July 30, 2020

Covid-19: Improved sorghum seeds for 1,000 female farmers in Kano and Katsina

Staple Crops

Nigeria

Every new crop season often brings with it a series of concerns for farmers. Access to good seeds, fertilizers or the best qualities of pesticides being the main challenges. Especially in this year, the Covid-19 pandemic added one more concern for farmers who already have had to grapple with limited access to the resources needed to ensure a bountiful harvest.

Adefunke Desh - an aggregator that offtakes high quality white sorghum and supply to large scale processing companies, seeks to alleviate the aforementioned challenges by empowering smallholder farmers to produce high quality white sorghum for both the structured market and household consumption.

In mid-June, Adefunke Desh initiated the distribution of large quantities of improved sorghum seed to over 1,000 women and youth from the two agribusiness business clusters (ABC) in Kuki, Kano State and Funtua in Katsina State, in Nigeria which can plant about 1200 hectares of farmlands.

Mr. Adeshola Michael, Managing Director of Adesh says:

This initiative to support women sorghum producers aims to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the livelihoods of farmers

According to Mr Alhaji Magaji Tijjani, Representative of the district head, this great and adaptive measure was in tandem with the aspirations of the state and Federal Government.Tijjani further implored the women who have benefited from the project to make good use of the seeds.

On behalf of the women beneficiaries, Mrs. Alice John expressed their great satisfaction and delight with the seed distribution. According to her, the donations came at a timely moment, because sowing continues.

The collaboration between Adesh and the women producers is also based on loyalty. Indeed, the company offers a market opportunity by guaranteeing the purchase of 60% of crops from these women.

Adefunke Desh and 2SCALE continue to strengthen the capacity of women in good agricultural practices to enable them to increase their yields ranging from 9 to 15 bags of sorghum per hectare.

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