Zowasel and IDH Advance Nigeria’s Sorghum Value Chain with Collaborative Innovation
In the first quarter of 2025, the partnership between IDH Nigeria and Zowasel has emerged as a transformative force in Nigeria’s agricultural sector. This collaboration, rooted in innovation and sustainability, leverages IDH’s block farming model, a game-changing approach that organizes smallholder farmers into contiguous land parcels under a cooperative or company. This model empowers farmers, promotes gender and youth inclusion and strengthens the sorghum value chain across Southwest Nigeria.
Launched in July 2024, the project targets integrating 4,500 smallholder farmers in Oyo and Kwara states into Zowasel's supply chain over three years by establishing outgrower programs and tackling systemic challenges such as fragmented supply chains, limited financing, and post-harvest losses. Through these efforts, the partnership has delivered impressive milestones that signal a promising future for inclusive agriculture.
The CEO of Zowasel.com Limited, Mr Jerry Oche, has attributed the company’s recent growth to the support received from IDH, which helped Zowasel improve its business model in the sorghum value chain in Nigeria.
"The block farming model has been a transformative step for Zowasel and the smallholder farmers (SHFs) we support. It’s more than just a method to boost yields; it’s a framework for sustainable agriculture
By organizing farmers into efficient, collaborative units, we’ve enhanced productivity, improved quality control, and opened new market opportunities. This approach has empowered farmers with essential tools, training, and resources, ensuring they can succeed while meeting the high standards of partners like Guinness Nigeria.
Our partnership with IDH Nigeria has been key to this success, driving a shared vision for an inclusive and resilient agricultural future."
As a result of IDH’s strict due diligence procedure, Zowasel was made to adopt relevant processes and develop policies for transparent, sustainable, accountable, and inclusive practices, which has set Zowasel on a pedestal for rapid growth. The CEO listed some of the improvements and achievements recorded because of the IDH partnership as follows:
- Over 100% rise in revenue from sorghum supply due to added value from cleaning and direct supply of 320 metric tonnes of sorghum to Guinness between February and April 2025.
- Establishment of an outgrower program with 2,501 smallholder sorghum farmers in 2024 who have adopted regenerative agriculture and climate-smart practices, leading to sustainable grain sourcing, and traceability. The outgrower will be expanded to 3,000 farmers in 2025 farming season.
- Linkage to International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Stanbic IBTC bank for affordable financing of 500 million naira (USD 300,000) for input prefinancing and 300 million naira (USD 180,000) for marketplace merchants’ delivery financing.
- Motivated by IDH due diligence, Zowasel has improved its financial accounting system with support of the CASA project being implemented by Technoserve US.
In addition, Zowasel has developed an application which is being used to measure carbon sequestration within its fields. The company plans to attract carbon credits to farmers within its supply network.
Dr Daniel Abah, the Grains Program Lead at IDH Nigeria, congratulated the Zowasel CEO for the remarkable growth recorded by the company within one year of its partnership with IDH, stating that the achievement is a testament to Zowasel’s willingness to embrace positive change and integrate recommended practices into its business model.
Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) Program, under which the partnership is being funded, aims to increase the productivity and incomes of SHFs in focus value chains, ensure the economic sustainability of SMEs and food security for the growing populations, and strengthen ecosystem sustainability and climate resilience in selected production landscapes. IDH is excited at the laudable impacts achieved through the various partnerships under the NICFI program.
Dr Dayo Ogundijo, Director of Programs, who spoke on behalf of the Country Director, expressed happiness with Zowasel's performance and assured the Zowasel CEO that IDH will continue to adopt value chain transformation as a key strategy to achieve a better environment, better jobs, better revenue, and gender equity through partnership with SMEs like Zowasel.
The changes experienced by Zowasel signifies that partnerships reshape value chains by uniting stakeholders to drive innovation, efficiency, and scalable solutions, delivering global economic, social, and environmental impact