Nigeria Wheat Expansion Project: Farmers Green Field Day and Inception Meeting

6 Mar 2024

Nigeria Wheat Expansion Project: The project at a glance

Together with the Flour Milling Association of Nigeria (FMAN) we are working towards establishing an inclusive wheat supply chain project in Nigeria. The project aims to promote sustainable wheat production, empower smallholder farmers, provide market access, and contribute to the nation’s food security and economic prosperity. FMAN will receive Technical Assistance (TA) support from IDH to develop and implement the wheat supply chain to achieve this goal. The TA project will catalyse in increasing Nigeria’s wheat production capacity. An inception meeting was organised to discuss the major components of the TA project and guide the strategy and expected deliverables.

FMAN- Farmers Green Field Day

Before the Project Inception Meeting with FMAN on the Wheat Expansion Program, IDH participated in FMAN’s Farmers Green Field Day in Jigawa and Kano on the 7th and 8th of February. Several stakeholders were represented at these Green Field Days including traditional rulers, representatives of the State Governors, General Manager of Golden Agri Input Ltd, Executive Director of Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI), Director General of National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC), representative of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, State commissioners of Agriculture, Wheat Farmers Associations, the outgrower farmers and their lead farmers and other community farmers. It was a good outing as it afforded IDH the opportunity to interact and share IDH’s involvement in the wheat expansion program in Nigeria, other IDH’s work in the country and the future plan. The Nigeria Country Director (Eniola Fabusoro) gave a good will message on behalf of IDH in these events.

 

 

Nigerian Wheat Expansion Project – Inception meeting

This meeting, held by FMAN, was an excellent opportunity for them to provide an overview of the implementation strategy, discuss project activities, key performance indicators, implementation plan, and guide on the IDH reporting templates, including M&E tools.

There was a clear understanding about the project approach by FMAN team.  In their reaction, they acknowledge the efforts of IDH team for the partnership in the wheat expansion program in Nigeria. In his words, the head of value chain development, Dr Aliyu commented that ‘For the fact that wheat is not totally new in Nigeria, private sector intervention does not exist. He appreciated that IDH is partnering with FMAN who is spearheading this at this time. It is interesting to see that the Government of Jigawa is seeing the expected outcome of the wheat program and has pledged their support for wheat expansion in Jigawa state and hope that all other Governors will follow suit.

IDH gave the description of the project and the expected results at the end of the partnership

  • The Project will be implemented in 3 years (January 1 2024- December 31st 2026) subject to the submission of an Assessment Report on the Impact of Wheat Production Practices on the Environment (Soil, Water, and Land Use) by FMAN ultimately on July 31st
  • 25,000 farmers (5000 block farmers and 20,000 new smallholder farmers) will be onboarded for the 3 years. The number of farmers will be spread across four states
  • The Project will be implemented in Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi and Sokoto States
  • The yield of Wheat is expected to increase by 75% from the baseline of 2.0MT to 3.5MT
  • The increase in productivity and the relative increase in yield is expected to increase farmers’ income by 100% over the baseline
  • FMAN is expected to offtake 99,450 metric tonnes of wheat grain from the project farmers (54,450 from block farmers and 45,000 from the non-block farmers across the 4 states).
  • FMAN to raise 20,000 trees seedlings to be distributed to the block farmers @ 4 each to contribute to environmental stewardship.

 

What are we trying to achieve?

For the farmers:

  • Increased production capacity
  • Increased yield
  • Access to credit and financial services
  • Increased Income
  • Sustainable water use
  • Improved soil condition
  • Afforestation

From FMAN side, the project intends to achieve

  • Increased Import substitution
  • Change in Business practice
  • Increased capacity
  • Improved Sustainability
  • Jobs creation

All these will contribute to IDH impact themes; Better Income, Better Environment and Gender inclusion.