2SCALE Thematic Papers Not By Technology and Money Alone | Page 19

6. Better tomato produce,
better grouping,
more money!
By Sola Fagorusi,
trainer-mentor,
Nigeria
Key themes: Cluster development, Organisational empowerment, Functional capacities
Vegetables-
Nigeria PPP
With the growing demand
of quality vegetables
for urban markets, the
partnership supports
producers and their
organisations within
networks of traders,
input suppliers, service
providers and financial
institutions.
Summary
The benefits for tomato farmers of being part of a cluster
are emphasised in this story. Being better organised and
in a network, the tomato producers’ experience more trust
and visibility and therefore can attract investment into their
enterprises. This empowered situation has come at the end
of coaching in functional capacities such as negotiation and
collaboration skills, as well as improved technical practices.
Let’s place a bet! Take a group of farmers from any agri-
business value chain and ask them what their problems are.
One of the first two responses will be “money”! If no one
mentions any word in this vein – money, finance, funds, or
a synonym in their local language – then I’ll gladly ask you
to send me your account number!
The Iya Ibeji cluster actors working in the tomato value
chain in Nigeria are no different. Iya Ibeji means “mother of
twins”, named after the history of the community where the
cluster took off. At the beginning of their engagement, they
thought their most important need to make progress was –
more money! They reckoned that more money was simply
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what they needed to make even more money. They brought
up a Yoruba proverb to explain this, owo n’fin wa owo. This
means “we use money to chase money”.