ACA’s Nigerian Farmer Trainings Begin to Show Fruit

The ongoing expansion of the African Cashew Alliance’s farmer training program began to show fruit in November 2014, when ACA agricultural expert Mohamed Salifou returned to Nigeria to assess the implementation of the ACA’s ongoing Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) training.  Mr. Salifou ascertained that a total of 2,023 farmers, of whom around 25% are female, have now received GAP training in 41 villages throughout Kogi, Kwara, and Oyo States. 

This is the result of a “training-of-trainers” course conducted by ACA in late September 2014, where 20 Nigerian extension officers received instruction in how to run their own training courses on crucial GAP topics such as weeding, pruning, thinning, and firebreaking. The 20 extension officers went on to deliver training sessions in their respective regions in October 2014.  In follow-up interviews with Mr. Salifou, newly-trained farmers expressed their appreciation for the training, and discussed their expectations for much higher quality raw cashew nut harvests than in previous seasons, which will thereby result in higher incomes for the successful farmers.

On this same trip, Mr. Salifou organized a second training-of-trainers session in Kwara State at FoodPro, a cashew processing facility which recently became ACA Seal-certified.  This workshop was designed to provide guidance on harvest and post-harvest handling operations of cashew nuts.  The training filled significant skills gaps, which were particularly evident in the session on calculating KOR, where only three of the 20 trainers were previously familiar with this procedure.  By properly managing the nuts that are harvested, farmers will be able to sell their volumes for higher prices, because quality receives a significant boost through the implementation of these practices.  Throughout the month of January, these Ilorin State trainers will train a further 2,000 farmers on these practices.

The evident success of the first wave of training-of-trainers workshops means that ACA will replicate the process in both Cote d’Ivoire and Benin during the first half of 2015.  This program is made possible by the support of USAID’s Towards Inclusive Markets Everywhere Annual Program Statement (TIME APS).