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November 10, 2022

Village Input Agents: enhancing access to Agro-inputs for smallholder vegetable farmers in Nigeria

Fresh Produce
Nigeria

Like other regions in Africa, farmers in Nigeria depend on agricultural inputs to increase their productivity, income, and output. However, most smallholder farmers in rural Africa lack knowledge and access to quality inputs, directly affecting their productivity. Increased access to quality inputs would go a long way in helping them achieve maximum production. In Nigeria, the partnership between VD&S, Royal Blue Contractors, and 2SCALE was created with the aim to ensure that smallholder farmers have constant access to quality farm inputs at affordable prices. Consequentially, this will increase their yield and access to markets.

To promote easy access to inputs by smallholder vegetable farmers while enhancing inclusivity in the vegetable value chain, the business champions are working hand in hand with village input agents. The role of the village inputs agents is to serve as an interlink between the business champions and the farmer groups/ producers groups through sales and distribution of agro-inputs to individual farmer groups in agribusiness clusters.

Each Agribusiness cluster (ABC) with support from the business champion appointed women and youth to take on the role of VIAs. They are mainly members of cooperatives who collate demand from their clusters and send it to the business champion who supplies the members of their clusters with good quality agro-inputs. Each Village Input Agent is linked directly to either Royal Blue (for clusters in the North) or VD&S (for clusters in the South).


Activities of the Village Input Agents

The VIAs were trained to gather input demand from each farmer, how to place an order and how to organize logistics and payment. They were also taught how to identify good seeds, and properly apply chemicals. In addition, they were empowered with basic entrepreneurial skills.

Thus far, the model has recorded major successes. It has strengthened ABCs by increasing access to quality input by smallholder farmers, it has also enhanced women and youth inclusion by training them to become extension agents and seedling producers. The village input agents have also increased access to markets by becoming aggregators. They have made transactions worth over N20 million (USD 45,000) since their inception in October 2021.  

One of the village input agents is Mr. Francis Famadeji, a 36-year-old member of Adofure cluster in Ondo state says,

I have been an Input agent for about a year now and so far, I have not had any issues with placing orders and receiving inputs from the business champions. I place orders every other week, sometimes twice a week depending on the demand from the farmers. Sometimes, I order for inputs of N100,000 (USD 229.62) or more and I get compensated with 2% of all orders made

Access to Agro-inputs made easy!

The process of ordering for inputs has been made easy, the VIA collates all the orders from the farmers on a WhatsApp group created for this purpose. The orders are sent to the BC after payment has been made and between a day or two, the orders are received. The business champions bear the cost of all logistics as part of their private sector contributions (PSC) in the partnerships. 

In two clusters (Adofure and Erio Ekiti), farmer’s hubs were created to make input service delivery easier. These hubs are managed by a hub manager who ensures that inputs are stored and dispatched safely. The hub is also used by the farmers to carry out all their cluster activities. Now, the farmers order through the VIA and he/she places the order at the hub. This has increased their access to the inputs significantly.  

We are rest assured that whenever we buy from the business champion, we get quality inputs, and we are always happy to do business with them

says Francis.

Mr Adeloye is one of the smallholder farmers who is benefitting from the activities of the agents in his cluster. Thanks to this model, he can easily access inputs and is assured that these are quality, high-yielding inputs. He narrates: 

Since we started buying our inputs from VD&S through the input agents, we have been getting access to quality inputs and we no longer have to worry about using adulterated chemicals on our farms. We usually make orders twice in a week and we hope to increase our orders so we can reduce the cost of logistics

The input agents have made it seamless for VD&S and the farmers to make transactions.

These VIAs have also been trained to practice good agricultural practices (GAP) to mitigate climate risks, increase productivity and expand production season through irrigation.

Smallholder farmers in Kano, Ekiti, and Ondo states are enjoying affordable and reliable, and timely access to agro-inputs. With this, they have the assurance that their agribusiness ventures will become even more profitable in the future. So far, the village input agents initiative looks promising because in such a short time, it has been able to achieve so much and there are hopes for expansion in the coming years.

Read also: https://www.2scale.org/en/updates/seedling-propagation-in-nigeria-improved-practice-leads-to-improved-yields-en

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