Mogaji

Mogaji is making agricultural employment a viable and attractive livelihood for young Nigerians by connecting farmers with unused resources and providing the extension support needed to modernize production and improve yields.

Mogaji is addressing the issue of agricultural underproduction in Nigeria by empowering farmers with the land, tools and knowledge needed to modernize production and increase harvest yields. He has partnered with the government to access information on previously abandoned land and government equipment that could be used to expand agricultural production. Farmers’ lease the resources at a discounted rate. Although extension services exist, many farmers do not benefit from this overstretched and underfunded government program. Thus, Mogaji partners with extension workers to gain access to new knowledge and then organizes the farmers into small cooperative groups and shares innovations in seed types, production techniques, and agricultural inputs with them. He is leveraging the available but unused agricultural infrastructure, and coupling it with training and support programs, to offer young Nigerians agricultural employment opportunities in rural areas.

Mogaji is also transforming the distribution of agricultural produce between village and city by directly connecting farmers with urban “mobile markets.” Instead of selling to middlemen who purchase produce at a low cost from farmers and charge exorbitant prices in the city, the farmer’s supply produce to young entrepreneurs Mogaji identifies and trains to manage the markets. This enables farmers to set prices and retain most of the value of their produce, with a portion of the sale value going to the entrepreneurs. Mogaji uses the radio to spread information about the markets and hosts city seminars so young people may learn about farming. Mobile markets offer fresh food at prices that most can afford. Thus, Mogaji is also boosting the output of an underperforming sector while ensuring that fresh, affordable food reaches urban consumers daily.

Although Nigeria is blessed with fertile soil, ample water supplies and a sizable labor force, the agricultural sector continues to underperform due to poor production practices and unutilized land and resources. The agricultural sector accounts for 35 percent of Nigeria’s GDP and employs 70 percent of the working population. However, poor infrastructure, insufficient extension services and inconsistent government polices over the years have led to the underperformance of the sector as a whole. As a result, agriculture contributes only 10 percent toward non-oil growth, and produces only a fraction of local food needs. Oddly, Nigeria imports vast quantities of food it could produce in abundance.

Only half of the 71 million hectares of arable land in Nigeria is used for production. Large plots of land are abandoned or neglected and valuable agricultural equipment is left unused in government yards. Government extension services are also inadequate and do not provide farmers with the support and knowledge they need to modernize and boost production. While the government attempts to supply this information through media campaigns (television, radio and newsletters) and on-site visits, many farmers have poor television or radio signals and cannot afford the newsletters. Thus, despite government investment in agricultural research, the latest innovations in seed types, production inputs, and practices do not reach most farmers. In addition, there are too few extension workers given the number of farms and many rural farmers are not accessible by public roads. Consequentially, farmers don’t have the information or support to manage profitable farm production. Thus, most agricultural processing plants are underutilized and larger businesses responsible for input production, such as the National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria, have closed down branches due to insufficient demand.

Underproduction also impacts the affordability of food; although enough food is produced in rural areas for consumption, urban dwellers spend an inordinately high proportion of their income on fresh produce due to short supply. The gap between locally produced food and urban demand is met through costly imports. This situation is compounded by the market structure of the agricultural sector. At present, middlemen travel to the hinterland to purchase produce from farmers in village markets, and then resell it to urban consumers at higher prices. Middlemen ultimately set the prices in urban markets and have driven the cost of fresh, locally produced food beyond the reach of the average city dweller. Crops like rice, beans, maize, millet, and cassava are inexpensive in the northern parts of Nigeria, while Yam, cassava, plantain and others are cheaper in some parts of the south and middle belt regions. These products are affordable in the areas where they are produced, yet sell at several times their value in urban areas. Almost 28 percent of Nigerians are considered food poor—unable to obtain affordable, healthy food—and an increasing proportion live in cities. If the urban food supply and prices are not addressed, this will present serious challenges for future food security.

With an understanding of the problems at both the production and distribution level, Mogaji provides farmers with the information and resources they need to improve production in rural areas and to create a distribution system that reduces the prices of fresh produce in cities. In 2003 Mogaji realized the potential to expand production if farmers were given access to abandoned land. The government had invested in agricultural land but lacked the infrastructure, funding and manpower to cultivate it. Mogaji approached the local government with a solution for this neglected land: he would organize and train groups of farmers to farm the land and earn an income from produce sales.

Mogaji’s organization, X-Ray Farms Consulting, provides farmers with information about available land. They look for young talent and organize them into small groups of farmers to lease the land and equipment. X-Ray Farms Consulting trains them on farm techniques and best practices to attain premium produce. Mogaji also highlights how farmers can plant during both on and off seasons and reap good harvests. This further expands the farmer’s production base and ensures sales across the year.

Mogaji provides inputs (such as seeds and fertilizers) for their use and farmers repay his organization with either the cash value of the inputs or replacement inputs for other farmers to use. In this way, farmers are assisted with the high upfront cost of inputs. Due to previous government investment, the abandoned land often has irrigation systems in place and equipment that has been idle for years. The young farmers incorporate these tools into their work for improved and mechanized production, which facilitates an increase in crop yields.

Mogaji partners with government extension workers to pass new knowledge to his organization, which then distributes it to remote areas that the extension system can’t cover. The extension workers serve as mentors to young Nigerian farmers in the program. Mogaji also works with existing farmers and has created demonstration plots on some of the abandoned land. He introduces farmers to more effective chemical usage, improved seedlings and fertilizers, which they then pass on to farmers in their villages.

With a system in place to increase and modernize production, Mogaji turned his attention to the distribution mechanisms that farmers use to sell their excess produce in urban markets. He discovered that large market opportunities existed for the farmers to sell directly to urban end users, effectively by-passing the middlemen. This allows farmers to set prices, retain most of the value of their produce, and lowers prices for the urban consumer. To achieve this, he opened entrepreneurship opportunities for urban youth to create mobile markets that are accessible to consumers and receive and sell the farmers’ produce. Mogaji refers to this as the “Green Collar Job” project and began this component of his work in five cities in 2012. He has 173 farmers supplying fresh and inexpensive maize, watermelons, and off-season tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables. With the Green Collar Job concept, he is redefining agriculture as a profitable and trendy business. Mogaji’s vision is that agriculture will someday generate more income than oil and that by 2017, his model will have spread to other states.

X-Ray Farms Consulting has worked with over 203 farmers in four states. The project has centered on river basin lands in order to take advantage of unutilized dams, reservoirs, and rivers constructed by government. Six more dams have recently been built within his existing geographical area and will be fully operational by November 2015. This will allow Mogaji to work with more farmers in the region due to the proximity of water supplies for irrigation. These new dams and the recent launch of his Green Collar Jobs project present a significant opportunity to expand his work over the next few years.

Mogaji’s passion for agriculture began in early childhood and both his parents and grandparents were farmers. His father experienced difficulty distributing the maize he produced in commercial quantities; at the mercy of middlemen and unable to get the produce directly to consumers. Whenever he refused to sell his produce at “middlemen” prices, the harvest was left to rot. Thus, Mogaji sought to pursue agricultural enterprises without being at the mercy of middlemen. He learned to leverage his relationships and resources to build his operations.

Mogaji attended a technical school to study agriculture and gain hands-on experience in farming. While in school, he was instrumental in resuscitating the school’s farming equipment and introduced new ways of doing agricultural business. Mogaji produced and sold agricultural products, which helped pay for his schooling for two years. While taking part in the compulsory one-year national youth service, Mogaji realized that the state he was posted to had an abandoned bee project. He revived the bee center, began honey production and packaging and also used it as a means to train others on bee keeping. Mogaji won two awards from the government for this training program and after his service in 2002, he began thinking about how to empower others.

Determined to find a farming business model that would work, in 2009 Mogaji sold personal and family assets to finally raise a $107,000 loan from private sources, and embarked on an irrigation project to produce fresh maize. Unfortunately, Nigeria experienced an unprecedented diesel scarcity that year and although he had money in hand, he could not secure enough diesel to drive the irrigation systems. This led to the eventual loss of the entire crop and him in debt, along with scores of other farmers in the community. With permission from the government, Mogaji planted in abandoned lands with irrigation facilities. He used the land and reached out to local farmers and unemployed youth. He organized them around issues that are vital to growing premium produce and helped them get direct access to consumers by boycotting the middlemen.