Zowasel’s Traceability Pilot Rewards First Cocoa Farmers with Sustainability Premium in Nigeria
Zowasel’s traceability pilot makes a significant milestone as it rewards the first cocoa farmers with sustainability premiums in Nigeria. In 2022, over 600 smallholder farmers enrolled in the sustainability program in partnership with Barry Callebaut across communities in the southwest region to produce sustainable cocoa using its technology to track from farm to factory.
These farmers were trained extensively in sustainability and good agricultural practices from pre-season in-season and post-season cultivation. This training resulted in increased sustainable production and tons of cocoa beans traded on the Zowasel platform. Successfully farmers were then paid a sustainability premium as a reward for the volume of cocoa they produced and shipped under the program.
To earn this premium payment, farmers were trained by the Zowasel team of sustainability and agronomy experts to unlearn old practices, relearn new cultivation methods, and gain valuable insights into pre-production, production, and post-production processes through several agricultural and financial programs administered.
To further facilitate the transition to sustainable agriculture, Zowasel worked with the farmer’s cooperatives to digitize their footprints and automate their entire value chain operations as data points for transparency. This generated transparent data points that positioned farmers to access alternative financing, improved farm inputs, and guaranteed markets that Zowasel offers.
Akinfolarin Akinyosoye, a beneficiary and member of the Tonikoko Farmers Cooperative Multipurpose Union, Bamikemo town, Ileluji/Okeigbo LGA, Ondo State, said, “I’m very excited to have received payment for sustainability premium for the first time. We’re indeed very glad to have participated in the program. We appreciate Zowasel empowering us with sustainability practices to achieve this feat.”
Re-emphasizing the company’s mission of improving smallholder farmers’ productivity, sustainability, and profitability across the value chain, Jude Oyewole, Zowasel’s Sustainability Manager, said, “We will continue to work with farmer-facing organizations to support their gallant farmers with sustainability and financial training across pre-season, in-season, and post-season to access extra income through Sustainability premium.”
Also, recognizing the dedication and resilience of smallholder farmers to transition from conventional to sustainable agricultural practices, Priscilla Udoh, Head of Sustainability & Inclusion at Zowasel noted that “without smallholder farmers, there would be no sustainable cocoa; they’re the future of sustainable chocolates. We’re proud of the hard-working farmers, especially women, who dedicated their time to learning new farming skills and sustainable methods to help improve their productivity, and environment to better support their families”.
Another beneficiary, Madam Matilda Akinboni, a member of Idanre Cooperative Multipurpose Union, Idanre LGA in Ondo State, expressed her surprise and gratitude: “I was surprised when I received my payment for sustainability premium. It was like a dream because I had never received payment before. We’re very excited that Zowasel kept their word; we’re already mobilizing more cooperative members to join the platform in the coming season.”
Zowasel aims to improve the gains of its pilot in the new cocoa season to enhance supply chain transparency further, establish direct connections between farmers and enterprise buyers, and ultimately reward hard-working farmers for transitioning to sustainable agriculture. The company will further seek to improve its technology to track and record data points spanning from “know-your farmers to cultivation practices, crop origin, harvest records, storage information down to shipment and finally factory delivery.”
Over 5,000 new cocoa farmers have been registered for the new cultivation season 2023/2024 across different cooperatives and cluster groups, seeking to transition from conventional to sustainable agriculture to access payments for sustainability premiums.
To better support this growing demand, the company has strategically developed remote Crop Center infrastructure across key cocoa-producing communities in Ondo, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom. Additionally, it expanded its platform to Osun, Ekiti, and Oyo to further develop the cocoa value chain and bring its services closer to the producers.
In 2022, Zowasel partnered with Barry Callebaut, entering into both commercial agreements and sustainability programs to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers, their communities, and the health of the planet by promoting sustainable farming practices, gender and nutrition programs, entrepreneurial farming, and landscape protection.
Zowasel now offers enterprise buyers the opportunity to strengthen their existing or new supply chains through its traceability solution.
For partnership opportunities on traceability solutions, enterprise buyers can reach out via partners@zowasel.com for further information
