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Africa's most populous
country and largest economy faces rising food insecurity as a combination of a
mostly informal agriculture sector and growing population puts pressure on the
country's food resources. According to the World Bank's development indicators,
food insecurity increased from 6% of the Nigerian population in 2007 to 13.4%
in 2017.
The agriculture sector is
the largest contributor to the Nigerian economy and employs two-thirds of its
workforce. However, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation,
food production in Nigeria is undermined by a number of factors, among them
poor planting material and insufficient use of fertiliser, leading to a growing
reliance on food imports.
In support of smallholder
farmers and improved food security in Nigeria, the Convention on Business
Integrity's for-profit arm, CBi Innovations Limited (CBiIL) has chosen the SAP
Rural Sourcing Management solution to support 850 000 small maize producers and
integrate them into the agricultural value chains.
Pedro Guerreiro, Managing
Director: Central Africa at SAP, says support of smallholder farmers in Nigeria
will provide greater food security while also empowering farmers and other
players in the agri value chain to unlock greater economic opportunities.
"Smallholder farmers cultivate plots that are on average 2ha in size, and
earn less than $1,000 a year," says Guerreiro. "We believe that by
equipping them with better information and providing access to more suppliers
and greater selling opportunities, we can improve smallholder farmers'
productivity and output. This will have the dual benefit of greater food
security as well as improved economic opportunities for the farmers, who
typically support multiple family members with the money raised from selling
their produce."
The SAP Rural Sourcing
Management solution includes a mobile application that enables better tracking
and collecting of data related to farms, crops, farmers and produce sales.
Before it was launched as a standard solution in 2017, it was piloted in
partnership with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
Development (BMZ). The solution has been used by governments and large agri
producers across Africa to better track and manage crop outputs and give
smallholder farmers improved access to information, market data and selling
opportunities across the agri value chain.
According to CBiIL CEO Soji
Apampa, CBiIL is already working with Nestle Nigeria to build an ecosystem of
young maize agripreneurs in partnership with AGRA, and this new opportunity
will accelerate plans to meet set goals of empowering maize farmers in the region
leveraging technology. CBiIL has also trained hundreds of Community Livelihoods
Information Field Entrepreneurs (LIFE) Agents, young unemployed graduates that
are recruited from the communities in which they will serve.
"By deploying the
Community LIFE Agents kitted out with devices running SAP Rural Sourcing
Management, CBiIL will enable effective and efficient aggregation of
smallholder producers in ways that support predictability of volumes and
quality of production. Data aggregation is a key component of this service and
we leverage technology to achieve every milestone along the chain," says
Apampa.
The design is for each LIFE
agent to support between 50 and 100 smallholder farmers equipped with an
Android device on which various applications are installed to facilitate
various streams of business to support the village level eco-system. They will
receive commission on the products and services (inputs, telephone credit,
banking, extension support and more) they provide to farmers, as well as a
premium based on the productivity growth of each of the farmers with whom they
work.
Cathy Smith, Managing
Director for SAP Africa, says the project marks another milestone in SAP
Africa's commitment toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in
particular Goals 1 (No Poverty) and 2 (Zero Hunger). "Through our efforts
to building greater food security, we also provide additional value to
stakeholders across the agri value chain by improving access to sustainably sourced
rural produce. The success of this project may also serve as a template for
similar projects elsewhere in Africa. With 60% of all jobs in Africa currently
in the agriculture sector and an estimated 250 million smallholder farmers, any
impact we make here has the potential of bringing significant benefits to local
communities, industries and the economy as a whole."
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