Business of soil replenishment through farmer accessibility and affordability (FAA) approach
As a young graduate of Agricultural Economics and Extension from the Federal University of Technology Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria, I have always had interest in agriculture and agribusinesses. My focus areas include farming, marketing, communication and youth engagement.
My name is John Agboola and I am a value chain catalyst and extension agent with knowledge of trends in ways the technology and communication interface with agriculture. My childhood, experience and location, gave me the opportunity to observe farmers struggle to acquire both self-purchased and the widely advertised government subsidized fertilizers.
Over the years, things have not changed. Possible solutions that farmers have employed include the purchase of fertilizers from the open market. However, this has not been effective though it looks convenient as the exposure of the fertilizer to elements of weather makes it lose its potency. This ends up discouraging farmers and the desired outcome – increased productivity/yield is never attained. The farmers lose interest as a belief system that introduction of new technologies are a means to reap them off.
It has also been observed that companies involved in production, sales and distribution of fertilizers have not considered the purchasing power and accessibility of farmers to their products. Factoring the utmost desires of the companies – making profit and that of the farmers – increased yield translated to more money (profit), I believe packaging of fertilizers into smaller sachets and bags so much that any farmer can access any size he/she has the ability to purchase or use. This is termed as the Farmer Accessibility and Affordability (FAA) approach.
This project will focus on boosting the socio-economic livelihood of farmers through the creation of affordability and accessibility of smaller sizes fertilizer. A farmer once said that “To us in the rural area, we only hear of government giving us fertilizer but nothing comes forth but we could only afford small quantity from open market”. This buttresses the need to target rural farmers and young farmers using the FAA approach to benefit the larger percentage of poor people in the rural area, who are arguably farmers.
Presently, Nigeria has close to 160 million farmers and 80% of them are smallholder farmers with less than 20% having access to fertilizer. Averagely, a smallholder farmer operates on 0 – 2ha of land with less profit at the end of the planting season. This means that they will be needing smaller bags of fertilizers than the big bags that are being used. It is expected that the fortune embedded in this project will shoot up their production and income level by 5% and training will contribute efficiently.
This project will target about 1000 male and female farmer, create a sense of belonging as they reap the benefits. This will guarantee the sustainability of the project. Also, the beneficiaries will be trained on fertilizer application and soil analysis. This is expected to shoot up farmers’ production, equip them with knowledge, increase their income and ultimately increase their standard of living, not also neglecting networking farmers to make more sales and international donor agencies to partner with in bringing about sustainable agriculture and food security.
The implementation of this approach will include mapping key areas of targeted audience; the identification of supplier/company producing the fertilizer in tons; working with group of three who have vast knowledge of agriculture, soil, fertilizer and farmers to repack the product into sizes based on options for the target audience and finally sell the product alongside our training and knowledge transfer program.
Monitoring and evaluation plan will be incorporated into the project.
The project sum is 5,000 U.S. Dollars (approximately One Million Naira in Nigeria currenty).
The budget reveals that a sum of US $401 will be spent on the shop rental for 2 years; in 1 year, a sum of US $803 will be use for the purchase of machines, materials for bagging and the designing of the product; on a monthly basis, US $200 will be used for purchasing the fertilizer in large quantity and in 1 year, the total spending will be US $2409; cost of labor will be US $481 for 1 year; training and transportation amounts for US $752 in a year and the miscellaneous cost have a share of US $150 for a period of one year.
Blogpost and pictures submitted by John Agboola (Nigeria) – john.agboola.o(at)gmail.com
Pictures courtesy One Acre Fund
The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.
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Nice one from your stable, I know you know your onions as all agric students from your Alma Mata that I have known.
Please what state(s) or value chains/crop belts are you looking at sir.
Wish you the very best
Thank you Johnson,
Presently, the focus will be on Southwest State of Nigeria and big importance to Food crops.
Thank you once again.
This is a good one sir, the passion embedded in your proposal tells me how much you wish to see this farmers assisted. This project will open the eyes of the Nigerian government to what they have been missing in reaching out to the rural farmers. Good job once again Mr John
It such a good one dear, since day one I’ve seen in u d passion for dis kind of project. And i pray it will surely come out of gud fortune for u. More grease to ur elbow
Thanks you Taiwo, I am honored and Amen to the Prayers
I wish you the very best as you forge ahead in your vision. it’s a success already.
Nice one bro, this is a good step in the right direction especially now when the hype is on about agricultural sustainability and development in Africa.
One question I have is this, will you be producing the fertilizers or be repackaging alone?
Thanks David.
The fertilizer will be bought from a reliable company and will be re-bag..This brings out what we want
Nice idea John; one question though, will you be producing the fertilizers and packaging them into desired sizes or will you purchase the fertilizers and repack them?
Thanks. Our aim is to re-bag the fertilizer after purchasing from a reliable company but as time goes on, we will establish our own production company
This is an awesome proposal, Good work from you, John.
Thanks
Nice idea bro, I wish you all the best ahead in this your vision.
Another great proposal, John! Many farmers neglect the soil, not knowing it is one key ingredient to a successful and thriving farm. Training people how to utilize fertilizers properly is needed!
Thank you Dax. That is the real issues here in Nigeria and we are working to address it.
Nice idea babadogood, keep it up. I’m proud of you.
Thank you Tolu
Its really great idea, you try to solve the problem by kick the main one. About this fertilizer will it be a superficial (anorganic) one?
Best
Fitriani saputra
Thank you Fitriani. As regarding your question, the concept is to try both but preference will be given to organic type. Thanks
Nice one John! Its a very good proposal.
Thank you Doctimi
Great concept John! The soil is the bedrock of all cultivation and hence the conservative use of it is very important and glad to know your project will be working on this. Nice one! Keep it up John!
Thank you Tolu. Just want to be like you as..a soli expert
John, I believe this is a good piece. How I wish Nigeria has more young people thinking like this. I wish you all the best.
Thank you Mrs Olayide
This looks promising. It will be nice to have the reference or source of the data on Nigerian farmers. I hope your project sails through so that you can inspire several other young Nigerians.
Thank you ma…Presently, the data on Nigeria farmers but we have a growing population the rural area.
Evry dreamer is not a doer & evry doer is not a dreamer. u ave d deadly combination of being a dreamer & a doer. wishing u Gud luck on ur project.
Thank you Blessing.
It is a welcome ideal and good innovative for Agricultural sectors. More Grace to your knowledge with wisdom. All the best
Thank you Ezekiel.I just love farmers because I am one.
John this is the first idea of sachet retailing, that I am aware of, that is not centred on FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) but inputs. This will be a good strategy to help the pro-poor buy-as-they-need of fertilizers as well spread the rest of their lean resources on other agro-inputs. Good one!
Thank you Mr. Fred,
The FMCG is YAP 52…This is a aim to help smallholder farmers through an accessibilty and affordability approach.
Thank once again sir.
I have never been a fan of government giving or claiming to give farmers input or in this case fertilizer.So if smaller pack sizes will give more access and make it more affordable then it makes lot of sense. My questions however is how do you plan to determine the soil replenishment need of the targeted group? Soil testing? or will you generalize based on crop grown? its important to consider this
Thank you Wale for your comment and question.
The intention is to determine the soil need based on the crop grown and the propose training and teaching highlighted on soil testing will give more insight on this for farmers.
I think if this is achieved, it is going to encourage people to go into farming which will in turn reduce unemployment in our dear country.
Good one brother. More power to your elbow
Thank you Ozon for your encouragement.