March 23, 2020

Onions equals independence for Sokoto farmers

Fresh Produce

Nigeria

For all visitors to Sokoto State, located in Nigeria's northwest - the greenery of onion fields welcomes them everywhere. From the outskirts of the state's capital city of Sokoto Town, to its surrounding villages. Onions are an icon of this West African region. Alahaji Ummaru, lead farmer in Wamakko, Sokoto State, explained: "Onion farming can help someone become independent".

Alahaji is devoted to working the land, and farming onions brings him happiness. He has accumulated 40 years of experience in vegetable production. From a young age he has cultivated this same very field. “This land represents everything in my life. I had already grown several crops, but onion cultivation is different from any other. Thanks to onion farming, I accessed money that I used to start my own family” he explained, while smiling.

2SCALE partners with the private sector to reach smallholder farmers. In Sokoto State, the program partners with Tays Food Limited (TFL), a company specialized in onion storage and handling, with the ambition of contributing to the improvement of productivity and the reduction of post-harvest losses. TFL committed to supply white onion powder to Unilever Nigeria Plc, specialized in the manufacture and marketing of foods and food ingredients. It also produces home and personal care products.

Previously it was quite challenging to produce white onion in Sokoto State, because farmers only cultivated their own local varieties. In 2018, 2SCALE piloted white onion production with TFL. One year later, the pilot had been developed into a full-fledged partnership in order to scale up the production.

2SCALE brought farmers together in eight groups across Sokoto State and built their capacity via establishment of demonstration plots, dedicated to learning best practices on the cultivation of the white onion variety.

Seeing is believing

In general, farmers are resistant to introducing agricultural technologies like new varieties of seeds. WIth his many years of experience, TFL and 2SCALE established an onion demonstration plot on Alahaji’s farm, one of the eight plots implemented across different locations in Sokoto. These plots show famers how the performance of this new variety of seeds, contrasted with the performance of local varieties. As a lead farmer, Alahaji share his wisdom and experience with other local farmers. His perseverance in the work also gives more credibility to the results of these types of demonstration plots. This will also facilitate the cooperation of other farmers in adopting the new variety of onions.

The improved seeds are supplied by Bejo Zaden, a Dutch vegetable seed company that will provide onion seeds to be cultivated by the 5,000 target farmers of the partnership and provide them with basic training and coaching.

About forty days after the application of the seed, farmers were impressed by the level of germination. Alahaji declared:

The improved variety in itself is a good seed. When I look at the germination percentage, it is completely different from the local variety. Sometimes when we apply the local variety, some may even not germinate. With the new variety, we are sure that when we plant, it will germinate; and when we transplant, onions easily come out and also look good

Challenges of post-harvest loss

From 50 to 60%, this is the rate of post-harvest loss for onion farmers in Nigeria, due to poor agricultural practices and lack of good storage facilities. To overcome these challenges, TFL intends to build over 700 metric tons of onion storage and processing facilities for white onion powder production. To provide farmers improved inputs, such as seeds and fertiliser, and to then buy the product to supply its markets.

Apart from the demonstration plots, 2SCALE conducted other training like mobile weather forecasting, and financial literacy learning, to build the capacity of farmers throughout their farming activity.

Alahaji is one of the 5000 onion farmers, of which 40% women and 40% youth, will benefit from 2SCALE's support through this partnership generating more income through increased yield and improved storage facilities.

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