Cluster by Cluster
Bako John is a member of the Pampaida Chile Pepper Cluster in Ikara LGA, Kaduna state.
He has worked as a farmer for nearly 20 years. John cultivates chili pepper, maize, sorghum
and soybeans. He claims that chili pepper is becoming his strongest crop. Good agronomic
practices and favorable market forces have enabled bountiful returns.
Since 2012, when John joined the chili pepper cluster to enhance his productivity and market
network, he has benefited from a series of agronomic and business trainings delivered by IFDC
through the 2SCALE project. In addition to the trainings, 2SCALE linked John and all other
members of the cluster to AACE Foods, a spice processing company, providing a guaranteed
market.
In April 2014, John was selected along with 99 other farmers from the cluster to receive a
loan from LAPO micro-finance bank. Each of the 40 cooperatives in the cluster developed
the criteria used in the selection of the farmers who received the loan. “I appreciated the loan
I received because it helped me to purchase the right input at the right time,” John stated.
This boosted his productivity during the season, enabling him to repay his loan. AACE Foods
helped the farmers pay their loans. In return for receiving chili peppers from the farmers, the
company helped repay the cluster’s loan over a period of eight months to LAPO.
According to Aliyu Habila, chairman of the cluster, “The repayment structure is client-friendly,
and this made the terms acceptable.” He further stated that some of the members had already
completed the direct repayment process to LAPO micro-finance bank.
The trainings on good agronomic practices, access to credit facility, access to quality
inputs and, most importantly, the availability of a guaranteed market increased the farmers’
production, lowering their risks. Affirming this, John observed that, despite his field flooding in
2014, he was still able to harvest a bumper yield of 540 kilograms of chili pepper – a feat not
easily possible without the help of 2SCALE.
IFDC Magazine
20