Smallholder farmers in Benue State are adopting improved farming practices through a three-year intervention of the Sasakawa Africa Association Nigeria (SAA-NIG), supported by Japan’s Nippon Foundation and implemented in partnership with the Benue State Government.

During a two-day media field tour organised with the participation of the Benue State Bureau for International Cooperation and Development (BICD), farmers demonstrated how the programme is turning technical knowledge into practical changes in their fields, businesses and livelihoods.

For a state widely regarded as Nigeria’s Food Basket, the intervention extends beyond individual farms to eight Local Government Areas—Guma, Gwer, Gboko, Ushongo, Vandeikya, Tarka, Buruku and Konshisha—and combines regenerative agriculture, nutrition-sensitive farming and market-oriented approaches to improve soil health, seed access, processing and market opportunities.

The programme is ultimately about helping smallholder farmers produce more efficiently, build resilience, improve the value of what they produce and acquire knowledge they can continue to use beyond the lifespan of the intervention.

At one demonstration farm, farmers were learning crop rotation, intercropping, composting, biochar production and the use of urea supergranules to improve soil health and use fertiliser more efficiently.

One farmer, Rona Andove Bata, said she was initially reluctant to participate. But after adopting the practices introduced by Sasakawa, she began to see the benefits.

“I did not spend one naira. Everything was supplied,” she said, explaining that she prepared biochar and compost manure before planting and followed the technical guidance provided.

Her experience reflects the programme’s emphasis on more than simply providing inputs. Farmers are taught how to use and sustain the technologies and practices themselves, helping to ensure that knowledge remains within their communities long after individual activities have ended.

In Buruku, that approach extends to seed production. Farmers are cultivating a community-based soybean seed multiplication plot using the improved TGX 1951-3F variety, bringing quality seed closer to surrounding farming communities.

The farmers receive training in production, enterprise management and record-keeping, while the seeds undergo the relevant certification process. By strengthening local seed production, the initiative is helping farmers move beyond being only recipients of improved planting materials towards becoming part of the system that produces and distributes them.

In Gwer, the intervention moves further along the agricultural value chain.

An improved cassava agro-processing centre established under SAA-NIG’s Safe, Adequate and Nutritious Food Production and Utilisation programme provides a five-ton-per-hour cassava grater, hydraulic presses, heavy-duty fryers and a solar-powered borehole.

For farmers who once travelled several kilometres to access processing facilities, the centre is helping reduce transportation costs, ease processing and create opportunities to earn greater value from their produce.

SAA-NIG also encourages farmers to see agriculture as a business.

Through farmer groups and cooperatives, they receive training in collective action, enterprise management, record-keeping and market linkages, helping them better understand not only how to produce, but also where and how their products can be sold. This is supported by the provision of machinery, including tractors to facilitate large-scale land cultivation.

The intervention also works through public agricultural extension infrastructure, with extension agents supporting the delivery of technical knowledge to farmers at the community level. This helps ensure that knowledge and improved practices can continue to reach farmers beyond the immediate project cycle.

For BICD, the field engagement provided an opportunity to strengthen government-partner relations, observe the practical outcomes of the intervention and ensure that development support remains aligned with government priorities and the needs of farming communities.

Through its coordination role, BICD is supporting the Benue State Government under the Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia (PhD) to maintain an enabling environment in which development partners can work effectively.

SAA-NIG Communication Officer, Moses Nongoatse, commended the Benue State Government for providing a conducive environment for the organisation’s operations and acknowledged BICD’s coordination role. He said the organisation remains open to expanding its interventions to additional Local Government Areas, subject to available resources and counterpart support.

The experience highlights that sustainable agriculture is not only about what farmers receive, but what they learn, build and can carry forward into the next season.

Julie Okenyi

Information Officer, BIDC