Strengthening Farmers’ and SMEs’ Resilience through Climate Smart Grain Production and Accessing the Structured Markets (StreFaS)
Project StreFaS is a three-year initiative funded by AGRA and Nestlé, aimed at supporting grain farmers and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria to access formal markets, enabling their integration into higher-value supply chains. By promoting regenerative agriculture, StreFaS strengthens the resilience of farmers and SMEs, improves farm productivity, and supports more sustainable grain production in Kaduna and Nasarawa State Nigeria.
Context
Grain farmers in Nigeria face the growing threat of climate change, with erratic weather patterns leading to shorter growing seasons, soil erosion, and reduced farm productivity. These factors affect farmers’ incomes and contribute to food insecurity within the country. Without access to solutions that increase their resilience, many farmers are unable to break free from the cycle of low yields and financial instability.
Regenerative agriculture offers a comprehensive approach to protecting and restoring soil health, increasing biodiversity, and rejuvenating farmland. By adopting regenerative practices, farmers can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve water and energy efficiency, and enhance their capacity to withstand climate-induced shocks.
Opportunity
The StreFaS program enables farmers and SMEs to actively participate in climate change mitigation and adaptation. By adopting climate-smart agriculture practices, grain farmers in Nigeria can protect and restore soil health, increase productivity, and secure more stable incomes. These practices also improve access to formal, reliable markets, allowing farmers to sell their crops at premium prices. Over three years, the program aims to strengthen farmer resilience and promote sustainable grain production in Nigeria’s Kaduna and Nasarawa states. By supporting this transition, StreFaS addresses multiple challenges at once—reducing poverty, promoting environmental stewardship, and building a more inclusive grain value chain.
The strategy
Project StreFaS takes a comprehensive approach to building an inclusive, scalable, and adaptable regenerative agriculture model for smallholder farmers and SMEs. Core pillars of the strategy include:
- Adopting Regenerative Agriculture Practices: Farmers receive training and support to adopt sustainable practices that promote soil health, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration, with aggregators facilitating these sessions.
- Upskilling and Behavioral Change: Smallholder farmers and SMEs undergo capacity-building initiatives focused on behavior change, farm management, and sustainable production methods.
- Market Linkages and Premium Pricing: Farmers are connected to formal markets, including Nestlé and other large buyers, where they can access premium prices for climate-smart grains.
- SME Engagement: The program supports six local aggregators to play a key role in linking farmers to markets, promoting local entrepreneurship, and driving inclusive economic growth.
By leveraging AGRA’s strategic focus and Nestlé’s roadmaps, this project aligns with AGRA’s 3.0 Country Strategy to enhance food security and resilience in Nigeria while supporting Nestlé’s commitment to sourcing 20–30% of key ingredients through regenerative agriculture by 2030.
The program delivers targeted support to 25,000 smallholder farmers (20,000 in Kaduna and 5,000 in Nasarawa State) and six aggregators across Nigeria’s maize, rice, soybean, and sorghum value chains. This effort is driven by the shared expertise of AGRA, Nestlé, and TechnoServe in market linkages, private-sector engagement, and regenerative agriculture. It also builds on TechnoServe’s extensive presence in Nigeria, deep local knowledge, and proven ability to facilitate lasting, market-driven change.
Results:
Since its launch, Project StreFaS has achieved the following results:
- Engaged 12,373 farmers, with 40% youth participation.
- Established 270 demonstration farms showcasing climate-smart agricultural practices.
- Aggregated 74,223.53 MT of produce from smallholder farmers (SHFs).
- Supported smallholders in dedicating 1,853 hectares to regenerative agriculture practices to improve the yields of maize, rice, soybean, and sorghum in the first year.
As the project progresses, it will continue to scale these results, aiming to support a total of 25,000 farmers and ensure the widespread adoption of regenerative, climate-resilient practices across Nigeria’s grain value chains.
Partners
