Yuoenu Company Limited is an agribusiness that has been working with smallholder farmers since 2014. It aggregates maize, soybean and groundnut from 2,800 farmers (82% women) to whom it provides mechanisation services, training (on farm and in the classroom) and agro-inputs including high-yielding seed varieties. The company partnered with MADE in 2018 and in that year, aggregated more than 2,500 MT of maize, 150 MT of soybean and 100 MT of groundnuts. This has directly translated into increased incomes for smallholder farmers.
MADE interventions
- Worked with Yuoenu to recruit and deploy 11 Farm Enterprise Advisors and 1 FEA managers.
- Facilitated commercial partnerships between Yuoenu and three other agribusiness firms: WABCO, the Alliance for Community Investment and Elbalicon.
- Enabled Yuoenu to invest in extension services to register smallholder farmers and provide training on good agricultural practice.
- Facilitated produce buy back from smallholder farmers.
- Introduced the Advanced Model, which enabled Yuoenu to offer a bundle of services and inputs to smallholder farmers.
Impacts
- Increased smallholder outreach from 200 in 2015 to 2,800 in 2018.
- Facilitated more timely application of agro-inputs on smallholder farms through improved service provision.
- Increased trust between Yuoenu and the smallholder farmers: the farmers are willing to sell back to the business and have not engaged in any side selling.
- Increased smallholder farmers’ yields from 0.8 MT to 3 MT of maize per acre, and increased the yields of other crops too.
