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“Food for All” Cooperative Society

The initiative aims to fight food insecurity, improve the income status and living standard of the smallholder farmers affected by the Boko-Haram insurgencies by strengthening economic development.

Municipality

NG
Yola, Adamawa,

Category / Sub-Category / Topic

Economic development, Family agriculture

Type of investment needed

Grant

Associated SDGs

The challenge

Food insecurity has caused acute hunger and malnutrition in the communities affected by Boko Haram insurgency and Fulani Herdsmen attacks in the Northeast, Nigeria (Adamawa, Yobe and Borno States). Our goal is to create food security and improve the income status and living standard of the smallholder farmers of the affected communities in Adamawa State. We will do this by providing the farmers with support through our initiative, Food for All Cooperative Society. Our out-grower scheme is aimed at ensuring higher productivity and earnings for the farmers, greater knowledge and skills, access to farm inputs. It is planned to offer access to microcredit loans to help them settle costs of labor, and guaranteed markets at a later stage. 

According to the World Food Programme, 4.4 million people in northeast Nigeria (Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States) are facing acute hunger and 320,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition.    

The project

The overall objective of the initiative is to improve the income situation and standard of living of farmers by creating sustainable food security, in order to remedy the situation of acute hunger and malnutrition that has been identified as a serious problem in communities affected by the Boko Haram insurgency and Fulani herdsmen attacks. The target audience are people whose homes, properties and farms were destroyed by the attacks and, as a result, have been displaced out of their communities.

To improve this situation, it is proposed to support these communities with two lines of action: training and field work. The training is aimed at improving agricultural practices and training in financial issues, business management and capacity building for small farmers. Field work is aimed at accompanying the implementation of new agricultural practices and improving existing ones in order to increase current productivity levels. 

In future phases, it is planned to generate a system for small farmers that will enable them to access microcredits and help them cover the costs associated with production. In addition, we plan to create a network of contacts with guaranteed markets so that they can sell their products at more competitive prices and maximize their profits. 

To achieve these objectives efficiently, it is proposed to form a Cooperative Society that brings together small farmers as members, so that identities and links can be established with greater trust and credibility. The formation of this Cooperative Society will also help to identify more farmers within the affected communities who may need similar support. 

The "Food for All" Cooperative Society will also in a second stage offer membership to consumers within the State. These consumers will be in addition to the guaranteed markets that will already have been created for farmers. 

As a social enterprise, the production scheme will allow farmers to repay the Cooperative after they have harvested their produce. The return of the money is accompanied by 20% of the total value of the investment as the Cooperative's profit, which will be reinvested in order to expand the scope of the operation and reach more farmers in need of similar support. To ensure compliance and recovery of investments by farmers, a trust policy will be established. This policy requires them to provide a guarantor at the time of signing the investment contract, and the implication of this is that in case of breach of contract, the guarantor is liable to pay.  

Know more...

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2019 reported that conflict had severely affected food production systems in northeast Nigeria with the worst affected states being Adamawa, Borno and Yobe which would experience high displacement, enormous human, social and economic losses, and severe levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. The report projected that by August 2019, 2.7 million people would face severe food insecurity, while 1.9 million people would be displaced due to the crisis. Similarly, the World Food Programme recently reported that 4.4 million people in the northeast, Nigeria (Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States) are facing acute hunger and 320,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition. These crises are a result of Boko Haram insurgency and Fulani herdsmen attacks on farmers, as well as another ethno-religious crisis.          

  • Registration of the Cooperative Society to give the initiative legal status. Due to its scale, registration will be done at the local level. The cooperative society will bring together the associated smallholder farmers through membership registration. Registration of new members will be opened once the official registration is done.
  • Training: 100 small farmers will be trained on topics focused on improving agricultural practices to increase productivity levels, and on financial, business management and capacity building issues. The training will be provided by local government officials and other allied organizations that provide support in this area. In addition, agricultural students will be trained to accompany the farmers and monitor the process.
  • Field work: A group of approximately 50 small farmers will be provided with the seeds and inputs necessary to start cultivating with the new knowledge acquired and with the improvement of existing knowledge. This work will be accompanied by students from agricultural careers who will monitor the process to evaluate the impact of the improvements implemented and be able to make proposals for improvements for future crops.
  • Website development: This will be developed as a communication channel to publicize the initiative's model, disseminate good practices, invite new small farmers to join the initiative and other stakeholders to support its development. This website will also provide all the information related to the results of the new implementations as a sign of transparency in practice and accountability to the members of the Society and the actors that support it.


Expected results: 

  • Generation of 5 direct part-time jobs related to the management of the initiative.
  • Training of 100 small farmers in improving current agricultural practices and incorporating new practices, financial literacy, business management and capacity building.
  • Training of 10 students in agricultural areas.
  • Provision of seeds and agricultural inputs for 50 small farmers to cultivate 1 hectare of land each.
  • Development of a website for the "Food for All" Cooperative Society. 
Expected impact:

  • Improved agricultural skills and financial and business management knowledge of 100 small farmers.
  • Increased productive capacity of 100 small farmers.
  • Improvement the standard of living of 700 people, including small farmers and all their family members.
  • Reduction of public health problems related to food insecurity.
  • Promotion of transparency and good agricultural practices with knowledge sharing among related organizations. 
  • Chijioke Attamah. Success Minds Business Solutions / Food Security/ Founder/Programs Coordinator. Knowledgeblog1@gmail.com
  • Pamela Austine. Child Protection and Peer Learning Initiative/Child Protection/Case Worker. pamaustine@gmail.com
  • James Paul. Nuru Nigeria/Livelihood/Programme Officer. Just4james2003@gmail.com
  • Ibrahim Bayaso. Adamawa State Government /Ministry of Agriculture/Assistant Director. ibayaso@gmail.com
  • Michael Moses. Success Minds Business Solutions / Livelihood / Founder/Farm Attendant. mmt.tumba@gmail.com
  • Louis Heyallechardati. Adamawa State Government /Ministry of Agriculture/Assistant Director. hyellalouis1@gmail.com

Investment

(*): In kind/pro bonus

(**): Financing

Goods and inputs
Funds
Needed
Covered
Solicited

Rice Seeds (Faro brand). 720 kg. (*) (**)

u$s 1736.76

u$s 180.00

u$s 1556.76

Maize seeds (SC651 Hybrid seeds). 230 kg. (*) (**)

u$s 1129.80

u$s 0.00

u$s 1129.80

Urea fertilizer. 46% Nitrogen. 1% of biuret maximum. 118 bags 20 kgs size each. (*) (**)

u$s 5105.76

u$s 86.00

u$s 5019.76

Fertilizer NPK 20:10:10. 118 sacks 20 kgs size each. (5 bags for each farmer) (*) (**)

u$s 8315.38

u$s 400.00

u$s 7915.38

Herbicide. Glyphosate. Isopropylamine 47 units 1 lts each. (1 unit for each farmer). (*) (**)

u$s 418.02

u$s 111.00

u$s 307.02

Herbicide. Atrazine. 23 units 1 lts each. (*) (**)

u$s 652.40

u$s 0.00

u$s 652.40

Herbicide Milagro. 23 units 1 litter each

u$s 514.18

u$s 0.00

u$s 514.18

Herbicide Clethodim. 24 units 1 litter each

u$s 300.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 300.00

Services
Funds
Needed
Covered
Solicited

Distribution of farm inputs and other support services (*) (**)

u$s 120.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 120.00

Engage Credit Officers with good agricultural (*) (**)

u$s 200.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 200.00

Registration of the Cooperative Society with Ministry of Social Welfare of Adamawa State Government. (*) (**)

u$s 50.00

u$s 50.00

u$s 0.00

Cost of developing the database driven website. (*) (**)

u$s 600.00

u$s 50.00

u$s 550.00

Cost of hosting the website for one year. (*) (**)

u$s 280.00

u$s 80.00

u$s 200.00

Cost of domain name forone year. (*) (**)

u$s 40.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 40.00

Human resources
Funds
Needed
Covered
Solicited

Salary. Five part time employees for one year (*) (**)

u$s 3600.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 3600.00

Services of two agronomist (experts) to carry out soil analysis and educate the farmes on how to apply fertilizars and herbicides. Two months. (*) (**)

u$s 500.00

u$s 140.00

u$s 360.00

TOTAL AMOUNTS:

u$s 23562.30

u$s 1097.00

u$s 22465.30

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