Why is it important for you (as aggregator) to partner with Nestle?
Mukhtar Yakubu: As a businessman, I look for profit. I can increase my profits, of course I will prefer to deal with Nestle. Secondly, working with Nestle challenges us to improve our methods in order to meet their quality standards – and they also give us the technical know-how to do this. It also gives you much bigger scope, because we deal with farmer groups rather than individual farmers.
What were your biggest challenges before the Nestle-2SCALE program?
Yakubu: The first challenge was quality – farmers were giving us poor quality grain because of issues during harvesting, cleaning and transportation. Finance was also a problem. We, as aggregators, needed financial backing in order to financially support our farmers. Lastly, and most important, technical know-how on crop management, storage and handling. Experts from the project provided this know-how, enabling farmers to produce high-quality grains that meet the most stringent standards.
What would you say are your biggest achievements?
Yakubu: We have succeeded in producing top quality grains that any big company will accept. We take samples after the harvest and take them for analysis. We used to have problems with mycotoxins, especially aflatoxin and more recently, fumonisin. But we have been able to overcome our quality issues – our samples meet all quality and food safety standards. Secondly, thanks to project experts, we have been able to train farmers in harvest methods and post-harvest packaging and handling – this is an important factor in quality.
Auwal Sulaiman: This partnership has had a huge impact on our business; I will just give the example of quality control and traceability. In the past, we collected grain from different individuals, on the open market, without knowing who the actual farmers were. When we supply to Nestle, if samples do not meet their standards, the entire batch is rejected. This partnership has made us better skilled and more responsible as suppliers. We now understand quality issues, we can identify problems that led to poor quality or rejection. For example, was it aflatoxin contamination, or other externalities? Was it due to our negligence? What can we do to eliminate this problem next time?
Traceability is another aspect of quality. This partnership has helped us organize farmers into groups, provided training and introduced proper accountability, down to field level. We know the source of all the grain we buy. So if a farmer fails to follow the recommended practices, we can identify and solve the problem.
How much has business increased?
Yakubu : Before 2016, I used to collect 30 to 60 tons of sorghum, i.e. two truckloads. Now I collect 50 truckloads, 1500 tons of good quality sorghum.
Sulaiman: Before the project began, we could not get 30 tons from this cluster. We had to go as far as Borno, Yobe and Gombe states to buy the quantity we needed. But this year, we got nearly 270 tons. Next season, we expect to get even more. In the past, there was no market for white sorghum, so farmers were not interested. Today, many farmers want to plant white sorghum because there is a ready market, and we give better prices than the open market.
Your company benefits – but do
you share your profits with farmers?
Sulaiman: In my company, we pay 800-1000 naira per bag above the market price. Also, we collect from their location, farmers do not have to transport their grain to the market.
Yakubu: Before the planting season begins, we provide farmers with seeds and other inputs. From the cost of these inputs, we calculate the production cost and the margins which the farmer can expect. After harvest, we look at the current market price. If we had calculated the production cost to be 7500 per bag, and at harvest, it sells for 9000, we give the margin of 1500 to the farmer, and he is smiling.
How has this partnership changed the sorghum value chain?
Sulaiman: If I look back at where we started, I can say we have overcome most of our challenges: how to locate the famers in their different localities, how to organize them into groups, and how to train them to meet our quality standards. Farmers are used to their traditional ways, they require time to change, not only in terms of technology but also in terms of organization. For example, it was difficult when they did not have cooperatives. We tried to work through elders and chiefs, but it wasn’t easy to get everyone together at one place, or to coordinate their activities efficiently.
But today, farmers have formed groups of their choice, the groups are officially registered, and are able to collectively get inputs from agrodealers. This project has not only improved our business, it has harmonized relationships between farmers, aggregators and Nestle.
Once the 2SCALE program ends, what is the guarantee that your business will continue?
Yakubu: Good question! 2SCALE has created this partnership. We are working with the farmers, they know us, we know them, they have acquired the technical skills, there is no reason whatsoever to abandon them. The best thing for us, as a company, is to continue working with them.
Business will be sustainable even after 2SCALE because this partnership is not just on paper. We have gone to the farms, seen how the crops grew, the yield, the quality… We work directly with farmers on their fields. In other programs we do a lot of talking. Here, it is practical achievement on the ground.