Presentation during African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) Second Annual Review Meeting and Planning Workshop on 11 – 15 Dec. 2017 at Gold Crest Hotel, Mwanza, Tanzania.

1. www.iita.org I www.cgiar.org
The primary partners in Nigeria: Summary of
objectives, activities and requests towards ACAI
African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI)
Second Annual Review Meeting
and Planning Workshop
11 – 15 Dec. 2017
Gold Crest Hotel, Mwanza, Tanzania

2. The primary partners in Nigeria:
Summary of objectives, activities and
requests towards ACAI
www.iita.org | www.cgiar.org | www.acai-project.org
Notore; OYSCGA; SAA; C:AVA II; 2SCALE; PSALTRY

3. Overview of use cases
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Use Case Partner
Best Fertilizer Blends (FB)
Site-specific Fertilizer
Recommendations (FR)
Best Planting Practices (PP)
Optimal Intercropping with
Cassava (IC)
Scheduled Planting (SP)
High Starch Content (HS)
OYSCGA

4. Notore Chemical Industries Plc. (NOTORE)
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WHO we are:
• Notore Chemical Industries Plc (Notore) is one of the leading fertilizer and agro-allied companies
in Africa to help the Continent become self-reliant in food production and economic wealth
• Current daily production capacity is 1,500 MT urea, 1,000 MT ammonia, 1500MT NPK.
What we do:
• Introduced affordable 1kg / 10kg fertilizer packs to meet the smallholder farmers needs.
• Teach farming best practices via demonstration plots, video sessions and rural market storms
through a private extension network of 5000+ trained Village Promoters (VPs) pan Nigeria,.
• DFID (2014) recently reported 70-120% higher yields for trained farmers, increased grain outputs of
270,000MT, & generating N22.1 billion GDP as a direct result of Notore extension activities.
Request to ACAI/Use cases:
• Fertilizer Recommendation (FR)
• Fertilizer Blends (FB)
Goals and strategy/How we operate:
• Leverage on Village Promoter network to do fertilizer field trials and develop the best fertilizer
recommendations for cassava.
• Plan to produce and Commercialize validated fertilizer blends for farmers to access through our
network of appointed Distribution Partners .

5. Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA)
www.iita.org | www.cgiar.org | www.acai-project.org
Who we are?
• SG2000 is an International NGO working with smallholder farmers in Africa to improve
the productivity, income and livelihood
Goals and Strategy
• Improving livelihoods of small-scale farming families in Africa
• SG2000/SAA works with:
▪ States ADPs ,Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development ▪ Agricultural Input Agencies
▪ National Agricultural Extension Services (NAES) ▪ Agro–Processors ▪ Traditional Institutions
▪ Research Institutions (National & International) ▪ Farmers & Farmer Organizations
Current activities:
• Strengthening the capacity of extension and advisory services in partner countries
• Sustainably improving the productivity and production of crops of SHFs
• Improving harvesting, post-harvest handling, storage & processing of agric. produce of SHFs &
agro-processors
• Promoting market-oriented agriculture among smallholder farmers
• The current ACAI projects is being implemented in Anambra, Benue, Cross Rivers and Ogun
states.
Request towards ACAI
• Fertiliser recommendations
• Cassava/Maize Inter Cropping

6. Oyo State Cassava Growers Association (OYSCGA)
www.iita.org | www.cgiar.org | www.acai-project.org
Goals and strategy
• Mass production of cassava for industrial use & towards attaining food security in Nigeria
• Market linkages
• Facilitate loans/grants for members, monitor to ensure utilization & recovery of loan facilities.
• Acquire land for members’ use to form clusters
Current activities
• Participating in ACAI project
• Working to link members to industries.
• Current partnership: Oyo State Government on a new program ‘Agricultural Diversification
Development program for farmers aged 18 – 35.
Outreach / dissemination network
• Send out information to grassroots farmers through State Executive Committee and Local
Executive Committee via their monthly meetings
Request towards ACAI
• Training members on new practices from the trial results to boost yields.
• Increase number of BPP trial farms.

7. Cassava: Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA-II)
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Goals and strategy
• Improve livelihood of smallholder cassava farmers in Africa (Nigeria + 4 other African countries
• Improve the incomes of >200,000 value chain actors & development of value chains in HQCF,
Starch, Ethanol, packaged garri and other cassava product value chains
Current activities
• Trained farmers on GAP, assisting farmers in sourcing quality planting materials (>5000 bundles) with
high starch contents and helped in setting up Cassava Demonstration plots for farmers and Large
&SMEs in project areas.
• Village and Community processors were trained in Confectionaries E.g. using HQCF for Snacks,
other pastries & Master Bakers from SE, SS, NC and SW Nigeria on 10% of HQCF inclusion in bread
production.
• Works with partners to explore & develop new market opportunities for fresh cassava roots by
building and linking smallholder farmers to large starch, ethanol , HQCF and livestock markets.
Out reach/Dissemination network
• Engagement of Service Providers in about 9 states but restricted to 8 in Nigeria
• About 130 EAs currently working with CAVAII for Extension activities with farmers in Oyo , Ogun ,
Kwara, Kogi, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and Rivers States with Extension arm of FUNAAB (AMREC) and
Catholic mission Extension ,JDPM.
Request towards ACAI
• Use case Schedule planting and High Starch contents & Best planting practices.
• Will benefit Allied Atlantic Distilleries Ltd, Igbesa, Thai Farm Ltd, Ososa, Matna Starch Ltd, Akure ,
Psaltry Starch International, Ado-Awaaye and Greentech Industries Ltd,Agbara.

8. 2SCALE
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Goals and strategy
• 2SACLE is a consortium of three organizations: the International Fertilizer Development Center
(IFDC), The BoP Innovation Center (BoPInc), and ICRA.
• The Dutch-funded project entitled “Toward Sustainable Clusters In Agribusiness through Learning in
Entrepreneurship” (2SCALE) started in June 2012, to improve rural livelihoods, food and nutrition
security in Africa
Current activities
• Strengthens the capacity of smallholder farmers and SMEs to accelerate value chain and private
sector development, through innovation and coordinated action.
• Supports cassava farmers in increasing productivity and revenue.
• Strengthens linkages and coordination among stakeholders to upgrade the value chain and
increase competitiveness.
Outreach / dissemination network
• Extension Agents of partners within the value chain.
• Farmer coaches.
• External coaches (BSS – for specialized services)
Request towards ACAI
• 2SCALE partners ACAI in developing a ‘use case’ inter cropping (IC) tool to enhance the Nigerian
productivity and food security.
• This will benefit Psaltry International Company Limited via consistent and considerable supply of
cassava roots and food security.

9. Psaltry International Company Ltd.
www.iita.org | www.cgiar.org | www.acai-project.org
Goals and strategy
• Psaltry International Company Limited,(PIL) is an agro allied company in Nigeria, established in
2005 to market cassava produce & produce food grade cassava starch.
• Psaltry has a robust outgrowers’ programme of >650 farmers cultivating 2500Ha in 6 clusters and
16 farmers’ organization in a 50km radius.
• Psaltry runs a 50TPD starch plant at installed capacity
Current activities
- Production of Cassava Starch - High quality cassava flour
- High quality Garri - Extension Services
- Farm development and management
Outreach / dissemination network
• PIL have an extension team of 8 staff who supervise the farms, provide extension services and
trainings.
Request towards ACAI
• Psaltry partners ACAI in developing a ‘use case’ tool of high starch content and schedule
planting to enhance the productivity and profitability of cassava in Nigeria using own existing
dissemination structures.
• This will benefit PSALTRY INTERNATIONAL by providing consistent and considerable source of
cassava roots.

10. Current collaboration with ACAI
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ACAI and primary partners have engaged together in…
• Extension Agents/Farmers Linkages: Facilitated access to and interaction with farmers in the
key cassava growing areas to provide basic baseline data & characterization required for
the project.
• Trainings: Knowledge sharing on protocols and appropriate approaches to determine
nutrient deficiencies for cassava cultivation - NE, QUEFTS, SSNM, etc.
• Hosted trials for various use-cases, monitoring same to collect data required for research
testing on the trial farms: Notore has leveraged the Village Promoter network to establish 98
fertilizer recommendation trials in Edo & Osun states; OYSCGA farmers have collaborated in
setting up trials for the Best planting Practices in Oyo State; Sasakawa Global 2000 is
working on the Cassava/Maize Inter Crop Use case in in Anambra, Benue, Cross Rivers and
Ogun states; CAVA II is working on Schedule planting/High Starch contents, Best planting
practices use cases in Ogun and Oyo States.
• Inputs Sensitization: Farmers are linked and closer to inputs vendors (CPP, Planting materials,
Cutting, Fertilizers, etc.).
• Local Conformity: Influencing local cassava production system and farm socio-economics
/biophysical variability/ and historical/current management practices on cassava yields in
the target areas.

11. Benefit from collaboration with ACAI
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• Higher productivity and profitability:
 More than 20% increase in yield.
 Help to tailor cassava production to suit specific soil nutrient needs.
 Optimization of cassava/maize intercropping production.
 Food security and job creation.
• Cost saving on R & D fertilizer blends for cassava in the study areas.
• Maximization of the planting windows relative to the agro-climatic
factors.
• Improving the income of smallholder farmers along the value chains
and;
• Provide raw material upgrade for the cassava based industries.

12. Expectations from ACAI and this meeting
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Primary partners would like ACAI to…
• Collaborate further with Development Partners to validate trial results and action plan for
dissemination to farmers.
• Plan on modalities for the deployment of Decision Support Tools for the respective use
cases.
• Facilitate Trainer Training for extension agents (development partners) on the new DSTs.
• Support the commercialization of new fertilizer blends for cassava.
• Set up interaction milestones for all developmental partner activities.
We expect to leave this meeting with…
• Clear vision of how the validation of trial results will be conducted and the roles of each
development partner. Learning from Tanzania experiences will be an added advantage.
• Plan on how to test and evaluate the efficiency of the Decision Support Tools on the
respective programs of the primary partners and their farmers.
• Work plan for 2018 activities.