Over 5,000 Smallholder Female Farmers to Benefit From Seed Fairs In Northeast Nigeria

Over 5,000 Smallholder Female Farmers in Northeast Nigeria will consistently gain access to leguminous seeds for intercropping with Gum Arabic-producing trees.

“We expect to reach this number in phases, starting with Bauchi and Gombe as phase 1 and 2 and Yobe and Borno States as phases 3 and 4 respectively,” Chief Executive Officer of Inspire Decision Consulting (IDC), Harc Moko, said.

Already, a total of 178 smallholder female gum Arabic farmers have started benefitting from the project through IDC’s second seed fair event, held last month in Misau, Bauchi State.

The fair, supported by Propcom Mai-Karfi and implemented by Palladium International through its Agro-forestry intervention, is the second in a series of planned fairs.

The series of seed fairs targets up to 10,000 General Assembly members of the National Association of Gum Arabic Producers, Processors and Exporters of Nigeria (NAGAPPEN) from Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe and Borno States, with subsequent fairs scheduled to hold in Borno and Yobe States. 55% of the participants will be women.

The institutional strengthening initiative is designed to build enterprise and group leadership skills, while reinforcing technical training delivered through Propcom Mai-karfi supported agro-forestry interventions.

The initiative has the objective of helping the association to better perform coordination functions for the benefit of its members, ensuring these members are accessing quality inputs, higher-value markets and performing good agricultural practices such as inter cropping with legumes.

It is also meant to create employment opportunities for Association members, as retailers of seeds through their integration into the supply chain of Techni Seeds, thus enabling better access to seeds for Association members at the last mile.

The event was organized by IDC in collaboration with Techni Seeds Ltd, a certified seed distributor, as part of IDC’s Institutional Capacity Strengthening initiative and had in attendance senior management and executive leadership of both private sector organizations.