LocationsHidden Treasures - Opportunities for Growth in the Food Basket
June 28, 2024
Series Introduction: This blog is the first of a six-part series which shares experiences, insights and opportunities from the UNDP Nigeria Accelerator Lab’s learning cycle on agriculture interventions for peace and development in Benue State. I will talk about the challenges farmers and other actors in this system face, deep dive into intriguing innovation ecosystems we meet, identify pathways for scaling up their activities, unusual data sources and partners that we found, and share findings from our research on the impact data can make in helping farmers who rely on rain-fed agriculture to adapt to increasingly irregular weather patterns.
Background
Benue State is commonly referred to as the food basket of Nigeria. It's famous for yams, rice, oranges, mangoes, and lots of other agricultural produce. However, many communities have faced chronic bouts of insecurity and conflict resulting in loss of lives, jobs, and displacement. The UNDP Nigeria Accelerator Lab has been asked to identify interventions in the agriculture value chain which will address economic drivers of insecurity and conflict and feed into a wider portfolio of interventions that are being deployed by the Benue State Government, the UN system and other partners in conflict prevention and peace building.
Hidden Treasures - Opportunities for Growth in the Food Basket
Part 1 - Sensemaking in Makurdi
In which we uncover opportunities and models for scaling up and commercialising value added enterprise and knowledge products at the Center for Food Technology and Research, Benue State University, learn how population growth and greater competition for land are changing farmers’ land use patterns, and insecurity, conflict and irregular weather patterns are now compounding other systemic challenges famers face.
Introduction: Our objective on this Mission is to speak with people impacted by the conflict, learn about the drivers of conflict and how communities cope in these circumstances. We’re starting in Makurdi, the capital city of Benue.
Stakeholder Meetings, Makurdi - Our first meetings are with organised private sector and several Ministries including Agriculture, Lands, Commerce & Industries and Rural Development. At a roundtable and in several smaller meetings we learn how social and environmental issues are generating new challenges and compounding existing system gaps.
How do people think these challenges can be addressed? - Many propose training on new agronomic practices, access to affordable machinery and equipment and the establishment of model ranches. The reference to model ranches is directed at addressing the recurring insecurity and conflict between farmers and herders. The view of agricultural extension services as a public good is implicit in these conversations.
People talk about how commonly used farm and fallow systems are dying out due to population pressure; as more farmers use up all their land each planting season, potentially reducing productivity over time. Limited agriculture extension services, inadequate processing and storage facilities, poor access to markets and limited knowledge about changing weather patterns are other common challenges which are compounded by recurring insecurity.
You get the sense of a community in flux, trying to adapt to an evolving, more complex, operational landscape.
Engaging Academia - We drop by the Center for Food Technology and Research, Benue State University (CEFTER). I'm looking forward to this visit because a web search for recent theses has turned up a lot of useful information ranging from products and methods of tackling post harvest losses to displacement patterns of farming communities impacted by conflict. After a meeting with faculty, we are treated to an exhibition of processed goods; cereals, teas, dairy-free infant formula and yoghurts, snacks and flours made in the Center from locally sourced produce. It’s amazing to see the range of foods on offer. There's a massive opportunity for partnerships to manage the commercialisation and marketing of these products. We also learn that the Center trains agricultural extension workers, up-skilling 160 people in 2021.
Our next stop is the hardware workshop, where there are prototypes of processing equipment which seem targeted at cottage industry level users. These include solar powered fruit and vegetable driers, animal feed makers, milk extractors, freeze driers, extractors, shelling machines and slicers. Of course, all our questions are about how much these equipment cost. However the prototypes have not being produced for the market.
We end the day with a visit to Agro Hortiponics Integrated Farms tomato farm, just outside the city limits run by an alumnus of CEFTER who has developed several tomato variants for his farms. The founder targets off-season periods avoiding rain-fed tomato harvest periods when there is a glut in the market. It’s a great example of a Lab to market solution from the University, and we’ve come at the right time to get some tomatoes ourselves.
Emerging Trends - We are learning that almost everyone we meet is involved in the agriculture value chain in some way; owning farms, processing crops, trading produce etc. We’re also told all roads lead out of the city if we want to understand how production works, because over 80% of production happens in the rural communities.
There's a lot of thought and energy on value addition among young entrepreneurs in Makurdi. This is great because post harvest loss rates are horrendously high, however high energy costs are a major challenge for processors.
Visiting CEFTER and AgroHortiponics after the stakeholder session, I am excited about the opportunities in local institutions and ecosystems to address challenges such as the knowledge and mechanisation gaps.
It will be interesting to see how these connect to the experiences and views of small holder farmers and herders outside the city. Many thanks to the UNDP Benue Project Team and the Benue Agro Innovation Hub (BAI Hub) for pooling their networks for these meetings. In the next blog, I’ll share insights from visits to smallholder farming communities in each senatorial zone in the State and a camp for displaced persons just outside Makurdi.
Conclusion -
Sharing this serial just after a round of co-creation sessions held with several universities in the roll-out of UNIPODs under the Timbuktoo initiative, I can’t wait to see how they strengthen the connections between knowledge products, and prototypes developed in university systems and market ready solutions, and improve linkages with local industry and other innovation ecosystems. Have you heard about UNDP's Timbuktoo offer? What do you think about this inititaive? Let us have your thoughts @ news.ng@undp.org.
Lantana Elhassan
Head of Exploration, UNDP Nigeria Accelerator Lab
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