Funzi and EWS-KT scale up courses to improve crop production and farmers’ income in Nigeria

In 2020 Funzi collaborated with East-West's Seed's (EWS) closely affiliated non-profit foundation East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer (EWS-KT) to create a course on vegetable production for smallholder farmers in Nigeria. The course had such a positive impact on the farmers who participated that Funzi and EWS-KT are partnering again to scale up the project to 15 courses, in a now crucial time for food production in Nigeria.

East-West Seed is an international organization with founding roots in the Netherlands and headquartered in Thailand. EWS’s focus is on enabling farmers with ‘Better Seeds for Better Yield’ by breeding and producing high-quality vegetable seeds for over 74 countries and 23M farmers worldwide. EWS-KT provides field-level training and demonstrations to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Funzi's low-data and mobile-optimized courses provide a great solution for EWS’s need to reach farmers in rural areas.

The impressive impact of the 2020 pilot project

The pilot project focused on enabling smallholder farmers to access training on smartphones and feature phones, with minimal data charges. The course covered vegetable seedling production (planning seedling production, ground nurseries, and cellular seedling production) and was delivered in both English and the local language, Hausa. Our team adapted technical learning modules into this course through our ‘funzification’ process, where we use pedagogical tools to create bite-sized self-study courses.

The pilot course introduced valuable skills in seedling production, for more profitable and sustainable farming practices. The content itself focussed on how to plan seedling production and raise high-quality seedlings with practical step-to-step instructions. Our friendly and personal tone of voice combined with our approach to course creation meant that key skills were introduced in an accessible and relatable way. Using activities to assess the learning, farmers were able to test their knowledge and gain confidence before applying their learnings to their own seedlings and farms.

Next: to scale up from thousands to tens and hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries

The stellar results from the pilot project led to a strengthening of the partnership between Funzi and EWS-KT. Next, we aim to scale up the project to help 140,000 smallholder farmers better align to the needs of Nigeria’s rapidly transforming vegetable markets. Through improved knowledge of year-round production techniques and a deeper understanding of farm economics and business planning, we can help farmers and households increase their vegetable production. This will allow farmers to achieve a higher and more stable income and improve the nutritional value of their harvests. As the farmers gain experience from the training courses, they are expected to implement a greater number of improved practices on bigger plots of land; leading to a steady increase in income. We anticipate the farmers will see an average net income increase of 25%, which is based on EWS-KT estimates from 20 years of farmer training through field-based activities.  

Following on from the pilot success, we plan to scale up our content production to deliver 15 courses, ranging from water management to climatic factors affecting crop yield. With these courses, farmers and homemakers can develop their understanding of which crops or plants will be most suitable for their needs and farm landscape, and how they can best manage production throughout the year.

Working with EWS-KT, we are approaching this scale-up with the same localized approach as we did with the pilot. This involves not only creating localized course content in the Hausa language but having a community-focused approach to outreach and support. As with the pilot, physical outreach will be carried out by EWS-KT facilitators locally, by visiting the farmers and spreading awareness through regular field-based events, agri-input dealers, and printed materials. These facilitators will support farmers and communities to gain access to the training courses and walk through the content, to enable the best understanding and learning experience. Digital outreach will be generated by EWS-KT leveraging its existing presence on radio and social media; where farmers and homemakers alike can learn about the courses and what they can access through the Funzi service. We estimate that from the 140 000 farmers trained, a large proportion will be through these ‘physical’ networks and will be supplemented through digital channels.

In addition to these outreach plans, we are reducing entry barriers such as data access. With many farmers being based in remote areas, access to WiFi and data can pose a challenge. During the distribution stage, EWS’s Hausa facilitators will establish mobile hotspots to widen opportunities for farmers to improve access to internet connectivity. EWS also uses “market days” and mobile hotspots at agro-input dealer shops to increase outreach for farmers lacking existing WiFi. How Funzi approaches this challenge is through our existing data-light service, where a handful of learning cards in a course (around 15 minutes of learning) consumes roughly 10MB of data.

With the demand for crops outgrowing local supply, our courses in partnership with EWS-KT will educate farmers, families and business owners about selecting suitable seeds, sustainable farming and effective growing techniques and facts. Making this knowledge available in an engaging, data-light course format will empower farmers to grow their businesses and have successful and sustainable crop production.

Interested in this project? Follow our Linkedin for updates and news regarding our other partnerships! If your organization is interested in partnering with Funzi, reach out to our project manager Kreeta, at [email protected].