Project: Rice Farming: From Powering Production to Powering Processing in Rural Agrarian Communities

Country & region/location: Nigeria, Ogbaru - Anambra District

Category: Energy & Water and Agriculture

The rice value chain in Ogbaru, Anambra State, Nigeria, faces significant limitations due to the absence of energy and proper processing equipment, impacting local rice farmers. Manual hand threshing, the current practice, is time-consuming and poses health risks, hindering productivity, profit, and overall well-being for farmers.

This initiative targets 250 rice farmers lacking access to electricity for production and processing, greatly impacting their productivity and scaling potential. The absence of efficient threshing equipment not only affects productivity but also jeopardizes farmers' health due to prolonged sun exposure and physical strain, leading to health risks like cancer and joint pains. For the very few farmers that own diesel/petrol-powered threshing machines, the emissions from the machines harm the environment.

Ceesolar aims to elevate rice farming productivity by providing four agrarian communities in Ogbaru with five solar-powered rice threshing units. These cooperatives, with a total farm size of 250 Hectares, expressed the need for threshers as their farmers are facing the challenge of threshing their rice harvest to grain for processing with a lack of sufficient rice threshers and high diesel costs to run the few available ones. The solar-powered threshing units will be given to each cooperative on a lease-to-own model. The cooperatives will operate the threshers as commercial ventures, charging farmers per bag for threshing services.

This project's impact spans economic, environmental, and health domains. It is poised to boost agricultural productivity, minimize CO2 emissions from fuel-powered threshers, and enhance farmers' health by eliminating manual threshing practices. Consequently, this will increase income, bolster food security, and improve access to education and healthcare for these communities.

Expected results:

• Provide access to clean and efficient energy for 250 rural rice farmers, through the deployment of 5 solar-powered rice threshing units.
• Increased Agricultural Productivity: The adoption of solar-powered rice threshing units leads to a significant increase in rice threshing efficiency, reducing the time and effort required for the process.
• Women empowerment: With the labour-intensive traditional threshing methods replaced by solar-powered technology, women farmers experience reduced physical strain, enabling them to participate more effectively in farming activities and pursue other income-generating opportunities.
• Environmental Sustainability: Reduction in approximately 12.42 tonnes of CO2 emissions from diesel-powered thrashers.
• Reduced Post-Harvest Losses: Ensuring that a higher percentage of the harvested rice reaches the market in optimal condition.
• Improved Livelihoods and Economic Development in the Communities: By improving productivity and reducing losses, the project directly contributes to increased incomes for the beneficiary farmers, improving their livelihoods and economic well-being.
• Capacity Building and Skill Transfer: Through training sessions, local farmers acquire training on energy efficiency and technical skills in operating and maintaining the solar-powered threshing units, enhancing their capacity to manage similar technologies in the future.

Impact (results)