Nestlé to Train 1,000 Northern Nigerian Farmers in Agricultural Practices

The two-year pilot scheme, which will run until 2018, is being launched with the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC).

Its aim is to help smallholder famers, around 40 percent of whom are women, in the country so they can increase yields of staple crops millet and sorghum in West African meals.

 

Nestlé sources about 7,000 tonnes of sorghum from farmers in northern Nigeria which it uses as a substitute malt ingredient to tailor its products to match the preferred tastes of the local population.

 

Nestlé will train the farmers to manage farming as a business, with a focus on crop quality and safety.

 

It is hoped the training scheme will run beyond two years and grow in size over time.

 

“Our new collaboration with IFDC, together with farmer groups and supplier partners, looks to support farmers in northern Nigeria by providing them with the tools and capabilities to produce high-quality, disease-resistant crops for future food security,” said Dharnesh Gordhon, managing director for Nestlé Nigeria.

 

“Improving the quality of sourced millet and sorghum will not only provide safer ingredients for local communities and consumers, it will also empower farmers to develop a sustainable farming business and boost their financial status and independence.”

 

“We are looking forward to our new collaboration with Nestlé Nigeria,” said Dr Arno Maatman, an executive with IFDC.

 

“The company is a fitting private partner because of its strength, professionalism and high standards that it instils to produce quality products for local consumers, and also because of the close and fair relations it wants to build and maintain with smallholder farmers. Through this partnership, we seek to achieve better and more sustainable incomes for the smallholder farmers involved.”

 

The training scheme forms part of Nestlé’s long-standing Nestlé Grains Quality Improvement Project (GQIP) which it launched in 2008 in Nigeria.