Transitioning of sesame farmers from conventional to organic system

Victor Idowu Olowe

Funding Area: Capacity building / Construcción de capacidad

Problem Statement: Organic sesame seed demand has been projected to reach US$ 7.94B in 2030 at a growth rate of 2.1% (MRFR, 2023). Unfortunately, Nigeria which is the 3rd largest producer in Africa and 5th in the world grows conventional sesame (FAOSTAT, 2023) is yet to be part of this lucrative market partly because the major producers are smallholder farmers that practice basically conventional production system or informal organic agriculture (formerly referred to as organic by default). The traditional growing regions (northern and southern guinea savannah) have experienced lately internal conflicts (herdsmen crisis and terrorism). However, the potential of growing sesame as a sole crop or intercrop in the forest-savannah transition zone of Nigeria which is outside its traditional growing regions have been demonstrated (Olowe, 2003; 2005; 2007; Adekunle et al., 2014). We fully understand that transitioning from conventional to organic agriculture is a risky prospect because the practitioners are going to be exposed to a different, more technical, and highly regulated production system. Presently, viable link between organic producers and buyers barely exist in the country. As such, this project seeks to create such link and reduce to the barest minimum situations in which real world challenges can stymie even the experienced conventional growers transitioning to organic.

Proposed Activities: The project activities will cover classroom and field activities beginning with round table meetings to perfect the work plan, visits to the target audience (practicing sesame farmers) to carry out skills gap analysis in order to identify their deficiencies and design appropriate modules to bridge the gaps. The proposed two day intensive training workshop for a minimum of 50 farmers will be residential and cover a minimum of ten interactive modules such as History of Organic Agriculture in Nigeria, Sesame Botany, Morphology, and Physiology, Production practices, Soil and Plant health, Soil fertility management under organic system, Certification, Marketing and Appropriate harvest regime to reduce field loss among others. The project will also feature fieldwork, organic field day during the World Food Day in October. The Organic Field Day event will take place on the Organic Research Plot of the Crop Production Research Programme, Institute of Food Security, Environmental Resources and Agricultural Research, Federal University of Agriulture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Nigeria. There shall be a visit to Organic Agriculture Professionals in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria (OAPTIN) Skills Development Plot and follow up visits to the farmers’ fields. All data to be collected shall be collated for analysis and the full report will be documented. The farmers will be provided with developed Organic Standard in Nigeria as part of the workshop materials. The project will map the location of the farmers for easy referencing and all available support tools will be utilized. We expect the trained 50 farmers to serve as contact farmers that will step down the training in their various locations and thereby get more informal organic farmers to convert to organic agriculture.

Openness: If awarded, the project will be announced on all organic agriculture related platforms in Nigeria such as Organic Agriculture Professionals in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria (OAPTIN) and Association of Organic Agriculture Practitioners of Nigeria (NOAN). The proposed 50 sesame farmers will be sourced by OAPTIN in collaboration with NOAN. The choice of 50 farmers will not be limited to male farmers alone and the exercise will spread across the sesame growing communities. All participants will have access to all the materials of the modules. The faculty members will have the opportunity to express their interest and thereafter a small committee will screen and select the most qualified faculty members to handle the modules. The project will leverage on the recently concluded survey on the drivers of organic agriculture in Nigeria that elucidated top three drivers as a. protection of human health b. development of a profitable domestic market and c improved food quality. The respondents were drawn from the organic agriculture stakeholders in Nigeria.

Challenges: The project operators will try as much as possible to mitigate any challenges that may arise such as limited land area for organic agriculture, outbreak of diseases and pests, cattle invasion of experimental plots among others. The project will leverage on the demarcated and adequate parcels of land (2ha) for organic agriculture research on IFSERAR farm. There are locally developed bio-pesticides that can be used to control and incidence of pests and diseases. The University will provide all the necessary logistics as counterpart contribution to the success of the project.

Neglectedness: Yes. The project implementers through OAPTIN will assist the transitioning sesame farmers to tap into the hitherto unexplored lucrative market of organic sesame seeds in the world. Most of the farmers are smallholder farmers who practice informal organic agriculture and if properly trained and linked to the potential buyers, their livelihoods will improve.

Success: Competent organic sesame farmers will be trained, adequately equipped with best practices in organic agriculture and linked to the potential buyers of organic sesame seeds. The success will be measured by the number of farmers out of the trained 50 farmers that successfully cultivate the crop independently after the training. We expect the 50 trained farmers to step down the training in their various locations. The number of converts (additional farmers) by the trained 50 farmers will also be used as an index of success rate.

Total Budget: 24,000

Affiliations: Organic Agriculture Professionals in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria (OAPTIN)

LMIE Carveout: Nigeria is the most populated country (>200M people) in Africa and is a low-middle income economy country. The target group for this project is the sesame growers that practice informal organic agriculture (formerly called organic by default). OAPTIN is the pioneer organic network in Nigeria and has over 200 members spread across the six geopolitical zones of the country. This project is well aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Nr. 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture and Nr. 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Team Skills: OAPTIN has a critical mass of seasoned organic agriculture experts from diverse areas of speacilization. The Network has successfully participated in collaborative project involving six Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) namely University of Cape Coast, Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi Ghana, Njala University, Sierra Leone, Universite d’Abomey-Calavi, Republique du Benin, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria and Coventry University, UK. The project was aimed at increasing the level of expertise in all aspects of Organic Agriculture in the West African sub-region and was funded by the European Union (EU) 2010 -2012 with Contract number 197625 (old ref: 9-ACP-RPR-118). OAPTIN has also been mounting Work, Earn, Learn Project (WELP) on capacity building of young agricultural graduates in organic agriculture. A project in collaboration with Coventry University, UK and funded by Department for Innovations, Universities and Skills (DIUS), UK/British Council, 2008-2009. Ten (10) sets of undergraduate students trained to date and WELP 11 is on-going now on campus. This project will leverage on the past success stories.

How Did You Hear About This Call: Word of mouth (e.g. conversations and emails from IOI staff, friends, colleagues, etc.) / Boca a boca (por ejemplo, conversaciones y correos electrónicos del personal del IOI, amigos, colegas, etc.)

Submission Number: 86