Inclusive Business Model Review: Endline Report for Alluvial Agriculture Limited, Northeast Nigeria

Alluvial Community Block Farming Rice Project

Alluvial Agriculture Limited Nigeria, part of the Arila Group of companies seeks to provide end-to-end agricultural solutions to smallholder farmers growing staple crops across Nigeria and beyond. Alluvial has served an estimated 100,000 farmers across six countries in Africa. The company’s operations cover primary production, aggregation, and marketing of agricultural commodities, including rice, maize, sorghum, soybeans, cassava, sesame seed, and ginger.

In 2021, IDH partnered with Alluvial to develop a sustainable and inclusive supply chain for rice paddy using a block farming model that sought to engage 10,000 block farmers in three years cultivating 15,000ha of rice farm to produce 180,000mt of rice paddy to be supplied to the rice processors. The project further targeted to improve the farmer's income by at least 50% from the baseline. Project interventions targeted farmer training, access to finance and quality inputs, access to land, yield improvements and market access.

This end-line analysis sought to establish the project's performance while reflecting on the contextual and internal factors that influenced performance and providing recommendations on sustainably scaling the project.

The key outcomes were as follows: 

1. The block farming project benefited 8,000 farmers covering 8,000 hectares. These farmers also received various services through Alluvial.
2. Average farmer incomes significantly increased, primarily driven by a 97% rise in farm gate prices and a 27% increase in productivity.
   
3. The project faced several challenges, including access to finance, unpredictable weather conditions, and bouts of insecurity in the project's operating areas.