21st century Africa. The potential for sorghum to be the driver of economic development in Africa is enormous and it has the capacity to be the cornerstone of food security in Africa.

Economics

Sorghum is a plant that has been growing for five thousand years, and it is deemed to be the fifth most important grain crop grown in the world today.

The greatest share in the world’s consumption of sorghum belongs to China and this is according to USDA data. China’s sorghum consumption, which was only 3.2 million tons in the 2012/13 season, reached 63.2 million tons in total in 2017.

It has thus maintained to be on the first rank in the global sorghum consumption, dubbed the world’s largest market due to the country’s huge appetite for the commodity and its low domestic production.

On the other hand, Nigeria, which was ranked as the fourth in the global sorghum consumption in the 2015/16 season, rose to second place with 6.7 million tons in the 2016/17 season. This is essentially because the grain is one of the staple foods for poor and rural people consumed by some of the largest tribe in the country in its northern hemisphere where it grows the most due to its drought-and heat-tolerant nature. Ultimately, China and Nigeria are followed by the USA, Sudan, Mexico, India, Ethiopia and Argentina in the global sorghum consumption.

With the rising consumption of Sorghum in Africa and globally, production is still not commensurate to consumption. Going by the data on world sorghum production provided by the United States Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA FAS) which suggests that the sorghum production is at 60.6 million tons with the US being the world’s largest producer of sorghum, having a production of approximately 12.2mn tonnes, representing over 18% of total global production. Nigeria also follows the US with an annual production estimated at 6.94mn tonnes, while China occupies the eighth position with an output of 2.4mn tonnes. In global production of sorghum; the USA, Nigeria and Sudan are followed by Mexico with 4.7 million tons, India with 4.5 million tons, China with 3.8 million tons, and Ethiopia with 3.6 million tons.

The global demand for Sorghum creates a gap that is mainly filled through imports and owing to Nigeria’s leading position among other sorghum producers, the relative proximity of Nigeria to China and the already existing positive trade ties between both economies, China is currently one of Nigeria’s top trading partners accounting for approximately 20% of Nigeria’s total imports and 4.5% of total exports. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s sorghum production is unable to meet its domestic demand which is estimated at 8.5mn tonnes.

Given its vast arable land, Nigeria’s potential sorghum output is estimated at 13.5mn tonnes, 94.5% above current production. The attainment of this potential means that Nigeria would have enough to meet its domestic demand and produce an excess of about 5mn tonnes available for exports but based on its current challenges like low access to credit facilities to small scale farmers that make up almost 80% of Sorghum production, these potential seems far from being realized but with Binkabi’s innovation and her recent partnership with Sterling Bank and AFEX, farmers are better positioned to access loans backed by their warehouse receipt. And ultimately, key players in the sorghum production can now utilize the grain commodity marketplace “uber for grains” to trade grains and make more profit.

Farming & Production

Nigeria accounts for about 65–70% of the total sorghum production in West Africa. It is produced in Bauchi, Borno, Zamfara Yobe, Gombe, Adamawa, Kaduna, Jigawa, Niger, Kebbi, Taraba, Plateau, Sokoto, Katsina, and Nasarawa.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a grass plant with tiny grains that grows well in warm climates and is widely cultivated in Australia, Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica and India. Growing sorghum is as simple as growing corn, and you can choose between growing grain sorghum (milo), sorghum varieties known as broom corn, or sweet sorghum for making into sorghum syrup.

In Nigeria, a great time frame for planting sorghum is between September and mid-October. Drought (harmattan) would not have settled in by this time, meaning that the soil would neither be too moist or too dry — the perfect soil condition for sorghum farming in Nigeria and you can expect a yield of 1.3 tonnes per hectare upon harvesting.

Sweet sorghum is harvested 14–17 days after the grains begin milking (pierce the grain to check for milk-like liquid). Cut off the canes from the bottom, remove the leaves and then keep the canes aside. Grain and forage sorghum need to be left a while longer; just until the grain become mature (hard and bright).

Yields are either manually or mechanically harvested. Large yields require harvesters. Sugarcane harvesters will do for sweet or forage sorghum. Manually cut off the seed clusters of grain sorghum with a few inches of stalks remaining.

Consumption

Consumption of sorghum in rural producing areas is more stable, and usually considerably higher, than in urban centres. And within these rural areas, consumption tends to be highest in the poorest, most food-insecure regions.

Sorghum is eaten in a variety of forms that vary from region to region. In general, it is consumed as whole grain or processed into flour, from which traditional meals are prepared. There are four main sorghum-based foods:

· flat bread, mostly unleavened and prepared from fermented or unfermented dough in Asia and parts of Africa;

· thin or thick fermented or unfermented porridge, mainly consumed in Africa;

· boiled products similar to those prepared from maize grits or rice;

· preparations deep-fried in oil.

About 48 percent of world sorghum grain production is fed to livestock (human food use constitutes about 42 percent). In contrast to food utilization, which is relatively stable, utilization for feed sorghum changes significantly in response to two factors: rising incomes, which stimulate the consumption of livestock products, and the price competitiveness of sorghum vis-a-vis other cereals, especially maize. While sorghum is generally regarded as an inferior cereal when consumed as food, the income elasticities for livestock products (and hence the derived demand for feed) are generally positive and high.

Another important outlet for grain sorghum, especially in Africa, is in the preparation of alcoholic beverages. The grain is used for malt or as an adjunct in the production of two types of beer: clear beer and opaque beer, a traditional, low-alcohol African beer that contains fine suspended particles

Harvest Spotlight: Sorghum was originally published in Agtech Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Overview

The soybean industry is beginning to place itself as one of the leading crops in the grain and oilseed industry because soybean production is rising annually, matched with a rise in global demand. It is a pod-bearing plant, widely grown for its edible bean and can be grown only in tropical, subtropical and moderate climates. The soybeans trading business is quite lucrative due to its vast market demands hence it can increase employment generation and boost food security in Africa.

Economics

The world soybean consumption is very high, currently estimated as 333 million tons in 2017 and approximately 75% of the consumption of soybean is seen as animal feed. The growing demand for animal feed is driving the market growth and based on the rising trend of soybean production, it is evident that global soybean supplies have expanded strongly in recent years and plantings are likely to trend up to new highs in years to come. World production is also expected to increase, underpinned by rising demand for high-protein meals.

With the latest estimates by the USDA, there are major indications that world soybean production is likely to increase to 345 million tons in 2017/2018 season, which is a 10,1% increase in two years. The key drivers in the increasing soybean production are the United States of America (USA), Brazil and Argentina, who collectively contribute 81% to the global soybean production. USA alone is set to produce 45% share of the global production, meanwhile Brazil and Argentina account 31% and 17%, respectively.

Interestingly, more than 100 countries grow soybeans and in the world context, production in Africa is irrelevant because less than 1% of global soybean production is in Africa and about half of it comes from South Africa, the rest from Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe and a number of smaller producers.

Despite the growing demand from the poultry and edible oils industries, the production and supply still does not meet the demand in Nigeria. In 2015/2016, Nigeria produced approximately 680,000 tons of soybean, failing to meet the domestic demand estimated at 2.2 million tons in 2016 due to low yields.

Nigeria is the second highest producer of soybean in Africa after South Africa, whose production was 740,000 tons in the same year; even though the area harvested by Nigeria is 28% higher than that of South Africa with 700,000H.

With this level of production and China’s recent status of being the leading importer of soybeans, Soybeans export in Africa is expected to grow alarmingly with market growth stimulating factors such as high demand for soybean oil and increasing public awareness about the health benefits of soybean consumption.

Farming & Production

The first step to starting a soybeans farming business is to pick the right location to plant your crops. Some great locations to get a farmland with rich soils are in the south-west, south-east, and some parts of Northern Nigeria.

Cultivation for soybeans usually starts in May or June in Nigeria. Naturally, soybeans grow well on all kinds of soil, except deep soils with poor water retention. Therefore, experts recommend that the optimal ground PH for soybean cultivation is 6.5, which will ultimately produce a yield of 1–2 MT/ha

Another important factor to consider when embarking on soybeans farming in Nigeria is rainfall. Nigeria has a very favorable climatic condition that is ideal for soybeans to flourish. Most areas in the country record over 700mm of rainfall annually.

Bountiful harvest is next to impossible without adequate irrigation. The crop can also be grown in areas with lesser amount of rainfall via irrigation agriculture which is gradually becoming a trend in Nigeria. Additionally, normal water supply is of utmost necessity during the process of the cod and beans expansion.

Harvesting soybeans is a painstaking process. You can begin to harvest your soya beans three months (100 to 160 days) after planting. At this time, the plant should have attained maturity. This is usually determined when about 90% of the pod has turned brown. Drought weather is very necessary for your harvest and excessive moisture can be damaging.

Another important factor to note is that harvesting your soybeans relies on two main factors: the kind and level of growth of the crop. If the soya beans are well developed, they can be harvested at the snap, shell or dry phase. The harvested plants are then poured on a tarpaulin and allowed to dry under direct sunlight before they are threshed.

Consumption

Soybeans are an edible legume highly famed for being nutritious; as they are rich in protein, calcium, fiber, iron, magnesium, and other enriching vitamins and minerals.

In Africa, Soybeans are versatile, as they can be cooked, fermented, dried, and converted into products like milk, flour, tofu, and more. The bean curd is fried and eaten as a snack or breakfast food. Mature beans are not easily digested and contain toxic compounds, which require soaking and prolonged cooking.

Soybeans are processed for their oil and protein for use in the animal feed production industry. The poultry and pig industries are two major consumers of the soybean meal, with over half of the soybeans which are being processed for livestock feed are fed to poultry and about one-quarter of it being fed to pigs, while and the rest is fed to beef cattle, dairy cattle and used as pet food. Other uses of soybeans include its consumption by industries in the production of biodiesel.

Harvest Spotlight: Soybean was originally published in Agtech Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.