Nuona Royal Enterprise produces and aggregates agricultural commodities such as maize, soybeans, groundnut and cowpea from smallholder farmers for processing. The enterprise is the largest aggregator and supplier of soybean and maize to Premium Food Company and Farmer Pride. Nuona Royal also supplies seeds to the Planting for Food and Jobs programme. The enterprise works with 700 smallholder out-growers (of whom 40% are women) in four districts, with each smallholder farmer cultivating an average of 2 acres. The enterprise provides its out-growers with agro-inputs and services such as ploughing. Nuona Royal Enterprise joined the MADE programme in 2018 and in that year aggregated 14,500 MT of produce.
MADE interventions
- Recruited, trained and deployed two Farm Enterprise Advisors (FEAs) and one FEA manager, responsible for educating farmers on good agricultural practices, holding regular meetings to discover the challenges faced by farmers and supervising the cropping season.
- Facilitated links with tractor services.
- Supported underserved farmers using extension services from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, visiting and supervising farmers during the planting period.
- Provided demonstrations and training on best practices, types of seed, weed control and plant spacing.
- Facilitated relationships with other MADE partners (Farmer Pride, Antika, Agriaccess and Noyine) for complementary supply of inputs and services.
Impacts
- Increased smallholder outreach from 100 in 2017 to 700 in 2019.
- Increased access to inputs, credit and markets through other MADE partners.
- Increased understanding of good agricultural practices and proper application of agro-inputs.
- Facilitated timely application of inputs and good record keeping.
- Improved financial forecasting and planning for smallholders.
- Increased yields of maize from 4 to 12 bags (200 kg) per acre, soybean from 4 to 10 bags (100 kg) per acre and groundnut from 8 to 17 bags (200 kg) per acre.
