1. Project description

1.1 Problems to be solved

In this project, we would be training about 500 Uzoebo registered Farmers on food safety, food processing, preservation, and storage (HACCP Principles). Following the plans to launch our new physical food store in Delta state Nigeria, we are working on going into partnership deals with the farmers giving them the training to improve the quality of their food products, work, and create value for them. This activity will give rise to a greater number of farmers in our database. This will in turn increase our capacity to promote food availability, reduce food wastage, and ensure a structured and well-defined distribution of food in Nigeria and beyond. We would also be carrying out offline and online campaigns that will inform the public of the presence of our platform and the need to embrace this well-structured and digitized channel for food distribution across the country. Through this project, we also plan to register 5 Uzoebo Branded foods: Uzoebo Rice, Garri, Crayfish, Palm oil, and Cashew-nut with The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control in Nigeria and launch the products. These food products are predominantly produced in Nigeria. Lastly, we also plan to expand our logistics department to shorten the supply chain.

1.2 Project purpose

We are currently developing a physical food hub and it is an expansion and scale-up of www.uzoebo.com and our existing offline organic food store. The hub would actively manage the aggregation, packaging, branding, storage, distribution, and marketing of source-identified organic food products primarily from local and regional smallholder farmers\' cooperatives from Delta, Edo, Bayelsa, Anambra, Enugu, and Ebonyi states who are predominantly women and youths. The project is aimed at ensuring food availability as well as reducing food wastage in Nigeria, leading to food security. We will group farmers according to the products they produce and their location and provide them with a common location where we can aggregate the products and take them to our hub for repackaging. This ensures convenience for the farmers, reliability, and efficiency in the food distribution chain. The logistics department is responsible for bringing products into the warehouse and distributing them to customers who place orders. We plan to offer home delivery within the state where this project would be launched. While we can deliver bulk orders to big customers like grocery stores within and outside the targeted states. 

1.3 Activities to be done.

1. Registration of about 500 Uzoebo Smallholder Farmers
2. In this project we would be training about 500 Uzoebo registered farmers on food safety, food processing, preservation, and storage (HACCP Principles).
3. We would also be carrying out offline and online campaigns that will inform the public of the presence of our platform and the need to embrace this well-structured and digitized channel for food distribution across the country.
4. Through this project we would register 5 Uzoebo Branded foods: Uzoebo Rice, Garri, Crayfish, Palm oil and, Cashew-nut to register with The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control in Nigeria and launch them.
5. Purchase branding materials for our 5 Uzoebo Branded foods: Uzoebo Rice, Garri, Crayfish, Palm oil, and Cashew-nut.

2. Project progress

 2.1 Activity 1: Registration of smallholder farmers.

At the inception of this project, the I.T department developed a digital registration button for registering smallholder farmers to be reached in this project. The purpose of developing the digital page for the registration of the smallholder farmers is to collect their biodata, location, and type of farm products they produce. The registration page also serves as a more efficient and organized channel for data collection and storage. Before developing the interface of the registration button, end-user engagement was done. After developing the registration button, the I.T department synchronized it towww.uzoebo.com.The outcome of this task is a developed digital smallholder farmer registration page. We have reached smallholder Palm oil farmers in Agbor, Delta state, smallholder Rice farmers in Adani, Enugu state, Cashew-nut smallholder farmers in Oblor-Afor, Enugu state and rice smallholder farmers in Aliede Benue state. We are currently using the digital registration system to get data of Garri smallholder farmers in Owa-Alero Delta state. From May till now, we have successfully registered 323 smallholder farmers into our database.

2.2 Activity 2: Training of Uzoebo registered smallholder farmers

For this activity we have conducted two training sessions for registered Uzoebo Rice and Palm oil smallholder farmers in Adani, Enugu state and Boji-Boji Owa Agbor, Delta state. 

2.2.1 Adani Training

On the 24th of June, 2022, we conducted the training of Rice smallholder farmers in Adani, Enugu state, Nigeria. The training was centered on educating the Rice smallholder farmers on “A Case of Rice, from Seed to Sale”.Prior to the training, the managing team held a meeting to determine which of the trainings to run first, select the project team and new things to be added to ensure that the training experience will be much more memorable and beneficial to farmers. The two additional suggestions were to include youths as volunteers and create a training brochure as take-home material. Following the management team meeting, the project team had two different meetings with the chairman of Adani smallholder rice cooperative and a date for the training was fixed (24th of June, 2022 by 12:00 noon). Following that, a project road map and banner was developed for the training. Upon securing the training date, the training presentation slide and brochure was also developed. We also received applications from different facilitators. This was duly evaluated and Mr. Augustus Ezea Chika was selected as the facilitator for the training. This is because his application stood out based on his previous engagements with smallholder farmers, proficiency in Igbo, Pidgin language and English language and of course; his resume which was in line with the advertised requirement for the position. As a graduate of Crop Science from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Researcher in the department of Crop Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, he has also had numerous engagements with local farmers. Furthermore, from all those who submitted applications to participate as volunteers in the Adani Rice Smallholder farmers’ training, we selected three undergraduate students (Miss Ifeoma Ezeani Jane, Miss Chukwuma Perpetual Chiamaka and Mister Michael Okor) from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (U.N.N). We chose these three undergraduates (two females and one male) from U.N.N considering their proximity to the location for the Adani training. On the meeting day, the smallholder farmers sanitized their hands. Also a face mask and training brochure was given to them. After checking in the smallholder rice farmers to the training venue, one of our project team gave them the training overview while the facilitator worked them through the training slide. During the question-and-answer session, the chairman Mr. Idu Bernard gave three cogent feedbacks as itemized below:

1. He requested that the training exercise for smallholder rice farmers in Adani Uzo-Uwani be a continuous event.
2. That we help Adani Rice farmers source for means to have access to better herbicide. According to him, the one they are currently using, Glyphosate which was recommended when a representative attended a training in Abuja was nourishing the weeds instead of eradicating them.
3. Lastly he also requested that we help them get access to better and improved seedlings by sharing contacts of organizations they can buy from or partner with.

After the training, attendance and training rating was collected. These were later evaluated by our team and the results of the analyzed data have been stored in our drive for future reference or use. The training came to a close with a vote of thanks from Mr. Idu Bernard. Light refreshments were given, group pictures taken and certificates were given to the volunteers.

2.2.2 Boji-Boji Owa, Agbor Training for Ika Palm oil farmers

Following initial engagements and meeting with the Ika Palm oil Farmers Association in Boji-Boji Owa Agbor, Delta state, we had a training session with them on the 28th of May 2022. The meeting started at 10:00am and lasted for 2 hours. The facilitator for the training was Mrs Onyeka Okune. We had some Uzoebo staff at the event and 2 volunteers (Miss Sarah and Mister Patrick) who helped us in ensuring safety measures during the training and also in organizing the event. The training was centered on “HACCP, FOOD SAFETY AND HYGIENIC PRINCIPLES”on oil palm production. After the training, we entertained questions from the farmers who were curious to know more about how they can use our online platform to sell their products as registered Uzoebo Online vendors. A good number of them told us that they are looking forward to Uzoebo offsetting the stress of taking their products to the traditional market and are eager for us to start aggregating their products. As the training was coming to an end, the Ika Palm oil Farmers ‘AssociationChairman; Mr.Andrew Omezie gave his vote of thanks. In his words, he thanked Korea SHE Foundation for sponsoring the training and appreciated the Uzoebo team for reaching out to them. He assured the Uzoebo team that they are ready to work with us going forward. He also asked if the training will be a continuous event and was curious to know if Korea SHE Foundation will continue to support such training. The farmers were in high spirit when we served them refreshments at the end of the training and Ms. Priscillia Okpali, gave her final words before we bid them goodbye amidst merriment. We also had a photo splash session during and after the training, took down the attendance and the rating of the training.

2.3. Activity 3: National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Registration of Uzoebo Products

In preparation for launching our Uzoebo branded products, we have fulfilled all the compliance directives from NAFDAC, filled the NAFDAC registration online form, made payment, obtained a certification for all our Uzoebo products from a public analyst and completed our products NAFDAC documentation. On the 22nd of June 2022, three NAFDAC officials Pharmacist, J.O Ndekile, Mrs. Mercy and Mrs. U.J Osemeke was at our food hub for an inspection. Following this inspection, we received a facility validation from NAFDAC, and were requested to send our Uzoebo branded products over to their office at NAFDAC office Federal Secretariat, Asaba, Delta state for a laboratory test. Once the test results are out and our products are certified by NAFDAC, we would be issued NAFDAC registration numbers for all our 5 Uzoebo branded products. 

2.4. Activity 4: Branding Material

Following the facility validation and request from NAFDAC that we send over our branded Uzoebo products to NAFDAC office to undergo some final test, we have purchased the packaging materials for all our 5 Uzoebo products and branded them. This branded package materials will increase the quality and acceptability of Uzoebo products in the market as we ensured to put into consideration, the feedback from our customers when we conducted a market test using different packaging materials. The present packaging materials were the most accepted and preferred from our customers during the test of the market. 

3. Project plan forward

3.1 Sending Samples to NAFDAC

For the time remaining, we will be sending our Uzoebo branded products to NAFDAC laboratory for final testing. Once the test results are out, we would be issued NAFDAC registration numbers for all our 5 Uzoebo branded products. 

3.2 Training Uzoebo Garri Registered Smallholder Farmers

We have plans to train Uzoebo Garri registered smallholder farmers. This will help us reach the targeted numbers of smallholder farmers we want to train during this project. These trainings are very important as smallholder farmers need to be enlightened on how to produce quality products that satisfies regulatory body specification for quality and save food here in Nigeria based on NAFDAC standard. 

3.3 Online and Offline Market Campaign

Once we send our products to NAFDAC for final testing, we would intensify our online and offline market campaign to help us educate and raise awareness to our E-commerce platform and the need to embrace this well-structured and digitized channel for food distribution across the country. The campaign will also help to publicize the launching of our food hub and 5 Uzoebo branded products. We already contracted Market researchers who are currently doing field work and generating market leads. This data will help Uzoebo reach more private and business customers once our Uzoebo products hit the market. 

3.4 Launching the Uzoebo Food Hub

Once we obtain our NAFDAC registration numbers, train our registered farmers, we will be launching the standalone solar powered Uzoebo food hub and our 5 branded Uzoebo products namely:

1. Uzoebo Parboiled Rice: available pack sizes are 50kg, 25kg, 10kg, 5kg and 1kg.
2. Uzoebo Yellow Garri: available in 10kg, 5kg and 1kg.
3. Uzoebo Palm oil: available in 5 Litres, 1 Litre and 50cl.
4. Uzoebo Cashew-nuts: available in 1kg (Family Pack size), 500grams and 300grams.
5. Uzoebo Crayfish: available in 500grams, 300grams and 100grams.

We decided on these various pack sizes to ensure market variety so that those at the base of the pyramid can afford our products and households with different family members can get easy access to a pack size that suits their consumption preference.

4. Photo