In Benue State, women’s cooperatives are revitalising agriculture through financial support, farm inputs, and training, which are enhancing their farming and processing activities, and improving livelihoods.
The beneficiaries said the interventions made possible by Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) had reduced the cost and drudgery of farming while improving their ability to cultivate larger areas, process farm produce and generate income for their families.
No fewer than 8,950 farmers in Benue have been reached through the step-down agricultural extension training in 2025 under the intervention aimed at transforming smallholder farming into a commercial, market-oriented enterprise.
The intervention, implemented by SAA in collaboration with the Benue State Bureau of Agricultural Development and Mechanization under The Nippon Foundation project, also mobilised and sensitised 1,366 farmers across eight local government areas.
Ngufan Blessing Chichi of Mbatier community in Buruku Local Government Area of the state who is President of Divine Open Doors Multipurpose Cooperative, said the support had enabled women farmers to remain active in agriculture despite the challenges facing the sector.
Chichi said the intervention, which began in 2020, included financial support and the provision of a power tiller that had greatly reduced the cost of land preparation for members.
‘The cost of doing a hectare manually was N60,000. But now, with the power tiller, we pay the boys N20,000, buy diesel N7,000 and some other services, just about N30-something thousand, and a hectare is finished. This has actually helped us,’ she said.
She said the reduced cost of land preparation had encouraged members who had previously become discouraged by rising production costs and losses to return to farming, adding that the cooperative currently had about 58 hectares under cassava and soybean cultivation.
Beyond farming, Chichi said members had also ventured into cassava processing, producing flour popularly known as Akpu, which is packaged in cartons for distribution beyond the community.
‘With this product, it can go anywhere in the country because it is not easy to travel with the raw akpu. But with this one, it can be packaged in cartons. You just boil your water, pour it inside and turn it; it is just like pounded yam,’ she said.
She added that members had received training in weed control, record keeping and savings, which she said had improved their farm management and financial discipline.
Chichi while responding to marketing, said demand for the cooperative’s processed products had grown through direct sales and referrals.
‘Anytime we process, many people run to come and pick it from us. When they try it, they send a message again because there is a number on it,’ she said.
She said the cooperative operated a profit-sharing system under which dividends were distributed annually based on members’ contributions, while one hectare was also allocated yearly to the host community to strengthen relations and ensure security for the farms.
Another farmer, Akombu Erdoo, said farmers in her community had benefited from training, improved seed varieties, financial support, herbicides and fertiliser.
She listed some of the cassava varieties introduced to farmers as 419, Dickson, Game Changer, Farmers’ Pride and Baba70, among others, adding that improved farm income had enabled some beneficiaries to build houses and meet family expenses.
At Mbatsaase community in Mbaapen, farmers, including Msugh Ahula and Wuese Felicia, also said the training and support had transformed farming and encouraged residents to remain in agriculture.
The interventions are being implemented by the Sasakawa Africa Association across eight local government areas of Benue State.
Speaking during a tour of farming communities in Buruku, the association’s Programme Officer for Climate Resilient and Sustainable Agrifood Systems, Engr Moshood Sulaiman, said mechanisation was a key component of the intervention.
‘We empower local groups with 18-horsepower power tillers to till the soil for them before planting. Mechanisation alone can contribute about 20 per cent in terms of farm production,’ he said.
Sulaiman said the power tillers had made it possible for farmers to prepare their fields much faster than through manual labour, noting that a hectare that could take seven to 10 days to prepare manually could be tilled in two to three hours with the machine.
He added that operators were trained on the use, repair, maintenance and troubleshooting of the machines to ensure sustainability.
Meanwhile, the beneficiaries have called for the expansion of the SAA intervention to more farming communities, saying the support had helped reduce production challenges and strengthened their livelihoods.
The project factsheet for 2025 said the programme focused on soybeans, maize, rice and horticultural crops, with emphasis on improving productivity, access to markets, financial inclusion and climate-resilient farming practices.
According to the report, the farmers were trained on group dynamics, collective aggregation, record-keeping and market access as part of efforts to promote the ‘Grow to Sell’ approach and encourage farmers to treat agriculture as a business.
The programme also established a 1.5-hectare community-based seed multiplication enterprise involving 75 smallholder seed producers, comprising one hectare for soybean and 0.5 hectares for maize.
The intervention further established an Agro-Enterprise Centre to support local processing, post-harvest handling and value addition, while nine youths were trained and equipped with knapsack sprayers to provide commercial agrochemical spraying services to farmers.
The report said 18 commercial agreements were also secured with input dealers, service providers and produce off-takers, while 17 Community Savings and Internal Lending Association leaders were trained in financial literacy, loan administration and savings mobilisation.
The programme covered Gwer-East, Gboko, Tarka, Guma, Ushongo, Vandeikya, Buruku and Konshisha local government areas.
SAA said the interventions were designed to improve smallholder farmers’ productivity and livelihoods by strengthening access to agricultural knowledge, technologies and markets, while promoting climate-resilient and sustainable farming systems.