Rice Value Chain: WiiFarm Cooperative Society To Help Members Grow Earnings 

In order to actualise its mission statement to offer members the opportunity to participate profitably in the Nigerian agricultural value chain, WiiFarm Cooperative Society (WCS), a multipurpose cooperative group with special focus on the agricultural sector, has launched a Paddy Aggregation Scheme (PAS) to enable members tap into the lucrative rice subsector.

The scheme offers members a handsfree and affordable way to participate and earn money as if they were integrated rice processors, without having to bear the financial burden of rice mill ownership.

The cooperative society was able to achieve the feat by simply financing paddy input and sharing profit with its milling partner, first, by setting up a technical partnership agreement with an integrated rice processor with proven capacity to deliver milled rice on schedule, then setting up a fund where members pool resources that are deployed towards paddy procurement for processing and distribution through the miller’s reseller network.

The participating members of the WCS can earn as much as 2% monthly returns on their investments, even as the cooperative is also able to retain some interest from where members can earn a share of net earnings annually.

According to Mr Ibrahim Danyaro, one of the participating members of the scheme, the business model is a chance of a lifetime.

He said: “I feel great to be a member of such a forward-thinking organization that has been able to develop such a viable and an actionable business model from our basic economic needs just by studying and capitalizing on existing trends, for as low as N10,000. I can earn money like a rice miller, because my co-operative has created the environment to enable me do so.

“I can assure you that there are so many other creative, income-generating projects in the pipeline that when launched, will continue to create value for members and the public at large in the areas of agriculture and food processing. I am proud to say that our cooperative is living up to its mantra which says ‘farming for everyone’.”

Also, the General Secretary, WiiFarm Cooperative Society, Mr Abdulakeem Abdulazeez, who expressed delight at the strides recorded by the cooperative given its short period of existence, however, said it wasn’t without some challenges.

According to Abdulazeez, “Though Nigeria is abundantly blessed with resources that are supportive of a viable agricultural economy, myriad problems exist that have made it challenging for us to achieve our desired goals.

“Dearth of capital, poor mechanization rate and lack of technical depth by farmers continue to plague the primary production sector thereby leading to poor farm yield and high cost of production which are transferred to the processor, distributors and eventually consumers.

“Apart from the Paddy Aggregation Scheme, our cooperative is working on models that will enable us provide farmer support systems such as Soil Testing and GPS-enabled Remote Sensing and Soil Monitoring systems to enable our farmers optimize the use of their land.”

LEADERSHIP reports that with a population of over 200 million people growing at an average rate of 2.5% yearly, all hands needed to be on deck to ensure the viability of the agricultural sector so that it can indeed become an engine of growth and contribute its fair share to the GDP.

With such initiatives from Wiifarm Cooperative Society and its emphasis on group action, cooperating members are able to contribute to growth in the agricultural sector while earning residual income in the process.