2SCALE Thematic Papers Not By Technology and Money Alone | Page 21

7. Big firm and
small farmers
on the journey
toward a fair deal
By Francis Alelumhe,
partnership
facilitator, Nigeria
Key themes: PO development, PO-Firm relationship, Organisation empowerment
Cassava-Nigeria
PPP
The partnership is led by
Psaltry Ltd, a cassava
starch processing
company supplying
Nigerian Breweries,
that intends to secure
its supply of raw
material from small-
holder farmers through
organisational support.
Summary
This story highlights the reflections of the author on how
strong an apex farmers’ organisation has become since they
have been coached in soft skills. The farmers have become
so empowered that they can now embark on negotiations
with the Psaltry Ltd processing company on their own, and
without the support of the partnership facilitator.
In March 2017, I got a call from Nasiru Oladokun that the
apex farmers’ organisation was planning to meet Psaltry
Ltd, the lead firm processing cassava into starch for sale
to Nigerian Breweries. The meeting was to enable them to
negotiate a new price for their cassava produce. I told him
to give me about an hour to be ready to join them. To my
dismay, he said the call was just to inform me and not nec-
essarily to invite me.
Two hours later, my UB40’s Many Rivers to Cross ring tone
came alive again. It was Nasiru Oladokun at the other end.
He sounded upbeat. “We just agreed to 18,000 naira (€50)
per tonne, he told me. Before I could respond to congratu-
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l ate him, he added again, … “and this time excluding trans-
portation costs to Psaltry.” This came as another shock as
I could not have pulled a better deal. This was a victory for
the cassava farmers – but I also wanted to make sure that
Psaltry could stay in business as well. This was another
step on the journey toward fairness.
The actors involved
Nasiru Oladokun is the chairman of Psaltry’s out-growers
association, an apex body of 33 farmers’ groups with about
1,300 members. The group under his leadership had com-