Olam offers farmers N536m zero interest financing

It also rolled out stringent standards for supporting small holder communities in its networks through eight principles.Olam’s Head of Corporate and Government Relations Ade Adefeko stated this in a statement in Ilorin.The statement said the principles are financial support, improved yields, better labour practices, market access, improved crop quality, traceability, social investment and minimising environmental […]

It also rolled out stringent standards for supporting small holder communities in its networks through eight principles.
Olam’s Head of Corporate and Government Relations Ade Adefeko stated this in a statement in Ilorin.
The statement said the principles are financial support, improved yields, better labour practices, market access, improved crop quality, traceability, social investment and minimising environmental impact.
According to the statement, three of Olam International’s 30 flagship OLC initiatives are in Nigeria, where Olam works with cashew, cocoa and sesame small holder farmers.
It said the programme is in collaboration with TechnoServe based in Washington and New York based Rainforest Alliance in the United States amd other local agronomists in Nigeria.
The statement  added that since the OLC’s launch in 2010, the number of Nigerian farmers benefitting from all eight OLC principles has risen to over 12,000 small-scale farmers, spanning almost 25,000 hectares of cultivated land.
In addition to the OLC programmes, Olam Nigeria has launched an outgrower programme around its rice farm in Nasarawa State, in collaboration with USAID and the National Agricultural Development Programme, it said.
Rice farmers in the surrounding areas are also supported with training and high-quality seeds from Olam’s farm in order to improve their paddy yields.  
The paddy is then purchased by Olam at a fair market price and sold locally, the statement also said.
Currently 3,000 farmers are engaged in the programme, with a target of 16,000 by 2018.