Kimacorn Agro and Engineering Services is an agribusiness that produces maize, millet, soybean and groundnut. It also provides inputs and services to smallholder farmers who grow these four crops in the Upper West Region. Alongside service provision, Kimacorn organises demonstrations for farmers throughout each cropping season; these focus on topics such as sowing, fertiliser use, soil types, mixed cropping, crop rotation and the use of improved seed. Kimacorn has reached out to more than 2,000 farmers (of whom 70% are women) and each farmer cultivates at least 1.5 acres in eight districts. The company joined MADE in 2018 and has since aggregated 3,000 MT of rice and 2,500 MT of soybean.
MADE interventions
- Helped recruit, train and deploy eight Farm Enterprise Advisors (FEAs) to ensure the use of good agricultural practices by farmers in their fields.
- Built the capacity of company staff, administration and operational activities.
- Provided manuals for the capacity building of smallholder farmers on good agricultural practices.
- Created a comprehensive M-Access farmer register for use by the company.
- Provided demonstrations and training on how to apply fertilisers and pesticides.
- Facilitated relationships with other MADE partners, such as Antika, Yuoenu, Farmer Pride and Seyan Enterprise, for the complementary supply of inputs and services.
Impacts
- Increased Kimacorn’s smallholder outreach from around 800 in 2018 to more than 2,000 in 2019.
- Introduced M-Access for the agribusiness to track its progress and recovery of inputs, while all participating farmers have begun keeping their own farm records.
- Significantly improved the performance of farmers with the FEAs’ support, leading to a recorded 30% increase in income among the farmers.
- Raised the volume of produce aggregated by 40% for maize, 30% for soybean and 15% for groundnut between 2018 and 2019.
- Increased understanding of good agricultural practices, and proper and timely application of agro-inputs: fertiliser, weedicides and pesticides.
