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    December 25, 2011

Nigerian Project Works to Improve Sales of Products Made From Grains

   The International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics and
   the West Africa Seed Alliance are working with farmers and processors
   to address the major barriers and improve the value of products made
   from sorghum, pearl millet and groundnuts in the northern Nigeria towns
   of Jigawa and Kano.

   Isyaku Ahmed | Kano, Nigeria

   Hajia Zainab Usman is a business woman in Gumel Local Givernment of
   Jigawa State living in a particular section called kofar pada yan
   kwana-kwana. She works with 20 other women in her employment using
   sorghum to locally produce and sell a thick dough called 'fura' an
   additive to fresh cow milk for the popular drink 'fura da nunnu'.
   She explains how fura is processed.
   "First we thresh the crop, wash it and then take it for grinding," she
   said. "After that, we mix it up with a little pepper and cook it. When
   it's ready, we add rice and sugar and mix it again before pounding it.
   Then, we mould and shape it, and it's ready for consumption.?
   Zainab said her fura is popular and has a wide range of customers
   coming from within Gumel, Dutse, Hadejia,Ringim and outside Jigawa
   state. Many customers from Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri and sometimes from
   Lagos place orders for the product.

   Sometimes, she makes an average sales of 4,000 USD in a month.

   Sorghum is a staple food in many African households where it is used
   for porridge and baking bread.

ICRISAT

   The ICRISAT project ensures processors a steady flow of harvested
   sorghum for their products.

   Zainab wants to start packaging fura for domestic and international
   markets but doesn't have the finance, expertise and technical know-how
   to do so.
   This will soon be a thing of the past for Zainab, who's one of the
   processors ICRISAT is working with to help improve the value of
   products made from surghum, pearl millet and groundnuts in Nigeria.
   Dr. Jupiter Ndjeunga is agricultural economist with the ICRISAT project
   called HOPE, or Harnessing Opportunities for Productivity Enhancement
   of Sorghum and Millet in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
   "The major constraints we have identified in the value chain," he said,
   "are like the unreliability of raw material, low access to financial
   resources, limited knowledge of actors in the value chain, adding
   business and marketing skills, little knowledge of quality standards,
   low access to registration and accreditation and finally little linkage
   with super markets and other large outlets."

   He said ICRISAT and the HOPE project are working with the processors,
   those like Zainab who are creating products from the grains. Project
   leaders are working to improve contacts between farmers and processors
   so harvested grains are materials are readily available.
   map of sorghum-growing area of Sub-Saharan Africa

ICRISAT

   Sorghum-growing areas of Sub-Saharan Africa

   Ndjeunga said his organization is also helping processors improve their
   product. He gave Zainab and others from Jigawa State as examples.

   "We found out that that processors can easily make a profit of up to
   four thousand dollars in a month," he said. "However this can be very
   much improved if [Zainab] can work on quality standards. So far, the
   quality of the product is not up to standards needed to compete in the
   international market."
   He said ICRISAT and the HOPE project are working with her to improve
   her supplies of fura to the international and domestic market and to
   make her product known formally by registering her business and getting
   official recognition from National Agency for Food and Drug
   Administration and Control ' NAFDAC. They're also helping her product
   to gain brand recognition and to improve packaging, which is required
   by law to include the ingredients and seasonings.
   And, they're working with her to create a business plan which will be
   used to link her up with financial institutions that are ready to
   provide credit set up a 'fura' processing factory. It will also
   training her on agro-business and marketing skills.
   The four-year project, which is funded by Bill & Melinda Gates
   Foundation, is providing support to processors in 10 countries of
   sub-Saharan Africa.
   ICRISAT is a non-profit organization devoted to science-based
   agricultural development. It's one of 15 research institutes in the
   Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, a network of
   centers funded by United Nations.

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