Community Diary - Issue 2

I would like to thank all my learners for their commitment to their outcomes, program and the community. I am following up on my first community diary notes which you can review here.

Here is my second community diary. I shall look forward to your feedback, expression of interest to collaborate with our community and, most importantly, your comments.

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Hadiza Yaro (Nigeria) is leading a tomato value project with Tomani Farms and Agro Industries ltd (Nigerian Subsidiary of GB Foods Nigerian Spain) as the anchor buyer for the value chain powered by 2000 Small Holders Farmers (SHFs).

The farmers are governed and administered through a cooperative model financed by Central Bank of Nigeria. The Kebbi State Government is supporting the project with land and enabling environment to operate, East-West Seed international is the seed supplier and Round Angle Logistics is the seedling supplier.

Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Cooperation (NAIC) is on board to mitigate risk, and GIZ-NICOP to facilitate trainings on Agricultural loans and financial literacy and management.

Marcel Ionescue (Agricloud) will be piloting their precision agriculture technology intervention to facilitate yield optimisation through precision input supply, real-time crop and disease monitoring, yield forecasting for better price realisation and profitability for all the stakeholders involved in this project. (More on Marcel and Agricloud below)

Anyone keen to roll out a contract farming model with an anchor buyer can pick up the value chain design ideas and approach to Agritech intervention into value chains from our community discussion recording; drop me a note for access.

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Aaron David Torres Lopez (Peru) has started cultivation of avocados in 1 hectares and dragon fruit (pitaya / pitahaya) in 1 hectare of land. Now he is building up his value proposition and distribution strategy to differentiate his business.

He is specifically looking into branding of fresh produce and getting into partnerships with buyers that are aligned with their value proposition.

His future plans are to scale the production in these two categories and add to these products. He is reviewing his business model and partnership needs with Erich Grahammer to leverage Erich's sourcing expertise and European networks. 

Aaron is currently seeking for buyer partnerships interested in avacado and dragon fruit product categories and aligned with their farms ambition and value proposition. 

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Rahul Raj (India) through his Sasya initiative is developing a value chain for fresh okra and chillies, connecting their own & contracted production capabilities with exclusive buyers in European and Indian market.

He and his team are preparing for a fool-proof technology powered value chain for yield optimisation (precision agriculture & crop management practices) full compliance (GAP certification) and traceability. 

He is currently open for buyer and technology partnerships. On the technology front, Rahul’s current needs are around smart harvesting, storage and shelf-life extension interventions for okra and chillies.  

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Raul Injoque(Peru) through his futura farms (https://www.futurafarms.pe/)  initiatives is building up a business model for CBD product importation and distribution within the Peruvian market. Over time the objective of Futura farms is to set-up local production of right breeds of cannabis in owned and contracted farms.

Raul is open to learn more about the the experiences of cannabis cultivation in Peru or other Latin American markets. For anyone looking for opportunities to building Peruvian market for their CBD products Raul would be a good contact to talk to.

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Ruud Van Baal (Yap/NL) has formed a partnership with 3 others and is building a business case for pork breeding and production in Yap islands (Federated States of Micronesia). One of the directions in which they are considering to work is to breed the most suitable piglets and the let the local residents grow them on the island with household feed (feed being the challenge in the region and needs to be imported for formal and centralised production) and eventually market and distribute the pork meat.

Ruud is keen to learn more about breeding piglets and innovative feeding options for pork yield optimisation. Do you have this expertise or know someone suitable?

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Marcel Ionescue (Romania) with their Agricloud technology will initiate 3 pilot projects within IFAL community. First one in Nigeria with Hadiza Yaro for the tomato value chain project, with Aaron David Torres Lopez in Peru within the avocado value chain and with Rahul Raj with the Chilli and Okra production.

Agricloud will be piloting their precision agriculture technology intervention to facilitate yield optimisation through precision input supply, precision real-time crop and disease monitoring, yield forecasting for better price realisation and profitability for all the stakeholders involved in this project. 

Anyone producing or contract buying with an anchor buyer can reach out to me for an introduction with Marcel Ionescue.

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Amir Idris (Nigeria) has started as one of the principal partners for Greenview International Ltd which mainly serves as an aggregator of agricultural commodities. They started the chilli out-grower scheme in September 2020 with about 20 registered farmers for the dry season chilli farming.

These registered farmers are supplied with improved seeds, fertiliser and crop protection products on credit and the farmers in return will each produce chilli on a 1ha piece of land. The farmer gets training, harvesting, post-harvest processing support and will buy the final produce for a premium ranging about 10% of the market price. 

They are interested in partnering with players operating in the chilli value chain on both production and buy side and are keen to pilot and scale agri-tech innovations that can support yield improvement, quality and cost optimisation. 

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Dan Ng'ong'a (Kenya), a pilot with Kenyan Airways and part-time horticulture farmer, has launched drone service for agriculture. Their end-to-end solution makes it easier to count plants, measure plant height, assess crop health and monitor field performance.

If you would like to learn more about their services please review here: 

https://www.danicodroneservices.com/

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Innocent Lawoko Muno (Uganda), promoter of CEDIL a social enterprise, and Hastings Munyenyembe (Zambia), working within the Ministry of Agriculture, have received a full scholarship for their Business School Netherlands international MBA program in the Netherlands. Their funding has been granted through NUFFIC's Orange Knowledge Programme.

I would like to give thanks to Business School Netherlands for our strong collaboration and their recognition for our community. 

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Srinivasulu Rajendran (Kenya) is involved in the research and commercialisation of sweet potato seed in sub-saharan Africa. He is leveraging the learning and coaching to see if they can bring in the business model principles for better adoption of seed varieties and generate revenue by farmers.

They would be interested in discussing with buyers and entrepreneurs having scaling ambitions with sweet potato products so that they are able to speed up the adoption of high quality seed cultivation by farmers.

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And finally, I am currently collaborating with Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) to deliver a workshop on “Digital Agribusiness Models for Women Entrepreneurs” organised for 17 female participants from 10 countries with a range of professional backgrounds and experience.

The participants are representing Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

I will look forward to sharing more about the learnings from the experience of interacting with these participants in my upcoming notes.

For anyone interested in this theme and would like to access my presentation notes please do not hesitate to reach out to me. 

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To find out more about the program they are studying, please visit https://ifal.ac/mini-mba