Women in Agribusiness
Cote D’Ivoire, West Africa
We are proud to partner with this a female owned farm. The farming project took a while to gain traction due to the limited access to financing to fund the dreams of this visionary female Founder. Her personal savings served as the startup funding source for most of the project’s life.
The Founder’s vision is to train and provide farmland, tools, and inputs to as many female small holder farmers. By the end of 2019, the project met their target of incorporating 50 women farmers into the project with 4 trainings delivered and 1 franchise established. Through these efforts, 15 tonnes of fruits and vegetables have been sold by the project to date. By 2023, the aim is to grow their labor force to 450 women farmers.
The farm sits on 85 hectares of land in Angbavia near Toumodi - approximately 2.5hrs by road outside of Abidjan. Only 10 hectares of this farmland has been irrigated. The project owns this parcel of land with about 66% of total costs paid up. Her project has been warmly welcomed by the Community based on the potential for far reaching social impact to deepen sustainable development in the area.
The expected impacts for the community are a skilled labor force with some women farmers eventually becoming empowered entrepreneurs with the ability to become trainers and some staying on with the project. Either stream builds economic wealth for the women in the community with a trickle-down effect on their families. The project pays fair pricing for the farming yield. Improved farming knowledge and practices also empowers the women to improve their own homestead farms.
National Government Incentives and Off-take: The CDI Government policy provides incentives to foreign companies to strive for 50% of produce stocked to be locally sourced. The project has secured off take contracts and commenced supply to 2 big multinational chains listed by an August 2018 Business Newswire online article as top 5 of 20 top supermarket chains in Cote d’Ivoire.
Road networks: The farm is situated in a strategic position with excellent road networks for most of the way. The 2 to 3 kms of the road leading into the farmland is untarred at the moment. Grading is needed within the farmland for easy access once expansion begins. There is a ring road leading 4 ways from where the farm sits. The road provides easy access to the capital; Abidjan as well as 3 other main cities; Yamoussoukro, Toumodi and Lomo Sud. As development continues in these cities, and export markets further develop, these road networks will continue to prove to be a competitive advantage.
Areas of Need
Stimbok is seeking partners to support this project in the following areas:
Climate Change Adaptation:
Like most of the world, Africa is battling alterations in the rainfall patterns which provides much of the irrigation for farmers. Less rain in CDI has led to the need for climate change adaptations. CDI typically experiences rain from March until June and again from October to November. The second season of rain used to last until January. These periods of rain have become precarious and therefore rainfall is increasingly unpredictable leading to the need for irrigation systems to increase yields.
The vast farmland has potential for a dam to be built and extensive irrigation systems built in to support the adjustment to less rainfall and increase yields. Implementing extended Irrigation systems would increase their yields by 4X to 6X. Cycles for cultivating their tomatoes are currently about 45 days with a current need for 6 people/hectare. The expectation with an irrigation system in place would be to bring this down to 4 people or less/hectare increasing efficiency of labor.
Transportation:
Transportation is needed for getting produce from farm to market. The project will also need to transport the farmers roundtrip from the village to the farm. The area is not plied by public transportation. The need is a bus with the capacity to transport between 46 to 50 ladies. A smaller vehicle to transport fewer individuals is also valid for transporting fewer farmers. CL is approximately 20mins away by road from the community base.
Community Development Initiative:
Childcare for non-school aged kids: We observed a number of non-school aged kids who were not in school during farming hours during our site visit in 2019. Childcare provision for these children will free the women farmers who are still within the childbearing bracket to successfully build “formal” farming careers and decrease instability within the project’s labor pool.
“It is time to rethink how we grow, share and consume our food. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.”
— Stimbok Corporation