PAMACC News (Meru, Kenya) - Armed with a ‘mulika mwizi’ mobile phone gadget, Simon Kailikia, a 33 year old smallholder farmer from Baraimu village, Tigania West in Meru County has been able to triple his farm produce, thanks to a phone based platform known as e-Granary.
“Once again, we are expecting another bumper harvest in the next few weeks,” Kailikia told the Seeds of Gold as he patrolled his five acre piece of land under maize crop.
It is the fourth season he is using the e-Granary platform, which ensures that registered smallholder farmers have access to quality certified seeds and relevant farm inputs, access to finance (credit) to fund their activities, insurance cover in case of natural calamities, access to information about Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), and above all, access to weather and climate information so that crops are planted at the right time – all on a mobile phone platform.
After the harvest, registered farmers through their groups bring together all their produce and using the mobile platform, they can access the market collectively.
“There is clear evidence that Africa’s full agricultural potential remains untapped due to use of incorrect farm inputs, late planting, use of poor seeds, inadequate financing, lack of structured markets and lack of insurance cover to cushion smallholder farmers whenever they suffer losses based on the changing climatic conditions and related calamities,” said Mutiga Wanjohi, of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
The e-Granary is a commercial solution developed by the East African Farmers Federation (EAFF) to improve social-economic status of smallholder farmers in 10 African countries in collaboration with governments, UN, Nongovernmental organisations and the private sector.
“We strive to effectively organize and aggregate the otherwise dispersed producer base, in order to achieve scale and engage as a significant stakeholder in the agricultural economy,” said Robert Kubai, the Evaluation and Learning Specialist at the EAFF.
According to Kailikia, it is the first time he has seen the benefit of smallholder farming despite having been brought up in a farming family.
“I was brought up in a farming family, and all through my life, I knew that farming was an activity for people who do not have any meaningful work to do,” said Kailikia. “But today, I have come to appreciate that farming is a sustainable business, beyond hand to mouth survival,” he said.
Kailikia says that his life changed when Baraimu Mathio Self Help Group was introduced to the e-Granary. “For all these years, I never knew that the five acre piece of land under my name had such a huge potential,” said the youthful farmer, and the chair of the group.
Before, he used to plant any seed that was available, sometimes without fertilisers and without following recommended agronomic practices.
However, in 2018, after registering with the e-Granary, he received certified maize seed and necessary farm inputs at the right time on credit. Using the mobile phone platform, he received a short message instructing him on when to plant. And later, he was alerted when the time for topdressing came.
“I was shocked because for the first time, I harvested a total of 93 bags from a piece of land where we used to harvest a total of 25 bags or 20 during a good season,” said the farmer.
Through the e-Granary, EAFF linked him to the buyers of his farm produce, who bought it at an impressive price of Sh3500 per bag. “I sold 87 bags and I used the money to construct a shop, which I now lease to my group members as a store for their produce,” he said. He has since constructed a permanent house from farming activities.
Out of the 67 members of Baraimu Mathio Self Help Group, 55 have completely embraced the e-Granary, most of them women and youth.
To benefit from the e-Granary, one has to be a member of a farmer group. Through the group, the farmer has to register to the e-Granary using a given USSD code because many smallholder farmers in rural villages do not own smart phones.
During registration, the farmer gives all the personal details, the size of the land, the location and the particular crops that they intend to farm. Using this information, the e-Granary calculates the amount of fertilisers and related farm inputs that will be required, and then the EAFF identifies where to buy the seeds, and signs a contract with a potential buyer.
With the contract in place, the EAFF is able to approach finance organisations for farmers’ loans in form of seed, farm input and insurance cover. The items are then delivered to the farmer groups, and using the documented farmer information, each farmer receives a customised package. After harvest, it is the farmer’s responsibility to pay back the loans.
“We insist on farmer groups so that farmers, group members can guarantee fellow members when loans are offered, and watch over each other so that no one farmer defaults,” said Kubai.
Today, over 200,000 farmers in the region are using the e-Granary, according to EAFF.
PAMACC News (Meru, Kenya) - Armed with a ‘mulika mwizi’ mobile phone gadget, Simon Kailikia, a 33 year old smallholder farmer from Baraimu village, Tigania West in Meru County has been able to triple his farm produce, thanks to a phone based platform known as e-Granary.
“Once again, we are expecting another bumper harvest in the next few weeks,” Kailikia told the Seeds of Gold as he patrolled his five acre piece of land under maize crop.
It is the fourth season he is using the e-Granary platform, which ensures that registered smallholder farmers have access to quality certified seeds and relevant farm inputs, access to finance (credit) to fund their activities, insurance cover in case of natural calamities, access to information about Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), and above all, access to weather and climate information so that crops are planted at the right time – all on a mobile phone platform.
After the harvest, registered farmers through their groups bring together all their produce and using the mobile platform, they can access the market collectively.
“There is clear evidence that Africa’s full agricultural potential remains untapped due to use of incorrect farm inputs, late planting, use of poor seeds, inadequate financing, lack of structured markets and lack of insurance cover to cushion smallholder farmers whenever they suffer losses based on the changing climatic conditions and related calamities,” said Mutiga Wanjohi, of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
The e-Granary is a commercial solution developed by the East African Farmers Federation (EAFF) to improve social-economic status of smallholder farmers in 10 African countries in collaboration with governments, UN, Nongovernmental organisations and the private sector.
“We strive to effectively organize and aggregate the otherwise dispersed producer base, in order to achieve scale and engage as a significant stakeholder in the agricultural economy,” said Robert Kubai, the Evaluation and Learning Specialist at the EAFF.
According to Kailikia, it is the first time he has seen the benefit of smallholder farming despite having been brought up in a farming family.
“I was brought up in a farming family, and all through my life, I knew that farming was an activity for people who do not have any meaningful work to do,” said Kailikia. “But today, I have come to appreciate that farming is a sustainable business, beyond hand to mouth survival,” he said.
Kailikia says that his life changed when Baraimu Mathio Self Help Group was introduced to the e-Granary. “For all these years, I never knew that the five acre piece of land under my name had such a huge potential,” said the youthful farmer, and the chair of the group.
Before, he used to plant any seed that was available, sometimes without fertilisers and without following recommended agronomic practices.
However, in 2018, after registering with the e-Granary, he received certified maize seed and necessary farm inputs at the right time on credit. Using the mobile phone platform, he received a short message instructing him on when to plant. And later, he was alerted when the time for topdressing came.
“I was shocked because for the first time, I harvested a total of 93 bags from a piece of land where we used to harvest a total of 25 bags or 20 during a good season,” said the farmer.
Through the e-Granary, EAFF linked him to the buyers of his farm produce, who bought it at an impressive price of Sh3500 per bag. “I sold 87 bags and I used the money to construct a shop, which I now lease to my group members as a store for their produce,” he said. He has since constructed a permanent house from farming activities.
Out of the 67 members of Baraimu Mathio Self Help Group, 55 have completely embraced the e-Granary, most of them women and youth.
To benefit from the e-Granary, one has to be a member of a farmer group. Through the group, the farmer has to register to the e-Granary using a given USSD code because many smallholder farmers in rural villages do not own smart phones.
During registration, the farmer gives all the personal details, the size of the land, the location and the particular crops that they intend to farm. Using this information, the e-Granary calculates the amount of fertilisers and related farm inputs that will be required, and then the EAFF identifies where to buy the seeds, and signs a contract with a potential buyer.
With the contract in place, the EAFF is able to approach finance organisations for farmers’ loans in form of seed, farm input and insurance cover. The items are then delivered to the farmer groups, and using the documented farmer information, each farmer receives a customised package. After harvest, it is the farmer’s responsibility to pay back the loans.
“We insist on farmer groups so that farmers, group members can guarantee fellow members when loans are offered, and watch over each other so that no one farmer defaults,” said Kubai.
Today, over 200,000 farmers in the region are using the e-Granary, according to EAFF.
Everlyne Mwende, a young lady in Kibwezi, Kenya, is passionate about agriculture. Shortly after she participated in an agribusiness incubation programme, Everlyne launched her livestock business with 50 birds in 2020.
The incubation programme was facilitated by the Youth-in Agribusiness compact of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) as part of its commitment to stimulating youth-led agribusiness enterprises along agricultural commodity value chains.
Sponsored by the African Development Bank as part of its Feed Africa Initiative, TAAT’s main objective is to improve the business of agriculture across Africa by raising agricultural productivity, mitigating risks and promoting diversification and processing in 18 agricultural value chains within eight priority intervention areas.
The programme increases agricultural productivity through the deployment of proven and high-performance agricultural technologies at scale along selected nine commodity compacts such as cassava, Orange-fleshed sweet potato, aquaculture, small livestock, high iron beans, maize, rice, sorghum and millet, and wheat.
These work with six enabler compacts addressing transversal issues such as soil fertility management, water management, capacity development, policy support, attracting African youth in agribusiness and fall armyworm response.
Evelyne sold the 50 birds at Ksh 500 ($5) per piece translating to Ksh 25,000 ($250). After the sales, she restocked 100 birds for rebreeding. She later expanded her business to include the sale of eggs.
Beyond producing chicken, Everlyne has taken her passion to another level this year. She now mentors other poultry farmers within Kibwezi, building their capacity in good agricultural practices. She equally trains women and youth entrepreneurs for medium-scale poultry enterprises to deliver.
Members of the Bidii Self Help Group, a youth group in Kibwezi, have, since January 2021, engaged Evelyne to train them specifically on poultry and goat farming. She has equally mentored more than five other youth in poultry farming, and her business model has proven to be very efficient.
Evelyne is determined to continue sharing her production and business knowledge with other youth in her community and around Kenya. She will also be selling more chicks to farmers hence adding to her revenue streams.
According to Noel Mulinganya, the Leader of the Youth in Agribusiness compact, which is also known as ENABLE-TAAT (Empowering Novel Agribusiness-led Employment), “Evelyne’s resourcefulness affirms the efficacy of ENABLE-TAAT’s “Train-the-trainers” initiative. Through this initiative, benefitting youth are trained to become trainers in their local communities, thus creating a network of young people who have the skills and capacity to contribute to agricultural transformation in Africa.”
“More of such stories are budding, as the compact continues to track the record of previously trained youth,” Noel added.
It would be recalled that a similar “Train-the-Trainers” seminar, organised by the compact, held in March 2021 with youth participants from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The youth were motivated to replicate the knowledge they received from ENABLE-TAAT in their communities as young instigators of African agricultural transformation.
Led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), ENABLE-TAAT provides capacity building and technical assistance to establish and expand youth-led agribusiness enterprises along TAAT value chains such as high iron beans, cassava, fish, maize, small livestock, rice and orange-fleshed sweet potato.
The demand for good quality parboiled rice is high in parts of Africa, from east to west, north to south. As at 2015, rice consumption in countries was estimated to be approximately 26 million (MT) of which 13 million MT (about one-third of what is traded on the world market) was imported to the continent.
Rice consumption in Africa is projected to reach 34.9 million tons by 2025. The African Development Bank estimates that the rice sector has the potential to become an engine for economic growth across the continent.
Thus, as the demand for rice increases as result of population growth, increased per capita consumption, and a shifting preference towards ‘premium’ rice linked to increased urbanisation, Africa will need to produce approximately 13 million additional tons of premium rice per year.
Increasing rice production to meet this need is expected to improve the livelihood of at least 3 million producers and lead to economic gains of about US$5.5 billion per year among African countries. To achieve this, Africa needs to develop technologies and infrastructures to support widespread production, processing and commercial adoption of high-yielding climate-resilient rice varieties.
Until now, domestic rice is processed in Africa through the traditional parboiling process. This is carried out mainly by rural women – laborious, time-consuming and unsafe, producing low quality rice with broken and burnt grains and bad smell.
It also requires lots of firewood, causing deforestation. Another major challenge is the pollution that comes with disposing the rice husks that accumulate after threshing.
A GEM for rice parboilers
To address these challenges, the rice compact of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) is deploying an innovative and environmentally friendly parboiling system -- called GEM (Grain quality enhancer, Energy-efficient and durable Material).
Sponsored by the African Development Bank as part of its Feed Africa Initiative, TAAT’s main objective is to improve the business of agriculture across Africa by raising agricultural productivity, mitigating risks and promoting diversification and processing in 18 agricultural value chains within eight priority intervention areas.
The programme increases agricultural productivity through the deployment of proven and high-performance agricultural technologies at scale along selected nine commodity compacts which include rice.
Led by the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), the TAAT Rice Compact (TRC) seeks to achieve rapid intensification of rice production by raising farm-level productivity and improving the efficiency of processing and increasing market opportunity through innovative partnerships and proven technologies.
One of such is the GEM technology. Compared with the traditional technology, GEM produces rice of high physical and eating quality that fetches higher price on the local market. It was designed by AfricaRice and fabricated through partnerships with the private sector. The system is provided with pulleys that reduces drudgery.
The improved system protects the women processors from heat and smoke exposure. It further enables them to process large quantities of paddy rice in a relatively short time. It also includes an eco-friendly stove with a solar-powered fan that runs on rice husk -- a free and abundant fuel in rice-producing areas.
A profitable technology
The use of the GEM technology reduces paddy steaming time from 60 to 20 min, post-harvest losses from 6% to <0.5% and firewood consumption by 41-100%.
The substitution of firewood fuel by the rice husk results in US$30 savings per ton of parboiled rice. Milled parboiled rice has a higher content of B-Vitamins, minerals and demonstrates slower digestive and lower glycemic properties compared to white milled rice. Biochar produced from the burnt rice husk is used to improve soil fertility.
With the installation of the GEM system, Bouake Innovation Platform (IP) in Côte d’Ivoire is now supplying 4.4 tons of milled parboiled rice per month to the market. In collaboration with PAFER (NGO) and an equipment fabricator (TCMS) in Benin, six mini GEM rice parboilers costing CFA 19.5 million (about US$35,454) were installed in communities in Glazoué and Malanville rice hubs in Benin.
From April 2018 to June 2020, 2,255 tons of paddy were processed into 1,600 tons of milled rice. This system completely substituted firewood with rice husk leading to about US$38,300 savings across the IP sites.
Using the rice husk-fueled GEM rice parboiling system by the IP in Bukan-Sidi Lafia, Nasarawa state in north-central Nigeria for example, over 65 million Naira (US$181,800) was generated within one year (2019) from selling 218.15 tonnes of quality domestic parboiled rice.
A total of 68,300 parboiled rice value chain actors (paddy suppliers, service providers, rice marketers and rice consumers) have so far benefited from the GEM rice parboiling system in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger and Nigeria.
“Before the installation of the rice husk stove in our centre, we were spending a lot of money on firewood. But today, we can save that money. It increases our gains and saves the environment. It has really changed my life,” Juliet Ogbonikan a rice processor in Glazoué, Benin Republic said.
The IP in Nigeria confirmed that their production output for parboiling hit 4.4 t/day upon adoption of the GEM technology. A significant increase from the previous parboiling rate of 1.4 t/day.
“Our processing center now serves as a market hub and my paddy is no longer sold to middlemen since the IP is directly linked to market. Now, the IP members process their paddy before selling, using the IP-fixed price, which is 7-10% above the open market price; thus, maximizing profit by adding value to the paddy harvested,” Joshua Jonathan added.
According to Dr. Ernest Asiedu, the TAAT Rice Compact Leader, the significant improvement recorded with the introduction of the GEM technology aligns essentially with the compact’s vision of achieving rapid intensification of rice production through raising farm-level productivity, improving the efficiency of processing and increasing market opportunities across 20 African countries.
“The compact will continue on this pathway of expanding access of smallholder farmers, the majority being women, to high-yielding agricultural technologies and improving rice production as a means of assuring food security,” Dr. Asiedu added.
