Climate Smart Agriculture
The Nyabon Aggregator model is an ecosystem of stakeholders working together with the common goal of developing crop value chains.
Given the increasing climate challenges impacting agricultural production in sub-Saharan Africa, it is imperative to incorporate practices which mitigate drought by improving soils such as no till or minimum tillage cultivation, ploughing in crop residues after harvest, planting cover crops and crop rotation which improve water retention and soil fertility. Improving soil health is key to growing more nutritious foods. Such practices also reduce cost by reducing the amount of chemical fertilizer and soil acidification and sequestering carbon in the healthier soils. Water management practices such as rainfall harvesting and employing affordable solar powered pumps for drip irrigation are key elements in conservation agriculture and increased yields.
Mechanization is critical to these practices allowing timely cultivation before seasonal rains and tillage that is less disruptive on soil structure. These mechanization solutions are more economical using 2 wheel tractors or less powerful 4 wheel tractors with less equipment and lower fuel consumption. 2 wheel “walk behind” tractors are ideal for weed control and harvesting. Appropriate mechanization dramatically increases crop yields, produces more nutritious foods while reducing waste during harvesting and post harvest handling.
Finally as carbon markets and technologies become more accessible to farmers, sequestered carbon in soils will contribute to meeting climate change goals while earning modest extra income to the same farmers. Nyabon is actively working to bring these critical practices to smallholder farmers as climate stresses become more severe in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Nyabon Aggregator Model is an ideal fit for the adoption of climate smart agricultural practices. We are working with climate professionals and innovative businesses that have developed the technology for measuring sequestered carbon and accessing the global markets. There is growing interest and resources following COP 27 from both funders and investors.
Nyabon’s expanding network of Farmer Organizations, AgriSME’s, funders and other partners will serve as the foundation for creating pilot projects across several crop value chains such as paddy rice, sorghum, soy beans, among others. Grant funding will be needed to provide training and farmer supports and for data collection and analysis. The initial pilot projects will be evaluated over several cropping cycles with findings used to develop scalable initiatives.
