For 15 years, Stephen Ibi, a 72-year-old farmer in the Akam community in the Cross River State of Nigeria, faced a difficult reality after a vehicle accident left him with a physical disability that limited the use of one of his hands. Carrying out farming activities on his two-hectare oil palm farm became a constant struggle, and the high cost of hiring labour often prevented him from undertaking essential farm maintenance activities.
As a person living with a disability, there are certain tasks I cannot do on my own. Land preparation, weeding and harvesting require extra hands, and I did not always have the money to hire workers when I needed them.
Stephen Ibi
Due to these challenges, Stephen’s oil palm farm was often left with overgrown weeds, while the palms went unpruned for years. Occasionally, family members assisted him with farm work, but the support was neither regular nor sufficient to maintain recommended agronomic practices. As a result, the farm’s productivity declined, leading to poor harvests and reduced income.
Access to finance, particularly for smallholder farmers in rural and underserved communities where formal financial services are often limited or inaccessible, is a major challenge for farm-level investments and productivity.
In 2022, as part of the implementation of the National Initiative for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Oil Palm Smallholders (NISCOPS) programme, the Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) model was introduced in programme communities, including Akam where Stephen lives. The association is designed to improve farmers’ access to finance by pooling their resources and securing loans at an agreed interest rate.
The VSLA model helps to strengthen financial inclusion for smallholder farmers by providing them with a reliable source of savings and affordable credit. This enables farmers to invest in their farms, improve productivity and build resilience against economic shocks.
Samson Shaibu, NISCOPS programme coordinator in Nigeria
Through regular savings and active participation in the association’s activities, Stephen was able to access a loan of 250,000 naira (~160 euros). At the beginning of the 2023 farming season, Stephen used the secured loan to hire labourers for weeding, pruning, harvesting and implementing other best management practices he had learned through the NISCOPS programme.
After one year of applying the practices, Stephen began to see changes on his farm.
“My ability to access loans to hire labour and implement best management practices has significantly improved my yield and income over the past two years. My average monthly harvest of fresh fruit bunches increased from 25 to 58. The bunches have also increased in size with an increase in palm oil production from a weekly average of 75 litres to 175 litres,” Stephen says.
In a week, I earn 280,000 naira (~180 euros) at the current price of oil palm, as against 120,000 naira (~77 euros) I used to earn previously,” he adds.
Today, Stephen says he is also able to support the educational needs of his grandchildren.
The VSLA model was introduced in communities in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Enugu and Kogi, the four states where NISCOPS is implemented in Nigeria. Currently, there are about 295 associations across these communities in the four states.
The NISCOPS programme, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, supports sustainable palm oil production, improves smallholder farmers’ incomes and enhances access to markets for smallholder oil palm farmers.