AGRA

Abubakar Ahmed Rufai, is a smallholder farmer and community-based advisor from Giwa Local Government Area, Kaduna State. He comes from a generation of farmers and cultivates soybean, maize and rice. He has been planting like his forefathers for years; he usually buys seeds from an open market and save some of his seeds for next season. Once he participated in the AGRA training under the Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation (PIATA) activity on Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) he realized he has been farming the wrong way all along.

During the training, Abubakar learnt Good Agronomical practices; the benefits of using improved seeds, the right fertilizer application method and spacing for different crops. With these lessons, he decided to practice what he learnt and also buy improved seed varieties for his crops from Premier seeds.

Once it was time to harvest, he produced 1.9MT/ha compared to his usual 0.9MT/ha, more than twice his regular harvest. Through the PIATA activity program he was also linked to AFEX a structured offtake market to buy his soybeans. He was happy about the available market and used the extra profit from his harvest to buy farm implements and inputs for next season. In addition to the training, he also learnt about post harvest methods and business development. This enabled Abubakar negotiate,secure AFEX as an offtaker and deliver his produce by minimizing post harvest loss.

Abubakar was excited about the outcome of his planting season specifically for the extra profit he made. He said he was glad he enrolled in the AGRA training program. In his words “I used to purchase seeds from the open market and save some seed for next season but now I am happy that I now only go for improved varieties which is profitable”.