Savanna Agri-Chains Limited is a dynamic, growing and profitable agribusiness. Its head office is in Paga and it operates across the Kasena Nankana West, Kasena Nankana Municipal and Builsa North districts. The company works with 2,000 smallholder farmers, 95% of whom are women, to produce crops such as baobab, shea butter and nuts, sesame, maize, groundnut, moringa, sorghum and fonio. Each smallholder cultivates an average of 3 acres. Savanna Agri-Chains has set up out-grower schemes to facilitate the production and aggregation of produce and the marketing of these crops to large markets by means of partnerships and collaborations with other firms and enterprises. The company joined MADE in 2018 and recently aggregated 160 MT of maize and 2,600 MT of sorghum.
MADE interventions
- Recruited, trained and deployed six Farm Enterprise Advisors (FEAs) and two FEA managers responsible for distributing farm inputs, delivering farm advisory services and supervising aggregation.
- Supported underserved farmers using extension services from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture by providing the farmers with farm inputs.
- Provided demonstrations and training in irrigation.
- Facilitated relationships with other MADE partners, such as Adakant Enterprise, Abenyeri Farms, Faranaaya Agribusiness and Akandem Farms.
- Introduced the Advanced Business Model.
- Facilitated a graduate internship pilot.
Impacts
- Increased smallholder outreach from 900 in 2018 to 2,000 in 2020.
- Increased access to inputs, credit and markets.
- Increased understanding of good agricultural practices and the proper application of agro-inputs.
- Facilitated timely application of inputs.
- Improved financial forecasting and planning for smallholders.
- Increased yields for maize from 12 to 24 maxi-bags per acre, soybean from 10 to 14 maxi-bags per acre and rice from 13 to 19 maxi-bags per acre.
- Increased the average smallholder farms’ area of cultivation from 0.5 acres to over 3 acres.
