Zowasel Opens Crop Center in Ikom to Support Oil Palm, Cocoa Farmers
April 28th, 2022 - Zowasel is happy to announce that a new Crop Centre has been commissioned at Edor Community, Ikom Local Government Area in Cross River State, Nigeria’s Niger-Delta region.
As part of a continuous commitment to connecting remote farming communities to the Zowasel Marketplace platform, the Crop Center remote infrastructures are built to serve smallholder farmers as a one-stop-shop for everything agricultural cultivation.
Edor is a key farming community with about 1,000 smallholder farmers commonly cultivating crops such as oil palm, fresh fruit bunches, crude palm oil, and cocoa beans. Most of the farmers lack access to direct market linkages, improved farm inputs, and training on Global Agricultural Practice (GAP) to improve their cultivation practices.
Zowasel has partnered with over 16 farmers’ cooperatives and groups, to support their members with training on Global Agricultural Practice (GAP), Sustainability, and Agronomy Services to improve their cultivation practices, increase productivity, and access premium markets through the Zowasel Marketplace in order to earn more for their crops and better their livelihoods.
The Crop Center would not only support farmers but would also create employment opportunities for the host and neighboring communities through the Zowasel Trustees Program, where local entrepreneurs are selected and assigned to manage the center and make commissions from rendering Zowasel’s services to farmers.
Mr. Steven Njar, a native of the community and a local oil palm farmer was selected to manage the Crop Centre to support smallholder farmers in Edor and the neighboring communities. Steven had served as a community facilitator for Solidaridad West Africa and understood the task ahead.
According to him: “I am very happy to be selected, trained, and offered the opportunity to manage the Crop Centre. It has provided me an opportunity to enable farmers across my community to get access to quality farm inputs to increase our yield and also a platform to sell their crops right in their community.”
Speaking on the new infrastructure, Abdul Bangura, Zowasel’s Head of Operations, said: “The launch of the new Crop Center in Edor is spreading Zowasel services seamlessly across remote communities while enabling smallholder farmers to earn more, grow their income, and improve quality of life.”
Edor CTC is one of three Zowasel Crop Centers across remote farming communities in Cross River State, Nigeria.
See more photos from the launch here.
