MADE in the Niger Delta

MADE, as used here, is not the past tense of make. Rather, it is an acronym standing for Market for Development (MADE) project in the Niger Delta. MADE is a DFID funded intervention agency meant to create market for poor farmers and develop linkages among them in the nine states of the Niger Delta in […]

MADE, as used here, is not the past tense of make. Rather, it is an acronym standing for Market for Development (MADE) project in the Niger Delta. MADE is a DFID funded intervention agency meant to create market for poor farmers and develop linkages among them in the nine states of the Niger Delta in order to improve their socio-economic circumstances.
This body with a cute acronym has set for itself the very ambitious mandate of ‘’improving market access for poor producers, increase economic activity and trade, create jobs and raise incomes of poor people with an expected impact on increased incomes for over one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) people’’. And it hopes to achieve this goal by ‘’changing behaviours of key market actors through promotion of best management practice; provision of incentives in access to finance and appropriate affordable technology; building partnerships; aligning poor farmers with richer ones via voluntary clustering to share links to downstream markets; create synergies between smallholders and large estates and plantations, etc.
It is obvious why MADE and other NGOs are in the Niger Delta region. That region is of strategic importance to not only Nigeria but also to the world’s economy because of the large deposits of crude oil found in it. The fate of the region, however, mirrors that of Nigeria at large. It is a place very rich in resources but with some of the population as poor as former church rats! This paradox is what has led to militant agitation in the recent past for a fairer deal by some elements who felt they had waited in vain for projects meant for them which the authorities say are all in the pipelines.
The unwholesome development in that region has been a source of concern not only to our governments but also to Nigeria’s development partners overseas who want to see an improvement in the quality of life of the people and the overall development of the region.
For its intervention in the Niger Delta, MADE has chosen nine key areas outside crude oil to focus on and develop to make the point that the region is not only about crude oil but that it also has vast potential for other socio-economic activities that can uplift the economic status of the people as well as contribute to Nigeria’s overall economic growth and development.
The nine areas it chose for itself are: oil palm, agric inputs, fisheries, traditional poultry, cassava, helping  ‘’Konkri’’ women (women who work as contractors in the construction industry carrying sand, gravel and mix concrete to realize greater benefit from their involvement in such an otherwise masculine job),  waste recycling of aluminium and plastic products, bioremediation of polluted areas and helping especially those involved in the key value chain of cassava, fisheries and oil palm to gain access to finance.
This writer has been compelled to take notice of MADE’s presence in the region because of its activities in the three main areas of oil palm, cassava and fisheries. As an apprentice farmer myself growing oil palm, cassava and a variety of other crops, I find their focus spot on. I was in one of their cassava farmers’ sensitization workshops which held in Calabar in June and saw first- hand their hands -on approach to achieving their stated goal of increasing the farmers’ income through efficient cassava production and linkage to the market.  An expert mentor, in a demonstration plot, taught farmers how to achieve higher production by the use of modern technique; the use of improved varieties of cassava and where to source them from and where to get finance and market for their produce and products.
 This is very useful work that will have immediate and direct impact and will touch millions of lives in the region in a manner that many can testify to. I say so because one of the greatest challenges facing the average farmer in Nigeria and not just in the Niger Delta is how to get knowledge of modern techniques of production; where to easily get improved seeds and seedlings or fingerlings in case of fishery; where to get agro inputs and at affordable rates; where to access capital and, above all, where to get a good market for their products. The middle men and marketers tend to get the better deal of the labour of most average farmers.
Equally noteworthy is MADE’s intervention work of linking fish smokers to modern kiln producers. This linkage is mutually beneficial to the fish processors and the kiln producers because it has led to the processors getting a facility that is by far more efficient in the smoking of fish than their age-old system. The producers on the other hand have better patronage. The overall result however is that there is improvement in incomes for both operators in the fishery value chain.
A similar quiet but effective revolution is taking place in the oil palm sector where MADE’s goal is to help engineer improved efficiency of small oil processors through adoption of improved processing equipment, harvesting technology and practices; increased supply of palm oil into the market; and increased demand of fresh fruit bundles by processors thereby improving the incomes of both processors and farmers.
Currently, the commonest oil palm processing technologies fabricators make for the processors in the region is an engine powered digester and manual press which is inefficient and leads to 25-50% loss of oil.  Many smallholder processors are not aware of improved equipment designed by the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) called the Small Scale Processing Equipment (SSPE) which is capable of extracting more oil and reducing the time spent on processing.  MADE was facilitator in the training of 9 local fabricators in Akwa Ibom on fabrication of SSPE, with slight modification to suit smallholder production and financial capacities.  Both farmers and fabricators have seen the opportunity facilitated for them by MADE.