Zowasel Introduces Free Agronomy Services for smallholders Farmers
Zowasel has announced the launch of its free agronomy services to support smallholder farmers and emerging farms across its network with quick and timely farming advice. The aim is to help farmers make accurate decisions on actions required for improved quality crop cultivation and increase productivity to help meet growing demand on its Marketplace platform.
The company is rolling out a holistic program through its combination of physical agronomist-driven field interventions and its digital twin technology to support the development of quality supply and market-driven demand value chains.
A team of in-house agronomists and sustainability experts have been assembled to help farmers significantly reduce cultivation costs, improve crop quality, increase yield and productivity. The team will support farmers from “farm preparation, harvest, down to market’’.
To further boost the program in Nigeria, Zowasel is investing in “one-stop” remote infrastructures (crop test centers) across rural communities. Zowasel will leverage its technology to support the ecosystem and deploy sustainable sourcing experts across the farming regions. Zowasel aims to drive the building of a robust supply chain by directly connecting farmers with market access through the Marketplace Platform.
“We’re thrilled about the potential of combining agronomy expertise with our technology capabilities to help smallholder farmers increase farm output and crop quality. This is a comprehensive agronomy service that allows farmers to employ scientific crop planning depending on soil and climatic factors, as well as crop and disease control inputs and management”, said Mr. Abdul Karim Bangura, Zowasel’s Head of Agronomy & Sustainable Sourcing.
He further added: “Our Crop Centers offer a one-stop opportunity for smallholder farmers to access this service and serve as rally points to educate local farmers on how to adapt and embrace tech-driven solutions to make better and quicker decisions, increase yield and income.”
The free agronomy service would be available to smallholder farmers and emerging farms across the oil palm, cocoa, cassava, sorghum, soybean, corn, wheat, rice, and sesame value chains across the Zowasel network in the southwest, south-south, northwest, and north-central regions.
How the Service Works
Farmers are simply required to come together as a cooperative or cluster to make a request through Zowasel remote Crop Centers close to them, visit the company’s website to fill the request form here, or simply call 01 342 4403 to speak with a crop advisor.
Zowasel plans to enroll and onboard farmers as unique clusters on the service to provide timely support that they need and value. The team of agronomists, field and sustainable sourcing experts, are then assigned based on farmers’ requests and locations to work with the group of farmers to provide comprehensive, scientific, and precise advisory services to the group, including farm visits.
The company’s Head of Sustainability & Inclusion, Priscilla Udoh says, “The program offers proactive and reactive crop cultivation support and advisory services. Proactive is based on scientific crop and soil management practices and recommendations to achieve good crop cultivation practices and better yield. While, reactive is a support-based service where farmers can raise alerts on issues related to pests, diseases, and other hindrances/factors that could affect the crop, etc., and get remedial solutions for their farm problems”.
Mrs. Udoh, further explained that she and her team would be working diligently to oversee the implementation of the program to address sustainability-related issues and GAP training across the community, people, and the planet.
How are Farmers Reacting?
We spoke to a few farmers to understand their expectations and needs. An early adapter, Mallam Bala, an emerging maize farmer in Kaduna, Northwest Nigeria, explains his thoughts on the Zowasel Agronomy Service, “I have benefited from the company’s free agronomy services for my maize farm, the team of qualified experts visited my farm and gave me a full report and has been providing regular support and guidance including market information. This season, the quality of the crop improved due to the right actions at the right time helping me earn more. I am happy for the services and most importantly, I was able to sell my crops through the Zowasel platform.”
In the forthcoming farming seasons and beyond, Zowasel aims to use this free service to improve farmers’ crop quality, increase productivity, and increase yield by fivefold. Additionally, the Zowasel crop test center will reduce post-harvest losses by making market access available across major farming communities.
Though starting with some selected crops, Zowasel intends to develop new modules and grow its agronomy team to support more crops across the value chain in the future.
